Eritrean Nationality Laws: Dual Citizenship, 2% Tax, and Exit Visas

Eritrea does not formally recognize dual citizenship, but people who are Eritrean by birth can apply to keep their Eritrean nationality after acquiring a foreign one, which is how hundreds of thousands of diaspora members effectively hold two passports. The route only exists for birth nationals, approval is not automatic, and keeping the status pulls you into obligations — a 2% income tax, national service exposure, and exit-visa control on visits — that many holders don’t understand until they try to use the passport.

Who Counts as Eritrean by Birth

Eritrean nationality follows bloodline rather than birthplace. You are an Eritrean national by birth if either your father or mother is of Eritrean origin, whether you were born inside Eritrea or anywhere else.¹ The Proclamation defines “Eritrean origin” as any person who was resident in Eritrea in 1933, so the claim can pass down through generations: a grandparent or great-grandparent living in Eritrea that year may be enough.

Being born on Eritrean soil is not itself a basis for nationality. The one exception is for children found in Eritrea whose parents are unknown; they are treated as Eritrean until proven otherwise.¹

Even if you qualify by descent, nothing is automatic in practice. Every person who is Eritrean by origin or birth must apply to the Department of Internal Affairs to receive a formal certificate of nationality, and without it, exercising rights as a citizen becomes very difficult.¹

How the Retention Loophole Works

The Nationality Proclamation’s formal position is that Eritrea is a single-nationality country. Foreign nationals who seek Eritrean citizenship through naturalization must renounce their previous nationality, and the same requirement applies to foreign spouses seeking citizenship through marriage.¹

The exception sits inside that framework. If you are Eritrean by birth and later acquire a foreign nationality while living abroad, you can apply to the Department of Internal Affairs to keep your Eritrean nationality alongside the new one, provided you give adequate justification for the request.¹ Approval is discretionary. Birth nationals who acquire a second citizenship without going through this process can technically lose their Eritrean nationality on that ground.

The U.S. State Department frames the same rule from the outside: Eritrea does not recognize dual nationality, and U.S.-Eritrean dual citizens are treated as Eritrean nationals by Eritrean authorities, which limits what U.S. consular officers can do for them inside the country.²

A boundary worth naming: if you are not of Eritrean origin, the retention pathway is not available to you. People who entered and began residing in Eritrea in 1952 or after have to naturalize, which requires ten years of residence before 1974 (twenty if there were periodic trips abroad), speaking an Eritrean language, and renouncing any other nationality.³ Foreign spouses face the same renunciation requirement.

Entering as a Dual National

If you hold an Eritrean National ID, you don’t need a visa to enter Eritrea. If you are of Eritrean origin but travel only on a foreign passport with no Eritrean ID, you will need a visa.⁴ The convenience of the ID is real, and it’s part of why many diaspora members obtain one; the trade-offs come next.

The 2% Diaspora Tax

The most consequential ongoing obligation is the Recovery and Rehabilitation Tax, better known as the 2% tax. Based on Proclamation No. 17/1991 and Proclamation No. 67/1995, it requires Eritreans in the diaspora to pay 2% of their income, framed by the government as the price of exercising political and economic rights equivalent to those of residents.⁵

Enforcement runs through the consular system. If you haven’t paid, you can expect to be turned away when you try to renew a passport, handle property transactions inside Eritrea, or process other official business, and the government may impose entry or exit restrictions on dual nationals who are not in compliance.² People who let years go by often face demands for substantial back payments when they finally need a service.

One point of common confusion: paying the tax is not a prerequisite for the National ID. The Eritrean Embassy in the United States states that paying the 2% is not required to apply for or receive the ID.⁶ The practical sequence runs the other way — you need the ID before you can begin paying — and payments are made online through the embassy’s Consular Affairs Processing System, with all payments nonrefundable.⁷

The tax is legally contested. Eritrea’s National Assembly, the body with constitutional authority to levy taxes, has not convened since 1998. Internationally, UN Security Council Resolution 2023 in 2011 called on Eritrea to stop using the tax to fund activities prohibited by earlier resolutions; the United Kingdom told the Eritrean Embassy that year to suspend collection on British soil, and Canada expelled Eritrea’s consul in Toronto in 2013 over coercive collection. None of it has stopped the tax. It is still collected through Eritrean embassies and consulates, and refusing to pay still costs you access to consular services.

