Permanent residency vs citizenship — how are you thinking about the long game?

A genuinely important long-game decision, and one to make with proper information rather than forum instinct. Whether dual citizenship is allowed, the tax consequences of each status, absence limits on PR, and any obligations that come with citizenship all vary by country-pair and change over time. The Citizenship and Visa sections of your destination guide are the place to check the current specifics, and for something this consequential a qualified immigration lawyer (and, on the tax side, a cross-border accountant) is well worth it. Please don't base an irreversible choice on any single anecdote here, mine included.

I've been going back and forth on this for a year, and what I've noticed is that the practical arguments never actually decided it for me. Travel, voting, security, the tax side: I made the list, and it came out roughly even every time I did it.

What moved me was a much less rational question. Where do I want to be from when I'm seventy? I don't mean where I want to live. I mean which place I want to be able to go back to without asking permission. For some people that's clearly the old country and PR is enough. For others the new place has quietly become the one they'd be devastated to lose the right to live in.

I haven't decided yet. But asking it that way made the list feel less important and the decision feel more like mine. Get proper advice on the legal side, obviously, but I don't think the spreadsheet is where the answer lives.

Citizenship is the long game for us, mainly because of the kids. We checked the dual nationality rules on both sides before deciding anything, and in our case both countries allow it, so it didn't mean giving anything up. If the answer had been different it would have been a much harder conversation at our dinner table.

That's exactly the fork for me. With an Indian passport it's a real choice because of dual nationality rules, so I'm staying on permanent residence for now. Check your own country's rules first. It decides more than you'd think.

Marco, "which place do I want to be able to go back to without asking permission" is going to stay with me for a while. Thanks for that.

In my case taking citizenship here would mean giving up my British passport, as far as I understand the rules, which settled it quickly. Permanent residence is enough for us at this stage of life.

For us it is not a question yet. First stability, then recognition, then maybe in a few years we can think about the long game. It is a luxury to plan so far ahead, and I mean that in a good way.

Canada and France both allow dual nationality in my situation, so for me it's less a choice and more a matter of when I have the energy for the paperwork.

Reading this as someone at the very start: it's useful to see that nobody decides this in year one. I'll come back to Marco's question in a few years.

Brazilians have a different set of rules here compared to other nationalities, and I only found that out from the official page, not from other expats. Worth reading the source for your own passport before listening to anyone's story, mine included.