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Irish man to appeal court decision on naturalization

An Irish man who married a Taiwanese woman said that he will appeal to the Supreme Court a decision stating that he must abandon his Irish citizenship and prove that he has been living in Taiwan for more than five consecutive years to be naturalized as a Taiwanese citizen.

Paul Clinton married Ho Chiu-ping (何秋蘋) on Dec. 23, 1993. Ho passed away on June 1, 1998. Clinton filed a request to Taipei City's Neihu District Administrative Office to be naturalized on July 20, 1999.

As Clinton's legal representative, National Network of Foreign Spouses Liaison Officer Richard Hartzell said in a phone interview on Thursday that the lower court's decision will be appealed because it is unreasonable.

"Human rights and citizen rights are two different issues and should be clearly separated, regulated and protected by the law. However, this is not what we saw during the process of the case. That is our basic argument to the court but they ignored us," Hartzell said.

"The government asked foreigners to abandon their original nationalities while it allowed its own citizens to possess dual nationalities. Is that fair?" he said.

Hartzell said he has received an official copy of the verdict and will appeal to the Supreme Court within a month.

To process his naturalization request, the Taipei City Government asked Clinton to provide legal documents showing he has abandoned his Irish citizenship and to prove that he has been in Taiwan for more than five years.

Clinton's request went nowhere because he refuses to abandon his Irish citizenship and could not provide evidence he has been in Taiwan for more than five years.

He decided to file suit and tried to gain his Taiwanese citizenship without abandoning his Irish citizenship, even though the Nationality Law (國籍法) does not allow him to do so.

"The Taiwan Government allows its citizens to possess dual citizenship. However, the Nationality Law states that foreigners must abandon their original citizenship before they can be naturalized as Taiwanese citizens. This is not fair," Clinton said in his argument to the court.

The Administrative Supreme Court ruled against Clinton on June 5.

"Loyalty is the main concern," Judge Liao Cheng-hsiung (廖政雄) said in his verdict.

"Foreigners must develop this before they can be naturalized as Taiwanese citizens. In addition, it has nothing to do with the government's recognition of dual citizenship of Taiwanese citizens. They are two separate issues," Liao said.

According to Liao, Taiwanese are allowed to have dual citizenship because the government needs the contributions of overseas Taiwanese due to the current political environment and the relationship with China.
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