National Service and the Exit-Visa Trap

This is the risk that changes the calculation for a lot of dual nationals. Eritrea’s National Service Proclamation of 1995 requires all nationals between 18 and 50 to serve.² The statutory period is 18 months, but the Warsai Yikealo Development Campaign extended service to an indefinite duration, and international bodies have confirmed it remains open-ended.

Being born abroad does not exempt you. Under Eritrean law, all nationals are subject to conscription regardless of where they live or what other passport they hold. Diaspora members who have spent at least three years outside the country can apply for “diaspora status” on return, which offers a temporary exemption; that protection ends after three years of uninterrupted residence in Eritrea, at which point service obligations attach like any other resident’s.

The exit visa compounds the risk. Dual nationals who enter Eritrea on an Eritrean passport or National ID must obtain an exit visa before leaving. Applications can delay travel plans significantly and can be denied outright, and the State Department warns that U.S.-Eritrean dual nationals who left Eritrea after 1993 may not be permitted to depart after a visit.² Because Eritrea treats you as Eritrean first, U.S. Embassy intervention is limited. A visit to see family can become an extended and involuntary stay.

The National ID and Passport in Practice

Eritreans aged 18 and older are required to obtain a National ID, and the application for those in the United States runs through the embassy’s online system. Fees for a new ID total $48, with an additional $15 per year for applicants aged 21 and older on top of the $25 base ID fee. Fingerprint verification is required and can be scheduled through the embassy portal or with a local community representative. Replacement IDs cost the same $48. All fees are nonrefundable.⁶

Passport renewals run on a separate schedule. Extending an expired passport costs $73 total ($50 processing, $13 photo printing, $10 service), and the renewal extends the passport by one year from the original expiration date, not the date you renew.⁸

Security Clearance Considerations for U.S. Dual Nationals

If you are pursuing federal employment or a military career in the United States, keeping Eritrean nationality is a factor in a security clearance review. The State Department evaluates dual citizenship under Adjudicative Guideline C (Foreign Preference), which looks for conduct suggesting preference for a foreign country. Using a foreign citizenship to protect financial or business interests abroad is specifically listed as a disqualifying condition.⁹

Paying the 2% tax, holding an Eritrean National ID, or maintaining property inside Eritrea can each factor into that analysis. There is no blanket rule; each case is evaluated under a “whole person” standard that weighs all available information. If you have never exercised your Eritrean citizenship and have consistently demonstrated allegiance to the United States, dual nationality alone would not automatically disqualify you.⁹

Giving Up or Losing Eritrean Nationality

You can voluntarily renounce Eritrean nationality by applying through an Eritrean embassy or consulate, but the request is subject to government approval and is not guaranteed to be accepted.

The government can also strip nationality involuntarily. The grounds include serving in another country’s armed forces without authorization; voluntarily acquiring another country’s citizenship without receiving permission to retain Eritrean nationality (the ground that catches birth nationals who skipped the retention application); committing treason or acts deemed harmful to the state; obtaining nationality through fraud or concealment; and, for naturalized citizens only, being sentenced to more than five years in prison.¹

The distinction between birth nationals and naturalized citizens matters. Birth nationals who acquired their foreign citizenship with proper authorization are protected from the unauthorized-foreign-nationality ground. Naturalized citizens carry the added exposure of losing their status over a serious criminal conviction.

1
Citizenship Rights in Africa Initiative. Eritrea Nationality Proclamation No. 21/1992
2
U.S. Department of State. Eritrea International Travel Information
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Resource Information Center – Eritrea
4
Eritrean Embassy. Visa
5
Diaspora for Development. Eritrean Nationality Laws and Dual Citizenship Status
6
Eritrean Embassy. National ID
7
Eritrean Embassy. Recovery and Rehabilitation Tax
8
Eritrean Embassy. Passport
9
U.S. Department of State. Dual Citizenship – Security Clearance Implications