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Linus Torvalds became US citizen

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Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#131

Post by logic »

eru wrote: post #121
logic wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a dual Canadian/U.S. citizen, although I was born so in both countries (born to American parents on Canadian soil). I've never once had to worry about this whole renunciation thing. Additionally, my brother became a Canadian citizen (born U.S.), and again had no problems; Canada didn't care about his U.S. citizenship, and the U.S. doesn't care about his Canadian citizenship. He could officially renounce his U.S.…

There may be some upside to renounce a citizenship to do with avoiding extradition. But unless you plan to get involved in criminal investigations, it's probably not worth it. If America would get a draft again, could a dual citizen be drafted?

Yes; as far as the U.S. is concerned, you're a citizen, with the same rights and responsibilities as any other. If there's a draft, you'll be called upon.

If that were to happen, there would definitely be an upside to renunciation. ;-)

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#132

Post by sbalea »

forinti wrote: post #40
unwind wrote: post #4

A quick check of Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_nationality_law#Dual_ci... ) seems to indicate that he's still a Finn, since Finland permits dual citizenship. The USA ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_nationality_law#D... ) seems to permit it, too. Of course I can't know if Mr Torvalds has done anything in particular to only be a US citizen, but at least that doesn't seem to be the defaul…

But don't you have to renounce all other allegiances? Uruguayan law says that even if you renounce your uruguayan citizenship, you still keep it. I think this was put in place exactly because lots of Uruguayans were leaving for the USA (lots of Uruguayans is something like 50).

I went through the naturalization process, most likely the same process that Linus Torvalds went through. When you take your Oath of Allegiance, you swear to renounce all foreign affiliations. However, the US government does not check that you actually go through with that formally. Since many countries do not revoke your citizenship upon you acquiring another, most naturalized people do hold dual citizenships.

As far as I know, Uncle Sam only gets pissed when you acquire another citizenship after you are already an American (either by birth or by naturalization). Even so, there are provisions in the law that account for the situation when a second citizenship is bestowed upon you without you actively requesting it (some countries do that automatically when you marry one of their citizens)

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#133

Post by kiuyhjk »

duke_sam wrote: post #128
kiuyhjk wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of US companies put their HQ in Ireland because, they speak English (mostly), they have very low corporation tax and lots of golf courses - the Irish government also did an excellent job of marketing Irish-American links. Unfortunately as soon as the EU cracked down on the corporation tax scams, eastern europe became cheaper and US companies cut back on golfing holidays they realized they didn't actually have a…

Most of those companies have pretty large complexes in Ireland. Intel has 2 fabs, Google has a large (for Dublin) office complex as their HQ and MS has their own campus. As far as tax havens go we actually had quite a lot of people from those companies employed, it wasn't just your standard shell company running out of a solicitors office.

Google makes £1.25 billion/year in the UK but doesn't pay any tax because it's HQ is in Ireland, in Australia it makes a loss on $1Bn sales because it's all charged back to Dublin.

MSFT, Dell and HP both apparently lose money on all sales in Europe except those in Ireland.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#134

Post by kiuyhjk »

jerf wrote: post #109
kiuyhjk wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One more thing to consider for any other europeans thinking of moving to America: 1, they don't understand irony 2, they carry guns

Ah, I think I see the problem. We call that "sarcasm". Quite a lot of us get that just fine, though of course the internet can always turn up at least one person who doesn't. "Irony" is reserved for events that are only ironic in the light of other events; death by drowning isn't "ironic" until it happens to a swimming instructor, for instance. You can't really say something ironic, it has to happen . (And if you say…

That's true - should have said sarcasm, but I can't change it because of the guns = irony joke. Now that's ironic.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#135

Post by halostatue »

sbalea wrote: post #132
forinti wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But don't you have to renounce all other allegiances? Uruguayan law says that even if you renounce your uruguayan citizenship, you still keep it. I think this was put in place exactly because lots of Uruguayans were leaving for the USA (lots of Uruguayans is something like 50).

I went through the naturalization process, most likely the same process that Linus Torvalds went through. When you take your Oath of Allegiance, you swear to renounce all foreign affiliations. However, the US government does not check that you actually go through with that formally. Since many countries do not revoke your citizenship upon you acquiring another, most naturalized people do hold dual citizenships. As fa…

Actually, Uncle Same doesn't care if you acquire a second citizenship. I'm American by birth and Canadian by naturalization, and I have responsibilities to both countries, but neither really cares that I'm a citizen of the other.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#136

Post by jeffreyg »

lanstein wrote: post #115
jeffreyg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

glad to see the reddit crowd made it over

"If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)" http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

granted. but in my 276 days since creating my account (I've been reading for over a year), this is the first thread I've actually been let down by, where there are highly upvoted posts which add zero value to the discussion.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#137

Post by eru »

pavlov wrote: post #96
tlrobinson wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably better for him if he doesn't have to pay taxes to Finland, since they're much higher.

He doesn't pay taxes to Finland because he's not living in Finland. (Only certain countries like the USA tax their non-resident citizens.)

If you are a citizen of a country with a territorial tax system, but make your money in the US. Who taxes your income?

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#138

Post by eru »

avar wrote: post #97
kiuyhjk wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats the big advantage - imagine having a choice of bread or cheese that actually tastes different! Apart from a few of the more 'third world' european countries (like France) if you speak english and work in high tech it's not a big problem to work in Scandanavia/Germany/Netherlands. The main difficulty is they drive on the wrong side of the road - but as consolation the coffee and women are much better.

> Apart from a few of the more 'third world' european countries (like France) How is France a third world country in any sense of the word? Because they don't speak English as much? > The main difficulty is they drive on the wrong side That's only in the UK, not Scandanavia/Germany/Netherlands.

The UK drives on the _right_ side. The other countries merely drive on the right side.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#139

Post by dctoedt »

roel_v wrote: post #85
kiuyhjk wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some differences, a US friend of mine did law in the UK which meant she could work anywhere from Finland to Greece. But when she passed the New York bar she couldn't work in New Jersey.

No. She could 'work in law' in the same way in New Jersey as she could in Greece - as a 'jurist' or 'company lawyer', but not initiate court proceeding. Being admitted to the bar in one Member State does not automatically mean admittance to the bar in another Member State, nor does it even mean that one is eligible to just take the bar exam in that other Member State (although this last part is under proceedings befo…

> one doesn't even need a law school degree to be able to take the bar exam in any US state

Not quite: In a number of US states, a prerequisite to taking the bar exam is either graduation from an ABA-accredited law school, or a foreign law degree with additional training in a U.S. school. See Chart III at http://www.ncbex.org/fileadmin/mediafiles/downloads/Comp_Gui... and the supplemental remarks afterwards, also Chart X.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#140

Post by smallblacksun »

eru wrote: post #137
pavlov wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't pay taxes to Finland because he's not living in Finland. (Only certain countries like the USA tax their non-resident citizens.)

If you are a citizen of a country with a territorial tax system, but make your money in the US. Who taxes your income?

The US taxes income made in the US, or by US citizens outside the US.
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