Sandra_D

What wil happen to a naturalized US citizen who entered the US using a foreign passport with a US visa? Naturalization occured twenty years ago.... the US tourist B1/B2 visa was issued by the US embassy in her native country a couple of years ago. The US CBP officers at port-of-entry(airports) never asked any questions and just let her in... multiple times....

any information on this issue appreciated!

blue_can

Sorry don't have an answer to the question but I'm curious why someone would do that.

Sandra_D

I can only reveal two words: politician, election...

yyzvoyageur

That's bizarre.

Sandra_D

exactly....

FriendlySkies

Kind of weird. If you are a US citizen, aren't you required to enter the US with your US passport?

bluenotesro

Yes you are. I can't imagine why this person would lie to the consular officer to obtain a visa if already a citizen. Very bizarre and I imagine very illegal.

Where's Firebug?

SeattleFlyerGuy

Your answer is here: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1753.html

It's rather imprecise, but it seems like the answer is "trouble".

Letitride3c

Not sure of what the goals are for, we live in the dark Homeland Security shadows these days filled with terrorism-phobia, and I believe you are just asking for unwarranted trouble, attention & more than just a detailed secondary at the CBP checkpoint upon entry. Plus, you will be photographed and fingerprinted - required of all "foreigners" visiting the US (with exceptions, of course)

My understanding (could be outdated) is that the B1/B2 visa issued (several years ago, as you said) is generally good for 6 months only - as it's designed for short stay only and possibly renewed for another 6 months upon meeting certain conditions. I wonder if the visa stamp issued by US Consulate abroad is still good for entering the US at the airports.

Sound real "fishy" to me - besides, if your passenger info entered into SecureFlight comes up with possible (mis)matches along with other biometrics like your fingerprints & photo (which're taken of you when applying for naturalization) - there is a good chance (never 100% but close enough to it) - you could land yourself on earning a "no fly" list suspected of god-knows-what; being pulled aside for questioning; and, "invited" to a private area for a detailed body search, etc.

This is beyond "civil disobedience" to protest TSA and absurd security measures that we have serious problems with. If you try to do it, better have the name & phone number of an experienced immigrant attorney handy & memorized in your head as you could be in deep, deep water over it.

RichardKenner

Let's see what FB has to say, but my feeling is that, although it's technically illegal it may not be something that anybody cares much about. I have a few friends who are dual Canadian/US citizens and often enter the US on their Candian passport simply because they couldn't find their US passport that morning. They've never gotten into any trouble because of it. The OP's case is a bit more peculiar, of course, because an actual visa was obtained. To me, I think the issue, as was stated, was whether that visa was obtained under false pretenses. In other words, if the dual citizen obtained the visa and actually used it for the purpose it was obtained (including maximum stay length) and then left the country, I suspect this will be ignored. But if they applied for that visa under false pretenses (as shown, for example, by not subsequently leaving), I think that's far more serious.

bocastephen

How did the OP get their visa issued in the first place when a check of their name and other particulars would have discovered they were a US citizen?

Does the OP want to lose their naturalization? The Gov could make a good case that the act of using a foreign passport AND a US visitor visa to enter/leave the US is a form of abandonment - the act of affirming the foreign status on the visa app to a consular official could be construed as saying "I am no longer a US citizen".

Very bizarre, very strange, very risky and I won't comment further without knowing the backstory....which I doubt we'll be treated to.

Sandra_D

OP here... I asked the question, but I'm not the one in this situation. It's a politician who's stuck in this pickle(or perhaps limbo).

Fredd

The serious answer is that I've heard threats that it can be considered a renunciation of U.S. citizenship but I haven't confirmed that. As others have said, it does seem like an odd situation indeed.

PhlyingRPh

There are very good reasons for someone who is a US citizen as well as a citizen of another country or countries for traveling to certain countries on a foreign passport, though it is becoming harder to do so unless the name on the foreign passport is accidentally different from one's US legal name.

Most people who need to do this are traveling to countries that they would rather not publicly acknowledge traveling to. This could be because of business, tax or reasons of privacy. So, if someone has a consulting gig with a company in Iran for instance, best practice in this instance is to utilize a foreign passport to travel to Iran from a third country using a name that is not on any US databases. Obtaining a US visa would not work in this case, so I am all ears as to why OP's friend did what she did.

ghostrider10

at the risk of going omni, if it's a politician, it sounds like they have the means to be asking an immigration lawyer, not a free internet forum

All seriousness aside, though, I could see a similar scenario:
Say Anne Appelbaum got divorced, but preferred to live in Poland, and flew back here for to visit someone using her Polish passport and a B1/B2 visa for some reason, and as the hypothetical ex-wife of a Polish diplomat she would no longer have access to diplomatic travel documents. (Yes, I know she's a natural born US citizen, but from a passport perspective I don't think that's relevant to the case at hand, except for those couple of lines in the bio section).