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Linus Torvalds became US citizen

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Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#61

Post by ojbyrne »

tokenadult wrote: post #41
ojbyrne wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html#noway Struck down by the courts a very long time ago.

Read that more carefully: "The Supreme Court chose to leave in place the requirement that new citizens must renounce their old citizenship during US naturalization." Presumably, Linus was naturalized, rather than having a claim to United States citizenship from birth.

I did read it more carefully. The next sentence says essentially says that that has no effect (in the vast majority of cases), because other countries don't recognize it as renouncing citizenship. It's essentially ceremonial.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#62

Post by apgwoz »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #43
apgwoz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can live and work permanently in 27 countries (including Finland) without having to change nationality. How? I'd love to be able to do that.

By living in a European country.

I'm not sure why we're both getting downvoted for this. It was a valid question, and a valid response. Thanks for the answer. I did not realize the EU had this privilege.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#63

Post by influx »

mike-cardwell wrote: post #27
sp332 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA, for being appealing enough to make Linus want to (first) move here and (now) take on citizenship, instead of just telnetting from Finland - or anywhere else on the planet he might have liked better.

You think he obtained American citizenship because he likes the USA more than any other country, including his home one? You don't know his motives. Maybe he just did it because it's more convenient for him to currently work there, and constantly having to organise visas was a pain in the arse? For all we know he hates the USA...?

I think this blog post goes a long way to explaining part of it:

http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2008/10/stranger-in-stra...

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#64

Post by fortes »

avar wrote: post #31
kiuyhjk wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or being so inflexible with regard to immigration that the only way to work there without facing immediate deportation if you change jobs is to become a citizen. I can live and work permanently in 27 countries (including Finland) without having to change nationality.

I'm pretty sure it's 30. I have an Icelandic citizenship (Iceland is one of the 30 in the EEA), and I'm working freely in one of the 27 EU countries currently. All I had to do after I moves was to register with the local city authorities to indicate that I had moved there, and provide documentation proving that I had a job so that they knew they didn't have to put me on social security. One might also make the counte…

US is almost twice the size (1/6 of which is Alaska), but the EEA has 60% more people, which is probably a better measure of jobs.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#65

Post by jeffreyg »

philwelch wrote: post #11
ceci wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, Linus Torvalds is not a low-wage foreign worker. He has done more to provide you with a job than you have done to get yourself a job. Opensource softwares have helped the US economy because lots of today's internet giants like Google benefitted from the use of opensource tools. They are paying taxes and employing Americans, ain't they. Linus Torvalds is synomymous with opensource. Mr America, if i might ask, wh…

Before you ask, you've been downvoted for failing to grasp irony.

glad to see the reddit crowd made it over

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#66

Post by volkadav »

tokenadult wrote: post #42
duke_sam wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also has security clearance implications. Also if he moves back to Finland but remains a US citizen won't the IRS still be able to go after him for tax?

Yes, United States citizens are liable for taxation on their worldwide income (unless there is a tax treaty between the United States and the other country in question).

Only over some threshold (iirc, though it has been some time, around 80k USD equivalent). So maybe yes for someone with a comparatively high income, but not so much a worry for a reasonably large segment of the population. Naturally if this happens to apply to anyone reading I would urge consulting a professional for current advice. ;)

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#67

Post by shasta »

kiuyhjk wrote: post #14
philwelch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before you ask, you've been downvoted for failing to grasp irony.

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

Guns are pretty irony

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#68

Post by mike-cardwell »

gojomo wrote: post #56
mike-cardwell wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think he obtained American citizenship because he likes the USA more than any other country, including his home one? You don't know his motives. Maybe he just did it because it's more convenient for him to currently work there, and constantly having to organise visas was a pain in the arse? For all we know he hates the USA...?

For all we know he hates the USA...? For all we know, he's the first in a series of genetically-engineered Finnish super-programmers, part of a growing sleeper cell of infiltrators hell(sinki)-bent on Finlandizing the USA via secret trapdoors in their code, all waiting for the flip of a single bit to instantly erase all memory of the Constitution and replace it with a Scandinavian welfare-state, then killing our lead…

Exactly!

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#69

Post by kiuyhjk »

portman wrote: post #46
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'm a dual citizen of the UK and US. Among my close friends, I know Canadian, Israeli, and Australian dual-citizens. I've never heard of having to "renounce all other allegiances". (Note: it's entirely possible that there is some obscure method of obtaining US citizenship that requires it; but that's not the norm.)

Some countries don't allow dual citizenship. My German friends had to renounce their German citizenship when they became Americans (again for the green card). It made it very tricky tax-wise when their parents died and they suddenly became foreigners (to Germany) owning a lot of German assets.

Re: Linus Torvalds became US citizen

#70

Post by apgwoz »

ugh wrote: post #49
apgwoz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can live and work permanently in 27 countries (including Finland) without having to change nationality. How? I'd love to be able to do that.

He is a EU Citizen. That’s not that much better than the freedom to work or live wherever you want within the US. It only sounds so impressive because those 27 nations are all substantially smaller than the US. It’s nonetheless one of those achievements of European integration I most certainly don’t want to give up.

> That’s not that much better than the freedom to work or life wherever you want within the US. It only sounds so impressive because those 27 nations are all substantially smaller than the US.

As a US citizen, it's a very appealing idea. While we do indeed have 50 different places I can live and work without applying for new/temporary status, the cultural, and historic nature of the places is certainly not as diverse as in Europe.

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