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Issue Encyclopedia · Guideline C · Foreign Preference

Applying for or Acquiring Foreign Citizenship

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

Does applying for or acquiring foreign citizenship affect a security clearance?

Applying for or Acquiring Foreign Citizenship is an issue decided under Guideline C, Foreign Preference. In the decided DOHA record it appears in 686 hearing-level cases, and 47% of the 686 decided ended with access granted (322 granted, 364 denied). The mitigating conditions judges credited most often, and example decisions either way, are below.

Basis: 686 decided hearing-level cases raising this issue. Descriptive history of decided cases, not a prediction.

More questions people ask the record

Decided cases

686

hearing-level decisions raising this issue

Granted

47%

322 granted · 364 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
    139
    In denied cases
    22

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

    In granted cases
    90
    In denied cases
    11

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

    In granted cases
    83
    In denied cases
    14

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

    In granted cases
    57
    In denied cases
    13

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

    In granted cases
    24
    In denied cases
    5

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

    In granted cases
    5
    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 4 granted cases
  • willingness to renounce dual citizenship · credited in 3 granted cases
  • Dual citizenship based solely on parents' citizenship or birth in a foreign country · credited in 1 granted case
  • passport has been destroyed or invalidated · credited in 1 granted case
  • surrender of foreign passport · credited in 1 granted case

Recent decided examples

  • ISCR Case No. 23-01964Granted2024

    The case involves an applicant seeking a security clearance who has lived in Australia for over twenty years. The applicant admitted to allegations under Guidelines B and C but successfully mitigated …

  • ISCR Case No. 23-01938Granted2024

    The case involves an applicant seeking a security clearance who admitted to allegations under Guidelines B and C related to foreign influence and preference. The administrative judge found that the ap…

  • 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…

  • ISCR Case No. 25-00668Denied2026

    Applicant, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Somali-born linguist, was denied a clearance under Guidelines B and C. The judge found that after returning to Somalia, Applicant reclaimed Somali citizenship…

See all 686 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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