The issue of acquisition of a foreign citizenship for most South Africans only comes to light when such South African Citizen goes to apply for an extension of a South African Passport. The Passport application form has a specific citizenship section which requires you to complete information on whether or not you have acquired the citizenship of another country. If so, full details need to be provided of this. Once this detail has been completed and the form handed over to the relevant Home Affairs or Consular Mission Official, the applicant is informed that they may have lost their South African citizenship as a result of the acquisition of their foreign citizenship. No Passport renewal application will then be accepted until such time as the citizenship matter has been clarified.
A further way that South African citizens are often advised of the issue of Dual Nationality is upon travel in or out of South Africa on a foreign passport. The South African Citizenship Act specifically states that any South African citizen must travel in and out of South Africa on a South African Passport. As a result, if you are travelling in and out of South Africa on a foreign passport, in such foreign passport would obviously state your birth place as South Africa, you will most likely be taken aside and questioned by the Immigration Officers at our Airports or Border Posts. It is actually an offence to travel in or out of South Africa on a foreign passport, if you are indeed a South African citizen.
On this basis, for a lot of South African citizens who have acquired a foreign citizenship, even where they have not lost their South African citizenship as a result, they are continuously questioned by Immigration Officers at Home Affairs Offices, Consular Missions or our Airports or Border Posts regarding such dual citizenship. On this basis, a lot of South African citizens are aided by a determination of status which confirms that they are indeed still a South African citizen or would confirm if they had in fact lost their South African citizenship.
Please take note that the determination of status process is the first step in respect of all of the procedures that have been mentioned above. The determination of status is an application that we can assist you with without you even needing to attend upon a Home Affairs Office, Consular Mission or be in South Africa at all. If you would like our assistance on this, or any other of the procedures mentioned above, we would suggest that you complete our assessment of that you e-mail us atenquiries@immigration.org.za.