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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline C · Foreign Preference

Unwillingness to Renounce/Surrender Foreign Citizenship or Passport

What the decided record shows for this issue, computed from public DOHA hearing-level decisions. Descriptive history, not a prediction.

Does unwillingness to renounce/surrender foreign citizenship or passport affect a security clearance?

Unwillingness to Renounce/Surrender Foreign Citizenship or Passport is an issue decided under Guideline C, Foreign Preference. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 574 hearing-level cases, and 46% of the 573 decided ended with access granted (262 granted, 311 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 573 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

574

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

46%

262 granted · 311 denied or revoked

Official mitigating conditions cited

The formal mitigating conditions the case profiles identified on this issue, in cases that were granted and in cases that were denied. Each is shown with its paragraph number and a plain name. Read what each condition says.

  • ¶ 11(a) · The foreign citizenship does not conflict with United States interests

    In granted cases
    61
    In denied cases
    10

  • ¶ 11(b) · Dual citizenship from parentage or place of birth alone

    In granted cases
    59
    In denied cases
    16

  • ¶ 11(d) · The foreign citizenship was exercised before becoming a United States citizen

    In granted cases
    57
    In denied cases
    16

  • ¶ 11(e) · The benefits of foreign citizenship raise no security concern

    In granted cases
    43
    In denied cases
    14

  • ¶ 11(c) · A stated willingness to renounce the foreign citizenship

    In granted cases
    12
    In denied cases
    2

  • ¶ 11(f) · The country or entity involved poses a low security risk

    In granted cases
    11
    In denied cases
    0

Circumstances credited in granted cases

The specific circumstances the judge expressly credited among the granted cases on this issue where that detail was extracted.
  • willingness to renounce foreign citizenship · credited in 6 granted cases
  • passport surrendered · credited in 1 granted case
  • willingness to renounce dual citizenship · credited in 1 granted case

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 19-03737Granted2022

    the applicant held dual citizenship with Israel and had served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The Statement of Reasons (SOR) raised concerns under Guideline B (Foreign Influence) and Guideline C…

  • ISCR Case No. 19-00456Granted2020

    The applicant in this case was a 48-year-old hazardous material technician seeking national security eligibility and a security clearance. The Department of Defense issued a Statement of Reasons (SOR)…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01240Denied2026

    Applicant, a 43-year-old translator, sought clearance for work in Iraq. He admitted strong family ties to Iraq, an Iraqi passport renewal after U.S. citizenship, and 19 delinquent debts totaling $109,…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-01308Denied2026

    Applicant, a defense contractor employee and dual citizen of the United States, Portugal, and France, was denied a security clearance under Guidelines B and C. He owned substantial real estate in Port…

See all 574 decisions on this issue

Related issues under Guideline C

How these numbers are measured

Scope: decided hearing-level cases whose per-allegation profile records this issue, matched to the same issue value the search filters use, so a count here and a filtered search always agree. A case raising several issues counts under each one. The mitigating conditions and the credited circumstances below were extracted for a subset of the record, so both are counts of cases rather than rates. Pages exist only for issues with at least 25 decided cases, and † marks any split built on fewer than 20.

Reading the statistics

  • Granted = access granted or continued; Denied = denied or revoked.
  • Grant rate = granted ÷ (granted + denied).
  • † marks figures based on fewer than 20 cases, too few to be reliable.
  • Hovering any rate shows its statistical range (a 95% confidence interval).
  • Figures are descriptive counts over decided, public DOHA ISCR decisions, never predictions or assessments of any pending case.

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