Does a dual citizen who changes their name in one country have an obligation to change it in the other? I am asking specifically with regard to the USA and Australia, although I am interested in more general answers also. As per the title, I am wondering if someone immigrates (in this case to the US) and changes their name (an option granted when obtaining citizenship), do they have an obligation to change it in other countries they may be a citizen of? My thinking is no, as each country has their own courts and records, and as long as all names are declared and there is no malicious intent, no laws are being violated, but I am unsure.
No. Both your country of origin and your new home country will only care of your name as in the documents issued by each of them respectively. Mind though that absence of obligation to synchronize your names does not mean that you can freely use both identities within one country. For example, opening a bank account in the US using your original passport/name when you are already officially using another name there would be a very grey area bordering with identify fraud as it would effectively enable you to operate two different identities to gain any benefits not otherwise available.
There is a report about a male-to-female transgender woman here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/2017-06-27/8651398#transcript She managed to do the following: 1. While legally being a male, she got a preliminary passport as a woman so she could travel to Thailand, have an operation, and not run into trouble returning with a male passport and a female body. 2. While legally still being male, but with a female body, she married a woman in Australia. That was fine because legally she was male. 3. She has received a passport as a female. 4. She was refused a change of her birth certificate as long as she is married. So the current state is: She is (in fact, biologically) a woman. She is married to a woman in Australia. That marriage is perfectly legal, however, it is officially a marriage between a man and a woman. She has a woman's passport. The Australian government cannot and doesn't want to do anything to make her marriage illegal. BUT she cannot change her birth certificate without getting divorced first, and if she got divorced and changed her birth certificate, she couldn't remarry the same woman, or any other woman.
This is answered here. According to Wikipedia, birthright citizenship was extended to children with citizen mothers and noncitizen fathers in 1934; the text of that law seems to be found here. The 1961 Supreme Court ruling that Salon is referring to seems to be this one, but they are interpreting the law as it stood in 1906, not 1961. Petitioner, whose mother is a native-born United States citizen and whose father is a citizen of Italy (their marriage having been in the United States), was born in Italy in 1906 while his parents were temporarily residing there, and entered the United States with his mother later the same year.
It is well known and often repeated that China does not tolerate dual citizenship, except in the case of its citizens who have right of abode in Hong Kong or Macau. The Chinese Nationality Law is clear about this: Article 3. This is not true and you misunderstand what Article 3 says. Article 3 says (depending on your translation): The People's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national. The only way I think this can be interpreted is that, if a person were to statutorily have both Chinese nationality and foreign nationality under each country's respective laws, then the PRC would only recognize their Chinese nationality, and not recognize their foreign nationality. This article does NOT mean that nobody can have dual nationality under the law. In order to &quot;recognize&quot; or &quot;not recognize&quot; something, it presupposes that the thing exists. If nobody had dual nationality under the law, then this article would be meaningless, as there would be no point to &quot;not recognize&quot; something that nobody has anyway. This article only matters to someone who truthfully has dual nationality under PRC and foreign law. Given someone who truthfully has dual nationality under PRC and foreign law, since dual nationality is not recognized, which nationality is recognized and which is not? Since Article 3 says &quot;Chinese national&quot;, it implicitly recognizes the person's Chinese nationality, which means it's the foreign nationality that is not recognized. (This, by the way, is essentially identical to the US position -- the US only recognizes the US nationality of a dual national.) It is true that true dual nationality of the PRC and a foreign country is uncommon, but that is mainly due to Articles 9 (which says a Chinese national naturalizing abroad automatically loses Chinese nationality) and 8 (which says that a foreign national who naturalizes to get Chinese nationality shall not retain foreign nationality). It is not because of Article 3. By the way, when I say someone who has dual nationality of the PRC and a foreign country, it does not include a Chinese national who has naturalized abroad, who is subject to Article 9 but continues to use/obtain PRC passports and/or continue to exercise the rights of a Chinese citizen. De jure, this person no longer has Chinese nationality, even if the PRC government is not aware of it yet. When discovered, they will