Dual citizenship and army service

Wed Jun 20 08:58:53 UTC 2007

A few points of clarification that should be made to my first post:

Russian consulates do not, as a rule, issue visas to anyone still holding
Russian citizenship. The majority of young people who came to the US from
Russia after 1991, whether they know it or not, do have Russian citizenship.
Unless they somehow had refugee status. They may have been written in on a
parent's passport or may even have had their own and assume that just
because it is expired or the "lost" it, that they are no longer citizens. 

This issue has mainly surfaced concerning heritage speakers seeking to go
abroad to Russia for the following reasons: 

1. Visiting Scholar status (stazhirovka), which is designed only for
foreigners. A foreigner is enrolled on the basis of a visa - not a passport.
So they must enter on a visa. Generally the Russian university can issue the
invitation as they don't have this record of citizenship and they just see
the foreign passport copy. That part of the equation works fine.

2. Question number 1 on the visa application asks if you ever had
Russian/Soviet citizenship and if so when you lost it. Here of course a
candidate can theoretically lie at his/her own risk and I suppose in the
case of those who really are not aware of their status, plead ignorance if
there is an issue later. We have had at least one case of this. But clearly
there is a conflict if someone indicating that they have Russian citizenship
is applying for a visa. No less absurd than an American applying for a US
visa.

We have heard rumors that a couple of the Russian consulates might turn a
blind eye to this but we have not had occasion to officially test that
theory yet.

The process for giving up citizenship is at least a 6 months process (but,
as Francoise Rosset, not required for all who have received dual
citizenship) and unfortunately not so many students think that far ahead.

The US Embassy in Moscow regularly has issues of Americans entering Russia
on their Russian passport and thinking they can get help on something, which
they cannot, as the travelers are then Russians on Russian soil. The Russian
Embassy in DC says that there is indeed widespread misconception among the
Russian immigrants about their citizenship status - especially when it comes
to applying for student visas.

The School of Russian and Asian Studies, of which I am Asst. Director, does
not encourage dual citizens to apply for visas, nor can we assist Russian
citizens (even those who hold dual citizenship) in entering study-abroad
programs due to the restrictions involved.

Also, to my knowledge, the only way that he could be sent to Armenia by
Russian authorities would be if he were extradited from Russia by Armenia
for failing to report for military service. Since Russian and Armenia are
allies, this might be theoretically possible, but as my original post
stated, very unlikely. 

Apologies to the list for not being more careful with the first post and for
this really long clarification. ;) 

JW

Josh Wilson
Asst. Director
The School of Russian and Asian Studies
Editor-in-Chief
Vestnik, The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies
www.sras.org
jwilson at sras.org

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Josh Wilson
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 9:38 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Dual citizenship and army service

While one cannot give definite answers to legal questions concerning Russia,
my two cents would be the following: 

If he is granted the visa, tell him to bring the American passport and leave
the Armenian passport at home. 

The possibility of the Russian government tracking him down while he is in
Russia to send him to Armenia is very low. The possibility of the average
militsia on the street figuring out that he is an Armenian citizen, unless
the student outright tells them he is one (and he should definitely not do
this), is near non-existent. 

Also, legally, if he is traveling on the basis of an American passport, he
is fully an American citizen in Russia and the embassy should help him
should the militsia give him any trouble. I would highly recommend he get a
cell phone while he's here and program the embassy number into it in case of
emergencies (always a good idea anyway). Furthermore, Russia, by issuing the
visa to the American passport has agreed that he is an American citizen on
their soil.

So, unless this is a coordinated and potentially very messy effort by the
Russian government to lure him to Russia specifically to have the FSB arrest
him and send him to Armenia to increase the Armenian ground forces by one
person, I would say he should be fine. 

We've had students before who were of military age and technically still
Russian citizens (w/ dual American citizenship) come to Russia to visas
issued to American passports - so far, no problems. 

Beyond that, I would highly recommend he read the following info: 
http://www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=674 and that he make sure he can easily
point out his visa and legal registration and the expiration dates on both. 

Best, 

JW

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Valery Belyanin
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 6:46 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Dual citizenship and army service

Dear All,
A 21 year-old student with newly acquired American citizenship is hoping to
visit Moscow.

He was born in Armenia, moved to the US at age 13, received US citizenship
last year, but never renounced his Armenian citizenship (he had no idea that
this is required). The US State Department has warned him against traveling
to Russia, stating that he could be arrested and sent to serve in the
Armenian army.

Assuming that the Russian embassy gives him a visa (which will be in his
American passport), does anyone have any experience that would either
assuage or confirm his fears of traveling to Moscow?

Thanks in advance.

Dawn Seckler, University of Pittsburgh

Valery Belyanin, Resident Director of the Moscow program of the University
of Pittsburgh at Moscow State University 2007

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