Do you want to report "Dual Jamaican and UK citizenship - pros and cons?"
Hi! I am currently a UK citizen living in the UK with Jamaican parents. I'm strongly considering applying for Jamaican citizenship and passport in the coming months and have done some research into the pros and cons. From what I can see, the main pros are for more open travel, work, and property. The negatives would be surrounding tax or military obligations. So here are my questions, starting with the most important: 1 - Does anyone know about if I would be liable for tax in Jamaica? I'm not able to get a clear answer online 2 - Is there anything that I've not taking into account? Are there any really large pros or cons that I should be aware of before I apply? 3 - From what I can see there are no military obligations/conscriptions - have I got this right? Any thoughts or suggestions super appreciated! S
Hey
I just did mine. From what I can tell of you’re a US citizen you can be liable for tax abroad but doesn’t seem to be for UK citizens.
The only downside I could find was that if you get in trouble in JA the UK can’t intervene on your behalf or put pressure on the JA government for you.
Benefit as far as I can tell (other than what you said) is that we may be eligible to make use of caricom benefits, sense of identity and possibly continuing the connection for our children.
No real reason to get the passport unless you plan on living here. I also know multiple people who have lived here with an “unconditional stamp”, while only having UK/Canadian passports.
You can drive here with a foreign license for up to a year, and that time resets everytime you leave and come back into the country.
Edit: the only “benefit” as someone who travels back and forth would be shorter customs lines as a resident and booking tourist excursions at local rates. IMO the time and money you’ll spend getting your citizenship, then passport is not work those benefits.
Some countries have mandatory conscription for the forces for a certain length of time.
Neither the UK nor JA have this. If they did at some point in the future it may become an issue, but until then you’re fine.
You wouldn’t need to worry about taxes.
And there is no military obligation
The Jamaican passport offers visa free access to some countries but that’s wouldn’t be a big deal since you already have a UK passport.
Oh and you would get access to caricom in the event you decide you wanted to work in another Caribbean country
>The Jamaican passport offers visa free access to some countries but that’s wouldn’t be a big deal since you already have a UK passport.
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>Oh and you would get access to caricom in the event you decide you wanted to work in another Carib
nice point, thank you!
Do it, if Truss runs the UK into the ground you have a choice to leaves
Also, some countries are hostile to the UK so a Jamaican passport can keep you safe.
Finally, it gives your kids the same choice to choose you have now.
Unless you plan to live in Jamaica then there is no need to.
Jamaica is still under the monarchy so your military obligations and in turn Jamaicans will be dependent on the crown either way
Getting it because it means something to you being an official citizen of the same country as your parents and to acknowledge where you come from.. its a pretty cool reason.
For me the citizenship was part of a way to reforge a connection that my parents broke.
I also liked the idea of my kids being able to go to uni in JA if they wanted and the options for living and working in JA (or other caricom countries) in the future, for me or my kids. Things are uncertain here at the moment. Options seem good.
