The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that for purposes of determining a district court’s subject matter jurisdiction, a permanent-resident alien is deemed to have dual citizenship in both the state where the alien is domiciled and in the alien’s native nation. In Intec USA, LLC v. Engle, 467 F.3d 1038 (7th Cir. 2006) the plaintiff, Intec, was a limited liability company which had the citizenship of each of its members. One of the members, John Smith, a permanent resident alien, was domiciled in North Carolina and was a citizen of New Zealand. Defendant Engle and some of the defendant corporations were citizens of New Zealand. If Intec was treated as a citizen of both North Carolina and New Zealand because of Smith’s citizenship, subject matter jurisdiction would be lacking because citizens of New Zealand would be on both sides.
A Third Circuit case, Singh v. A.G. Daimler-Benz, 9 F.3d 303 (3d Cir. 1993), held a permanent-resident alien as deemed to be a citizen of the state where he is domiciled and not of his native nation. The Seventh Circuit, after an analysis of the legislative history and some dicta in one of its prior decisions, refused to follow Singh and determined that Intec was a citizen of both New Zealand and North Carolina and therefore diversity did not exist.