Hold On, Is Elon Musk a U.S. or Canadian Citizen? All About the Canadian Petition

There’s a lot Elon Musk can be commended for — co-founding PayPal, becoming an early investor in Tesla, and founding SpaceX. However, his role as one of the heads of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is causing many to turn their backs on someone they once admired. For starters, he’s a big supporter of President Donald Trump and his initiatives.

One proposal that’s been floated is that the U.S. will take Canada under its wing, making it the 51st state. Canada obviously isn’t on board with this, but with Elon on Team Trump, it’s left a sour taste in the mouths of Canadians. In fact, some have launched a petition to revoke his Canadian citizenship. Wait — hold on— is Elon a U.S. citizen or Canadian? Turns out, he actually holds more than one citizenship.

Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, holds dual citizenship, meaning he has both Canadian and U.S. citizenship. He was granted Canadian citizenship, per CBC, because his mother, Maye Musk, was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1948.

Elon revealed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in December 2019, "I left South Africa by myself when I was 17 with just a backpack and suitcase of books. Worked on my Mom’s cousin’s farm in Saskatchewan and a lumber mill in Vancouver. Went to Queens Univ. with scholarship and debt, then same to UPenn/Wharton and Stanford." Elon has reportedly held his Canadian citizenship since 1989, which aligns with when he said he arrived in Canada at just 17 years old.

Elon reportedly received his U.S. citizenship in 2002, per CBC, and revealed in an X post in February 2024 that it took him over a decade to obtain. "Yeah, it was extremely difficult and took over a decade for me to get U.S. citizenship," he wrote.

Holding dual citizenship isn’t uncommon, and the U.S. Department of State notes, "U.S. law does not impede its citizens' acquisition of foreign citizenship whether by birth, descent, naturalization or other form of acquisition." It also states, "A U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to their U.S. citizenship."

Now, although Elon does hold both U.S. and Canadian citizenship, it seems many Canadians no longer want him affiliated with the country, especially after he reportedly posted and then deleted a post on X saying, "Canada is not a real country," on Feb. 24, 2025. And now they want to revoke his citizenship. Here’s their reasoning.

A petition opened for signatures on Feb. 20, 2025, calling on the Prime Minister of Canada to revoke Elon's citizenship. Why? Those signing the petition, which has garnered over 320,000 signatures as of this writing, claim Elon "has engaged in activities that go against the national interest of Canada."

They are also claiming he is using his "wealth and power to influence our elections."

Among other claims, they accuse Elon of being a member of "a foreign government that is attempting to erase Canadian sovereignty."

Despite the high number of signatures, the only way for a person to have their Canadian citizenship revoked is if they committed fraud, misrepresented themselves, or were voluntarily dishonest on an immigration or citizenship application, according to the Government of Canada website. It doesn’t look like Elon checks any of those boxes, so for now, the petition is drawing a lot of criticism towards him.