Originally Posted by
pred02
Ok,
I am a dual citizen of Serbia and the US and maybe I am over thinking this but I just wanted to double check.
I am flying from the US to St Petersburg via United and Lufthansa. I put in my US passport on the ticket. When at the check in desk of Lufthansa and if ask me for a Russian visa I will show my Serbian passport.
When I land in St Petersburg and go through customs I will enter on my Serbian passport. About 10 days later I will be departing Russia to go China via Aeroflot from Moscow. When purchasing the Aeroflot ticket I put the my US passport information as my Chinese visa is in the US passport. I will check in at SVO with the US passport but when exiting Russian customs I will show my Serbian one as I have entered Russia.
The reason I got paranoid is because every where - train tickets, plane tickets, etc they are asking for passport information (most other countries/airlines just care that the ticket matches the name).
I just wanted to make sure this is ok.
Thanks!
You are not overthinking this. When traveling with two passports through multiple countries with different visa requirements, it pays to think ahead of possible scenarios/questions in order to game the system and avoid potential dire consequencies.
Checking in the US: Check in with your Serbian passport since it presumably gets you visa-free into Russia. If you show your US passport, they'll ask for your Russian visa - for United you are not flying into Frankfurt, you are flying into Russia. (On seeing Serbian passport, the agent might ask for a I-94 immigration departure form or a green card, bla, bla, bla, only then mention that you are dual citizen). Get BPs for both segments - this way you don't have to talk to Lufthansa at all in FRA.
Passport control in St Pete: Serbian passport. (Customs will virtually be non-existent as a breeze through via the green channel - haven't entered through St Pete of late but this is how it is in Moscow).
Checking in on the way back: US Passport. Agents won't care for your entry/exit stamps, just for a fulliment of ONWARD visa requirements.
Passport control leaving: definitely Serbian passport. Agents WILL care to see that you entered/left but won't care whether you have your visa for China.
Good luck and let us know if you make it through.
