Second Citizenships, Residencies, and/or Temporary Relocation
Our two children are 4 and 6, and they both hold four citizenships.My wife is US American, I am German, my dad is Croatian and we've been living in Switzerland for almost 15 years.When the kids were born, they both had US and German citizenship jus sanguinis. German passports arrived almost instantaneously. The US passports required us to visit the US embassy multiple times and fill out plenty of paper work.Them gaining Croatian citizenship was more involved. First I needed to apply for it for myself through my dad. I also bought a second home in Croatia were we've spent most of our holidays. I also maintain a Croatian bank account that I use to cover local bills. It took several years and a good lawyer to get passed the beaucracy. Ultimately I received the Croatian passport and so did our children about half a year later.After staying for over 10 years in Switzerland, my wife, my kids and I applied for Swiss citizenship. It cost us a couple of thousand US dollars, a clean record (no outstanding bills, no other credit issues, proof that you can take financial care of the family), proof of "proper integration" (like do I frequently visit the local pub... really!), a German language proficiency test for my wife, and a test for both of us showing that we understand the cultural, religious and political aspects of Swiss society. The process took exactly one year when we received our passports.Was it all worth it? I think so. It is a liberating feeling to know that you can move between countries. We also wanted our kids to be able to choose for themselves where to live once they are grown up.