Former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has decided to move to the United States of America permanently. It is reported that he has already applied for a green card.
Rajapaksa renounced his American citizenship in order to contest the presidential election in this country, but his wife, son and daughter-in-law are still American citizens. Because of this, Rajapaksa has the ability to regain American citizenship, his lawyers have said.
However, the American government has imposed strict restrictions on granting citizenship to a person who has renounced American citizenship.
Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who fled to Maldives on July 9th amidst to public protest, then left for Singapore. He left the presidency after that. Gotabaya Rajapakse left for Thailand due to the expiry of the period allowed to stay in Singapore and had decided to stay there until November.
However, Udayanga Weeratunga, a close relative of the Rajapaksa family, said yesterday that the former president will return to Sri Lanka on the 24th.
