Bulgaria Says Yes to Double Citizenship for Emigrants in US

The panic among Bulgarian emigrants in the United States spread after the publication of an order, signed by Deputy Justice Minister Zhaneta Petrova, dated October 2009.

Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry has assuaged widespread fears among emigrants in the United States, saying they will not be stripped of Bulgarian citizenship.

“Bulgarians in the United States who have acquired US citizenship remain Bulgarian citizens,” Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dragovest Goranov said on Wednesday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television.

He reacted to media reports which say Bulgarians who have obtained US citizenship through naturalization automatically lose their Bulgarian citizenship under a 1923 agreement between Bulgaria and the US.

The reports emerged after the publication of an order, signed by Deputy Justice Minister Zhaneta Petrova, dated October 2009, according to which, reports say, Bulgarians who have obtained US citizenship through naturalization before 2003 automatically lose their Bulgarian citizenship.

The document cites a contract between Bulgaria and the United States of America, which entered into force in 1924.

Unconfirmed reports say the panic among Bulgarian emigrants in the United States spread after a Bulgarian clerk incorrectly interpreted the text of the order, a faux pas that was described by an Internet user and thus reached thousands of people.

The emigrants have turned for clarification to the Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva during her visit in the United States, who apparently due to her busy schedule failed to keep her promise to answer in an official statement.

Under Bulgaria's constitution Bulgaria-born citizens can't be stripped of Bulgarian citizenship.

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