Thanks again to all who replied. I feel better now! We are definitely going to our post office next Saturday to get it done. Since she has to have one, I'm going to go ahead and get mine and my son's also. Might as well just go through it all one time. It will make life easier if we want to go to Canada too. We're just going to get the photos done at Walgreen's. They are only charging about $8.. not too bad.

Here is the US Gov't site for passport info:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html

I got a new passport (I had never had one before) in July, I Paid the extra 60$ and it took less than 3 weeks-seems that money talks! And this was in the middle of the huge backlog problem.

Hey Geeky- I can tell you something that may help you-
My fiance is from England and we were looking into both getting dual citizenship because it would be easier for traveling and whatnot.
However- he is eligible, no problems- but I am not. England does not care if you apply and the US will grant it, however if you are an American Citizen and do any paperwork to APPLY for citizenship then you AUTOMATICALLY renounce your American citizenship.

With that being said- there are people that manage to do it. I am not going to risk my US Citizenship, though. Also, for children that are born as a dual citizen (as ours will be) at the age of 18 they are SUPPOSED to choose one or the other. This doesn't usually happen, but that is actually the law.

Not sure if that helps/confuses more? I did go to Ireland and there were absolutely no issues getting in and everyone was wonderful. But just as a precaution I don't think I would get the citizenship and risk my American just in case, unless you plan on moving to Ireland and staying. Just my info and 2 cents!

Here is a helpful link for those of us who live in Maple Leaf Land:
http://www.ppt.gc.ca/

eta: I got mine through the "Simplified Renewal Process" in 16 days.

Sorry, but this isn't true for most people at all. I have lived in the UK for over ten years and successfully applied for British citizenship over two years ago, with absolutely no risk of losing my US citizenship. I used to work at the US embassy in London, so I do know for a fact that US citizens no longer automatically lose their citizenship when they acquire citizenship in another country. I wouldn't have done it otherwise.

Here's a link to the relevant section of the State Department website:

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizens...nship_778.html

And here's a direct quote from the US Embassy website:

"Dual nationality can occur as the result of a variety of circumstances. The automatic acquisition or retention of a foreign nationality, acquired, for example, by birth in a foreign country or through an alien parent, does not affect U.S. citizenship. It is prudent, however, to check with authorities of the other country to see if dual nationality is permissible under local law. Dual nationality can also occur when a person is naturalized in a foreign state without intending to relinquish U.S. nationality and is thereafter found not to have lost U.S. citizenship the individual consequently may possess dual nationality. While recognizing the existence of dual nationality and permitting Americans to have other nationalities, the U.S. Government does not endorse dual nationality as a matter of policy because of the problems which it may cause. Claims of other countries upon dual-national U.S. citizens often place them in situations where their obligation to one country are in conflict with the laws of the other. In addition, their dual nationality may hamper efforts to provide U.S. diplomatic and consular protection to them when they are abroad."

I hope that helps to dispel any myths out there! :)

Yay!
BTW-My fiance had a HELL of a time at the embassy there- we felt helpless!

But onwards- I read about four different views on it but haven't met anyone that RECENTLY tried to do dual nationalty.

In the end I think we may have to utilize his company's immigration lawyer because we both want to do dual nationality and they changed their minds and decided it is cheaper to get his green card based on our marriage... so now we have THOSE hoops to jump through! I don't think I can do the whole dual nationality thing, though, since we aren't planning on moving back there and I think I have to live in the UK for three years or something like that. Oh well, at least once we are married I can go through the immigration line with him instead of waiting at Heathrow for forty five minutes.

So, we applied for our passports on December 9th and received them on December 21st. Freaky, huh? I didn't pay for expedited either. The kids are all like "Let's go to Canada!" now...lol. They want to USE them.