be treated as only a foreign national, and that is consistent with my explanation, since this person does not de jure have Chinese nationality. Any documents issued to them reflecting Chinese nationality after their foreign naturalization, were issued in error. Article 3 is irrelevant for such a person since there is no question of &quot;recognizing&quot; dual nationality for a person who does not legally have dual nationality. So who are the people who truthfully have both PRC and foreign nationality? There are several cases. First, as you noted, this is possible for many people in Hong Kong and Macau, due to explanations of the PRC nationality law for those territories. For example, in the one for Hong Kong, items 2-4 say that Chinese of Hong Kong are Chinese nationals despite holding foreign passports. They do not have foreign consular protection while in Hong Kong and the rest of China, (unless they choose to apply for change of nationality to foreign nationality, effectively renouncing Chinese nationality). It says their foreign passports can be used for traveling to &quot;other countries and territories&quot; (implying that they cannot be used to enter Hong Kong or the rest of China). This supports my explanation of Article 3 above, that the PRC only recognizes the Chinese nationality of a dual national, and does not recognize their foreign nationality. Another case is a child born in China to one Chinese citizen parent and one foreign national parent who meets the conditions to automatically pass on foreign nationality to the child at birth according to that foreign country's law. According to Article 4, a child born in China to at least one Chinese citizen parent is automatically a Chinese citizen, without regards to whether the child also has foreign nationality at birth, or anything else. Any person born in China whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. And finally, we get to the case you mentioned, for children born abroad. Article 5 deals with children born abroad, and it says that a child born abroad to at least one Chinese citizen parent automatically has Chinese nationality, except when at least one parent is a Chinese citizen who has settled abroad, AND the child has foreign nationality at birth, in which case the child will not have Chinese nationality. Any person born abroad whose parents are both Chinese nationals or one of whose parents is a Chinese national shall have Chinese nationality. But a person whose parents are both Chinese nationals and have both settled abroad, or one of whose parents is a Chinese national and has settled abroad, and who has acquired foreign nationality at birth shall not have Chinese nationality. Because they wrote it with an &quot;and&quot;, it means that children who had foreign nationality at birth but where neither parent was a Chinese citizen who has settled abroad, will have Chinese nationality at birth. If they had wanted to make it so that children born abroad could not have both Chinese nationality and foreign nationality at birth, they could have written it with an &quot;or&quot;, but they didn't. Unlike some other countries, the PRC nationality law does not require that children born abroad be registered at a PRC consulate with a declaration that the child does not have a foreign passport in order to get Chinese citizenship. Nor does the PRC nationality law provide that dual national children lose their Chinese nationality if they don't renounce foreign nationality at a certain age. Since you specifically ask about children born in the US, they will all have foreign nationality (US citizenship) at birth (ignoring cases of children born to diplomats). So it only depends on the other condition (whether at least one parent was a Chinese citizen who has settled abroad). The PRC government interprets &quot;settled abroad&quot; as having foreign permanent residency (e.g. US green card). So assuming the only relevant foreign permanent residency is the US green card, here is a table summarizing whether a child born in the US has Chinese nationality at birth, based on the status of the parents: Chinese citizen without green card Chinese citizen with green card non-Chinese citizen Chinese citizen without green card Yes No Yes Chinese citizen with green card No No No non-Chinese citizen Yes No No The current procedure at PRC consulates (both in US and in other countries) is that they issue PRC Travel Documents (旅行证) instead of PRC passports to children born abroad, who have both Chinese nationality (as determined by Article 5) and foreign nationality at birth, who wish to travel to China. These Travel Documents are passport-like booklets, are valid for 2 years (can be re-applied for again after expiration), and contain a Chinese and an English info page, both of which say, among other things, The bearer of this Travel Document is a citizen of the People's Republic of China. [...] Having a US passport does not preclude the issuance of the Travel Document. In fact, the consulate expects the child in this case to have a US passport and requests the US passport information as well as the physical US passport during the application process, if the child already has one. The consulate clearly has no problem recognizing the child as a Chinese citizen even if they know that the child has US citizenship and a US passport. This Travel Document can be used to enter and exit China. When exiting China, the