You can have dual nationality even if you acquire it later, can’t you?
You can if you are British but getting it is not that easy for some, and short of voting rights, a 10 year perpetual cds, is almost a security.
Having said that, I bitterly regret not doing it years ago when first I qualified because now with my ageing brain I doubt I would pass the language test this time around.
I’ve lived in the UK all but the first year of my life, but have retained my Austrian nationality. I am committed to living in Britain in a practical sense, but also feel Austrian. I may become a dual national in the future. There are many reasons why someone might not want to take on a different nationality, for example although they might be determined to live the rest of their lives in a particular place, their identity might be entwined in a different country.
I suppose it’s the ultimate form of integration
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Possibly the main one in places where this is comparatively easy (unlike for UK pensioners residing in France) or relatively inexpensive, is because there one is only allowed to hold the passport of one country.
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It’s only been the last 20 years or so that Austrians could have dual nationality, and Germans are still not permitted.
They are now, the Gesetz zur Modernisierung des Staatsangehörigkeitsrechts came in almost 2 years ago.
France and the UK have allowed people born to mixed couples to have dual nationality at least since I was a newborn, I’ve always had both.
Edited to add I mean where the couple concerned are Fr/UK.
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It’s a similar situation in Spain, where my nephews have dual nationality, but my brother has remained a UK citizen. The Spanish also allow citizens of former colonies to have two passports. There’s a similar recent allowance for descendents of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the C15th!
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But if you were born German without connection with another country, would dual nationality be possible?
Yes if for example you were to marry someone from another country and wish to add their nationality to your own, or if you were resident for long enough in another country to ask for citizenship.
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My German colleagues both took British nationality, because at the time they couldn’t dual. As long as one has A place to call home, that’s most important.
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I’m one of those pendants, Mik, because the UK media tends to describe brown skinned people who move to the UK , albeit for specific jobs on initial contracts for a specific period of time, as immigrants while people like you and me who have white skins and live abroad are called expats.
The Times is forever describing UK doctors and the like who have moved their families to Australia, put their children into schools, bought homes etc. as expats. Those Brits who left the UK because it was too dangerous and/or too heavily taxed to settle in Dubai for non-specific periods of time were nevertheless expats while a nurse I know who moved to Bristol from Sri Lanka for a fixed term contract is called an immigrant. Those Dubai-based Brits had no plans to return to the UK until Trump invaded Iran and while the Bristol-based nurse does plan to return to Sri Lanka, who’s to say he won’t stay if a second contract is offered? Whatever happens and despite that he’s doing a valuable job for the NHS, he will invariably be referred to as an immigrant in a pejorative way by the UK media and others.
For myself, as I have no immediately plans to move elsewhere and have permanent residency here, I reckon I’m an immigrant.
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There are various reasons why an immigrant might not be able to acquire nationality (even though they have done all they can…).
I know this for a fact as I am one such immigrant 
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But the point Stella is making is that suddenly many retired Brits are no longer able to do that.
Is that because of age and the language test being more difficult for ageing brains, which didn’t matter a few years ago because it didn’t apply to the over 60s. or to tightened income rules for oldies? Or both?
My nieces have dual British/American nationality. As they live in the US that works fine, but if they ever move elsewhere they may find it less convenient as Uncle Sam will want a slice of their worldwide earnings (dual tax treaty countries excepted)!
It’s because of a recent change that said that a person whose income came mainly from outside of France should have their application for citizenship rejected. Many British (and other nationalities) retired person’s get state pension and sometimes an occupational pension from outside of France and so are automatically rejected.
and a change made a while ago …
Previously the “over 65’s” (?) didn’t need to prove “language skills” when applying for Nationality, now they do!
“There is no general age-based exemption for citizenship applications. To be noted here: there used to be an age exemption for the French test for citizenship, but that’s no longer the case. In rare cases, exemptions may be granted for serious health conditions, but these are assessed individually and require documentation.”
For me an immigrant is probably someone who has moved to another country to find a better life financially or to escape war or political problems in their country of origen.
An expat is someone who has been sent to another country for his or her work, or someone who has chosen to live in another country for non-financial reasons.
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Oh, that was long before we became an item … Her kids, not mine.