Guideline C: Foreign Preference
Decided hearing cases
1,510
Grant rate
51%
766 granted · 744 denied
Specific issues and their outcomes
Foreign passport possession / use
49% granted · 501 granted · 523 denied
Foreign citizenship acquisition / application
47% granted · 322 granted · 362 denied
Failure to renounce / surrender foreign status
46% granted · 262 granted · 311 denied
Foreign preference (unspecified)
56% granted · 285 granted · 225 denied
Foreign benefits / education
45% granted · 75 granted · 93 denied
Foreign voting
48% granted · 79 granted · 85 denied
Mitigations judges credited most
- Willingness to renounce foreign citizenship26
- Surrender of foreign passport18
- Willingness to renounce dual citizenship8
- Passport surrendered3
- Individual has expressed a willingness to renounce dual citizenship2
Counted only where the judge expressly credited the mitigation, not merely where it was claimed.
What the reference material says about foreign-preference cases
- Holding dual citizenship or a foreign passport is not by itself disqualifying: "the fact that a U.S. citizen is also a citizen of another country is not disqualifying without an objective showing of such conflict or attempt at concealment." The passport-specific concerns are failing to report it and using it to enter or leave the United States. (SEAD-4, Guideline C)
- There is no surrender-or-destroy requirement in the guideline, and DoD told contractors in 2019 that the adjudication facility will no longer routinely ask for passports to be retained or destroyed. (DSS ISL 2019-01)
From our verified reference library: paraphrased from the named sources and reviewed before publication. Descriptive background, not legal advice about any case.
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For attorneys and firms →Descriptive statistics from decided public DOHA cases. Not legal advice or a prediction. † marks samples under 20 cases.