What US citizenship actually gets you: the good and the bad

The bad

• Jury duty is the only civic duty that citizens alone, as opposed to US residents, are obliged to perform, at both a federal and state court level. Failing to appear after being summoned; appearing but refusing to serve; or withdrawing from jury duty without the permission of the court all carry a state-dependent fine. In California, that might be as high as $940,000. Mind you, the chances of serving at all are pretty slim: only 27% of U.S. adults say they had ever served on a jury, and of the 32 million summoned a year, only 8 million actually end up serving.
• Military service is optional right now—but there’s no guarantee that will always be the case. All male U.S. citizens—and male residents, legal and otherwise—aged 18 to 25 are still required to register with the Selective Service System. This preserves the system that would draft Americans in the military if ever needed.
• Income tax doesn’t just apply to Americans living in the country. Unusually, US citizens are subject to domestic tax wherever they are in the world—as well as being taxed in their country of residence. And while many countries have tax treaties with the US to soften the blow, US tax laws may lead to Americans abroad being taxed on their pensions and savings, which are untaxed in many countries. They’ve also led to US citizens being turned away from foreign banks, who fear the repercussions of American  account holders who fail to pay their taxes.
• Dual citizenship sounds like the best of both worlds—but foreign parents from a variety of different countries who give birth to a child on American soil often have to make a difficult choice. While the US permits dual citizenship, countries such as Malaysia, Japan, China and the Netherlands, as well as many others, do not. Parents from these countries with an American child risk a future in which not all members of the family can live in the same country.
• Travel restrictions make it difficult, if not impossible, for Americans to visit a number of different countries. It’s extremely hard, if not impossible, to obtain a visa to Iraq, Libya, and the Central African Republic, for example. Want to see Russia? Sharpen your pencil. As the Atlantic reports, “while most of the rest of the world’s peoples can apply for a visa to Russia using a simple single-page form of 21 questions, US citizens must use an arduous ‘new form implemented on the basis of reciprocity’ that has 41 often-intrusive questions.” Going to Cuba is also heavily restricted.