Which Passport Should I Use?
 

I have a US and an EU passport. I live in California, and travel to UK about twice a year.

On previous trips, I used only my US passport. On the last 3 trips, Heathrow immigration asked (seeing in my US passport that I was born in UK) why I do not have a UK passport. So this time I'll take both passports with me, and use the EU passport at Heathrow.

Does it matter which passport I present to the airline (United)? Are there any pitfall to what I doing?

Thanks to all,
John, San Diego

Passports
 

As a dual National with US and EU citizenship, I find it easier to give the airline the US passport, enter, exit the EU/UK with my EU passport and enter the US with my US one with Global Entry. That way I don't wait in lines.

I'm not sure if this is ideal, but it seems to work.

You have to enter the US on your US passport otherwise they will require you to fill out a visa application. I don't think the EU cares which one you use.

Use the US passport to enter/exit the US.

Use the passport for whichever line is shortest when you get to the EU.

Is not unusual for a country to require you to present that country's passport when leave/enter that country

In the UK, if your UK passport is chipped, you can use the new e-Gates, which should hopefully help you queue for less time.

(A chipped passport has this symbol on the cover http://www.i2clipart.com/cliparts/c/...ymbol-c705.png)

How do they know if you have such a passport if all you ever showed them was another passport??? :confused:

Obviously, the majority of people flying (at least on US passports) do not have passports from multiple countries. So they could only require this for those that do (and for whom one of those passports is in fact from that country).

Well, sometimes the place of birth on the passport give it away.

It can be confusing. Some countries have explicit rules (US for example) about using that country's passport for exit/entry. It's worth going to the web site of every country you have citizenship to see if they have published guidelines. Airlines seem to mostly care about whether you will be refused entry at your destination, so if the passport you give them does not have a visa for the destination (or cannot enter the destination country without a visa) then they will start asking for additional documents.

And then there are other countries which are making a token effort to curb illegal immigration and if you present that country's passport on arrival and don't have a visa for the country you came from they will start asking for additional passports. *Headache* I just carry both all the time.

I don't know about the UK, but if you hold dual citizenship in Germany (German+X), you have to present your German ID when you enter the country.

Plenty of US-born people enter the UK with their US passports even after obtaining British citizenship. This is accepted.

Being born in the UK does not mean you are a British citizen automatically, unless you were born before 1983 - but you could still have renounced, or your father could have been a diplomat.

However, it would be reasonable for UK immigration officers to ask.

Correct (for Germany) - although this is only a fairly new requirement.

For the US, it's mandatory to enter (and technically, leave) using your US passport.

For the UK, it's NOT mandatory to use your UK/EU passport - however if you enter using (say) a US passport then you are entering as a visitor, and must meet the requirements of your entry, such as leaving within the X days you are given.

Personally I'd suggest using a UK/EU passport if you have one, if only because the lines are generally much shorter, and very much faster!

No, because the passport doesn't explain how old you were when you left that country.

My passport clearly shows I was born in the UK, but my parents brought me to use the USA when I was just a few years old, so to my (grown-up) knowledge I never had a UK passport, only a USA passport. (This was by ship circa 1960, and I have no clue what passport requirements if any there were for transoceanic ship travel back then.)

There are oodles of people who were born in one country but their parents brought them into a different country at a young age, and thus they don't have a passport for their birth country.

But the passport has no clues as to whether you're in that situation, or you immigrated recently.

So all the country of birth on a passport can provide is a pure guess. And I don't see how passport authorities can demand a different passport from you on a pure guess.

They would have to be able to search your name and birthdate information right then and there and determine that you had another passport to be able to prove that you have another one that you have to present. Now, perhaps some countries do have that type of "live search" available at every passport desk today, I dunno. But if so, I suspect it's a fairly new development.

Obviously, given what's been revealed in the news recently (about stolen passports), it would be good if all passport desks could do a live search on passports, for checks against Interpol lists of stolen passports, if not against whether you have another passport in another country. But if they're not yet checking so well for the former, I don't see why they would be checking that much for the latter.