Citizenship of the United States
A person who is considered a citizen by more than one nation has "dual citizenship". It is possible for a United States citizen to have dual citizenship; this can be achieved in various ways, such as by birth in the United States to a parent who is a citizen of a foreign country (or in certain circumstances the foreign nationality may be transmitted even by a grandparent) by birth in another country to a parent(s) who is/are a United States citizen/s, or by having parents who are citizens of different countries. Anyone who becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen is required to renounce any prior "allegiance" to other countries during the naturalization ceremony; however, this renunciation of allegiance renunciation of citizenship to those countries.
Devyani Khobragade
A month after her return to India in December 2013, Devyani Khobragade was asked to deposit her childrens' Indian diplomatic passports with the Ministry of External Affairs. It was only at this time that Khobragade revealed that her children had passports from two countries, India and the United States.The ministry instated a panel headed by the Ministry’s Joint Secretary of Cypher, NGO and Vigilance (CNV), A.K. Chatterjee to determine whether she had violated Central Civil Services Conduct rules. After a nine-month enquiry, the panel ruled against her and found her guilty of "serious misconduct".
In another administrative action, the ministry revoked the childrens' Indian passports. Khobragade filed a petition in Delhi High Court against this action, arguing that though Indian law forbids dual citizenship, it is permitted for minors. Legal opinion holds that though minors are allowed to hold dual citizenship once they reach the age of majority (18 years), they have 6 months in which to decide which citizenship to go with. If they fail to make the decision within that timeframe, they automatically lose Indian citizenship. It is unclear, however, whether it is legal for minors to hold both a foreign passport and an Indian passport. In May 2015, Justice Shakdher of the Delhi High Court put a hold on revoking the passports and asked the Ministry of External Affairs to explain to the court why it took this administrative action.