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Who Are The Only 8 Honorary Citizens In The History Of The United States?

It’s really difficult to gain honorary American citizenship

Andrew Martin
4 min readNov 7, 2023

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The government of the United States has long closely overseen citizenship status. People born outside of the country can still become official citizens, but typically have to go through a rigorous process to reach eligibility. In the history of the country, there have been only a total of eight people who have been designated as honorary citizens. Who are they?

According to Everycrsreport.com honorary American citizenship is:

“A private law to grant citizenship should not be confused with honorary citizenship. Honorary citizenship is a rare and extraordinary honor granted to foreigners who have rendered great service. Only a handful of individuals have received this honor…

“Honorary citizenship “is a symbolic gesture. It does not grant any additional legal rights in the United States or in international law. It also does not impose additional duties or responsibilities, in the United States or internationally, on the honoree. It does not give the recipient any voting privileges.”

The exceptionally rare instances where honorary citizenship is granted is done at the behest of the President and Congress. It is so rare that…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .