How You Can Save Money On College Tuition if you are a Dual Citizen

Put your dual citizenship to work when applying for colleges overseas

Going overseas for an undergraduate degree is becoming increasingly popular. The reasons are many, but the recent stock market volatility and high inflation are making many families re-think the higher education plans for their children. Add to this economic volatility mix, the exponentially rising college tuition fees in the USA, and many parents are wondering how they can afford a quality education for their children without going broke or having to forgo their own retirement plans.

It doesn’t come as a surprise then that families are looking elsewhere for solutions to help their children get a quality university degree. Fortunately, Europe offers just that. Many countries in the EU provide an excellent education that is much more affordable and readily available not only to their own citizens but to qualified foreign students as well. 

Tuition Fees for international students at European Universities 

In terms of tuition for international students, the scale goes from zero tuition fees at almost all public universities in Germany, to around €2,770 per year for a Bachelor’s degree in France, and around €8,000-15,000 per year for an undergraduate degree in the Netherlands. Another plus, aside from some exceptions, undergraduate degrees at European universities are usually only three years long!

The beauty of a European undergraduate education is that it is available to all international students, even if they don’t speak the native language, because the above-mentioned countries as well as many others offer an abundance of degrees that are fully taught in English. In fact, many European universities are eager to have American students in their mix of international students. 

Having Dual Citizenship with certain countries cuts College Tuition Cost

If you are a parent with dual citizenship and you have a passport from two different countries that you are a national of, then make sure to have your children become dual citizens too. If it is dual citizenship with a country in the European Union, it may just help reduce tuition fees even further. In many EU countries, dual-citizen students, who have a passport from an EU country are treated the same as the country’s own domestic students in terms of tuition fees.  

Using the tuition example from above, this means that such students will pay a tuition fee of around €2,200 a year at a research university in the Netherlands and pay only €170 per year at the undergraduate level at a public university in France. Compared to the international student fees in these countries listed earlier, we are talking about substantial savings!

However, dual citizenship doesn’t always help reduce a country’s international college tuition fees to the domestic-tuition fee level since in some EU countries the tuition fee that needs to get paid depends on where the applying student or their family is paying taxes, which is the case in Ireland. It is worth mentioning that some countries outside the EU also extend the domestic tuition fee to students, who are dual citizens and carry this particular country’s citizenship, like Australia for instance.

Last but not least, having dual citizenship with a country that a student chooses to study in makes them eligible to work right away, which is another way to offset any cost of living and studying abroad. And…, being a dual citizen of an EU country lets you work and live wherever you choose within the EU!

If you would like to explore studying at universities abroad, give us a call or connect with us via email. 

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