child would present both the PRC Travel Document and the US passport at PRC exit controls. The border control officer will recognize, upon seeing the Travel Document, that this is the routine procedure for a dual national child, and it will not lead to problems like when both PRC and US passports are presented (even though both the PRC passport and PRC Travel Document say inside them that the bearer is a citizen of the PRC). As you can see, having a US passport is not incompatible with the PRC's recognition of the child's Chinese nationality. If the PRC Travel Document is lost or expires while in China, the child can get a PRC Entry/Exit Permit (通行证), which again can be used with the US passport when exiting China with no problems. When back abroad, the child can again apply for a PRC Travel Document at a PRC consulate the next time they need to travel to China. Although it is possible for the child to be added to hukou while in China, the child should not apply for a PRC passport, as it seems this will cause problems when exiting China, as you mentioned. The child should stick to Chinese Travel Documents and Entry/Exit Permits. I have heard rumors that the consulate might no longer issue PRC Travel Documents to such a dual national child after turning 18 (perhaps forcing the child to renounce either PRC or foreign nationality), but I haven't seen any official source on this, and the PRC nationality itself does not mention any need to do anything at any particular age. As for renouncing US citizenship, US law requires that loss of US citizenship can only occur when the person intends to relinquish US citizenship, and young children are considered to lack sufficient maturity and understanding of the meaning of renunciation of citizenship, and be too much under the influence of parents, to have the necessary voluntary intent. The Foreign Affairs Manual presumes that an age of at least 16 is generally necessary to renounce US citizenship. See 7 FAM 1292(i)(2): Voluntariness and intent: Minors who seek to renounce citizenship often do so at the behest of or under pressure from one or more parent. If such pressure is so overwhelming as to negate the free will of the minor, it cannot be said that the statutory act of expatriation was committed voluntarily. The younger the minor is at the time of renunciation, the more influence the parent is assumed to have. Even in the absence of any evidence of parental inducements or pressure, you and CA must make a judgment whether the individual minor manifested the requisite maturity to appreciate the irrevocable nature of expatriation. Absent that maturity, it cannot be said that the individual acted voluntarily. Moreover, it must be determined if the minor lacked intent, because he or she did fully understand what he or she was doing. Children under 16 are presumed not to have the requisite maturity and knowing intent;
No. Separate documentation of change of name, taken together with the original marriage certificate, should suffice.
australia There is no limitation on the number of names you can have so long as it is at least 1. You cannot have a prohibited name (NSW Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995, other states are similar): &quot;prohibited name&quot; means a name that-- (a) is obscene or offensive, or (b) could not practicably be established by repute or usage-- (i) because it is too long, or (ii) because it consists of or includes symbols without phonetic significance, or (iii) for some other reason, or (c) includes or resembles an official title or rank, or (d) is contrary to the public interest for some other reason. (b)(ii) prohibits you from having the name &quot;0&quot;. However, having any particular name does not mean that a passport will be issued in that name. The Australian Passports Act 2005 says: (4) The Minister may refuse any name or signature of the person that the Minister considers to be unacceptable, inappropriate or offensive. If the Minister decides that you need 2 or more names to get a passport - you need 2 or more names. AFAIK, no Minister has ever decided that.
Any country is free to decide what actions are considered to be crimes, and what crimes are prosecuted depending on whether you perform the action in the country, outside the country, and depending on whether you are a citizen, a resident, both, or neither. They can also decide what are accepted defences in court and which are not. Any other country is free to decide under which circumstances they will ever extradite someone to that first country. Now you have to check the laws of the individual countries.
German law protects the Right of Personality, of which the Right of Publicity is a part. The Right of Publicity protects individuals from having their identity exploted for someone else's gain, without their permission. Using an individual's likeness in the way you describe would violate this, including that of non-German citizens. Depending on what you used this image for, you would potentially face a civil suit. Changing aspects so they're unrecognizable would likely depend on the specifics and intent would count. Honestly, if you're going to change them to be unrecognizable, why even bother- just create an original character. This right lasts for 10 years after the individual's death- during this time it is controlled by the deceased's estate. After 10 years, you would be able to use them this way.