Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 Explained: What It Means Now

(OHIO) A little-known proposal in the U.S. Senate, the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, has unsettled millions of Americans with ties abroad by calling for an end to dual citizenship and forcing people to choose a single nationality. Introduced by Republican Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, the bill would, if it ever became law, stop the 🇺🇸 from recognizing dual nationality and order those who hold more than one passport to pick one within a year or lose their U.S. citizenship. Yet despite the sharp reaction from immigrant communities, advocacy groups, and legal scholars, the proposal remains stuck at the earliest stage of the legislative process, with no hearings, no vote, and no sign of bipartisan support.

What the bill would do (as written)

At the heart of the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 is a sweeping rewrite of who can call themselves an American under federal law.

• The bill would prohibit U.S. citizens from holding any foreign citizenship, replacing the long-standing tolerance of dual nationality with a strict “one person, one passport” rule.
• People who already hold dual citizenship would be given 12 months from the date the law takes effect to choose: either renounce their foreign citizenship, or renounce their U.S. citizenship.
• If a person does nothing within that one-year window, the proposal says the United States would treat them as foreign nationals, stripping away the rights and protections that come with being a U.S. citizen, including:
  • loss of a U.S. passport
  • inability to vote in federal elections

The bill would also apply to people who gain a second nationality in the future:

• Anyone who becomes a citizen of another country after the law is in place would automatically lose U.S. citizenship at that moment, without any extra step or formal renunciation.

National registry and scope

The proposal goes further by calling for a national registry of dual citizens, a federal system to track every person who holds more than one nationality.

• Both naturalized citizens and those who gained citizenship at birth would fall under the same rules.
• A child born in the U.S. to foreign parents—who currently holds dual citizenship at birth—would, under the bill, be forced to make a formal choice of nationality at adulthood.

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, this reach into both past and future citizenship situations explains why the bill has startled families who have built cross-border lives through marriage, work, or long-term residence abroad.

Affected groups include:

• Americans married to foreign spouses
• Business owners with overseas operations
• Digital workers who split time among countries
• Students who hold another passport for family reasons

All of these people see their current status placed in doubt by the language of the bill, even though for now it has no legal effect.

Reaction from communities and advocacy groups

No group has reacted more strongly than the vast Indian diaspora in the United States, who already live under strict nationality rules from India.

• India does not allow dual citizenship. Indian nationals who become Americans must give up Indian citizenship under Indian law.
• Many Indian-origin Americans rely on the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card to maintain close ties with India (work, live, travel for long periods).
• If the U.S. were to ban dual citizenship outright, Indian-origin Americans with OCI status fear an impossible choice:
  • keep the U.S. passport and risk losing long-term rights in India linked to OCI, or
  • renounce U.S. citizenship to retain deeper access to India.

Advocates note most will never give up American citizenship, so the forced choice would, in practice, cut people off from family, business, and cultural ties across continents.

Organizations speaking out against the bill include Voto Latino and Democrats Abroad, which warn that the bill:

• attacks the idea of a multicultural America, and
• ignores that modern American identity often includes close ties to another country.

Current legal status — what is actually happening now

Despite the controversy, the current legal status of the bill is straightforward:

• The bill has not passed.
• There has been no Senate vote.
• There have been no committee hearings.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee but has no scheduled debate or markup, and there is no bipartisan support. In short, it remains only a proposal; nothing in U.S. law has changed as a result of its introduction.

Key practical points:

• Dual citizenship remains fully legal in the United States.
• Americans are not being asked to renounce foreign citizenship, sign up for any new registry, change how they travel, or take any immediate action.
• Green card holders can continue pursuing citizenship, and eligible permanent residents may still apply for naturalization using Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, available on the official USCIS site: https://www.uscis.gov/n-400.
• Government policy and practical rules on dual nationality are publicly described on the USCIS Citizenship Resource Center: https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship.
• None of those rules have been amended to reflect the Moreno proposal.

Constitutional and legal challenges

Legal scholars and policy analysts across the political spectrum say the chances of the bill becoming law are very low, citing the U.S. Constitution and long-standing Supreme Court precedent.

• Past Supreme Court rulings — including Afroyim v. Rusk and Vance v. Terrazas — have held that the government cannot take away U.S. citizenship without the person’s voluntary choice to give it up.
• These decisions are grounded in the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects citizenship for those born or naturalized in the U.S.
• Forcing someone to pick one nationality on penalty of automatic loss of U.S. citizenship appears to many experts to conflict directly with these rulings.

Analysts expect that even if the bill passed both chambers, it would face immediate court challenges and likely be struck down as unconstitutional, because it would attempt to create involuntary loss of citizenship for merely holding or gaining another passport.

Practical and diplomatic concerns

Beyond constitutional issues, specialists warn of serious practical and diplomatic problems:

• There are millions of Americans living abroad or born with more than one nationality. Tracking everyone and forcing decisions within 12 months would require a vast new bureaucracy.
• Many U.S. allies — including Canada 🇨🇦, the United Kingdom, Australia, and European Union countries — allow dual nationality and host large American communities.
• Ending dual citizenship for U.S. nationals would disrupt family migration, study, and investment ties with these countries and could weaken U.S. people-to-people links and soft power.

Foreign ministries in allied states have not launched public campaigns against the bill, partly because it has not moved, but diplomats privately describe it as a step that would undercut established international ties at a time of rising global competition.

Practical advice for immigrants and dual citizens

For people directly affected, the immediate message is clear:

No action is required right now.

What you can do now:

• Keep your existing dual citizenship.
• Renew passports and continue to travel, study, marry, and invest abroad as before.
• U.S. permanent residents can still apply for citizenship.
• Students can still transition from visas like F-1 to H-1B and then to green cards.
• OCI rules remain the same for people of Indian origin, and Indian law still requires new U.S. citizens to give up Indian passports where applicable.
• The U.S. continues to place no general limit on holding a foreign nationality alongside American citizenship.

Policy watchers advise staying informed and relying on official sources (USCIS and the State Department) rather than social media rumors, since bills like the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 can create fear even when they have little chance of becoming law.