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Dual Citizenship & Advanced Passenger Information

Dual Citizenship & Advanced Passenger Information

Old Apr 11, 2014, 6:02 am
  #1  
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API and dual citizenship

I have US and UK passports. In the past, I've always handled this by showing the airline the US passport (in both directions) and showing immigration officials the passport they expect. However, it seems like the UK now uses advance passenger information, which I don't think was the case the last time I was there. What are the current best practices?
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Old Apr 11, 2014, 7:49 am
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Originally Posted by mathe
I have US and UK passports. In the past, I've always handled this by showing the airline the US passport (in both directions) and showing immigration officials the passport they expect. However, it seems like the UK now uses advance passenger information, which I don't think was the case the last time I was there. What are the current best practices?
The US-UK dual-citizens with whom I travel give their US passport to the airline I the UK and in the US; and they flash their UK passport to the airline in the US only if asked about onward/return travel; and they give their US passport to US CBP on arrival to (and sometime departure from) the US; and they give their UK passport only to the UKBA on arrival in the UK.

Works flawlessly for my travel party to use only the US passport (except when dealing with UKBA) and merely flashing the UK passport to the airline outside of the UK if the airline asks about onward/return travel.
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Old Apr 11, 2014, 8:08 am
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Originally Posted by mathe
I have US and UK passports. In the past, I've always handled this by showing the airline the US passport (in both directions) and showing immigration officials the passport they expect. However, it seems like the UK now uses advance passenger information, which I don't think was the case the last time I was there. What are the current best practices?
You must not have been to the UK for a long time then.

Simply enter the passport you are showing to the airline in the API (or the airline will do it for you if you don't). In any case, if you are entering the UK with a UK passport, nobody is going to care that a US passport was provided in the API.
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Old Apr 11, 2014, 6:56 pm
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Originally Posted by :D!
You must not have been to the UK for a long time then.

Simply enter the passport you are showing to the airline in the API (or the airline will do it for you if you don't). In any case, if you are entering the UK with a UK passport, nobody is going to care that a US passport was provided in the API.
Five years-ish. e-Borders (or whatever it's called) was about to come in, I think.

So, basically, keep doing what I've been doing?
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Old Apr 15, 2014, 7:12 am
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Originally Posted by mathe
Five years-ish. e-Borders (or whatever it's called) was about to come in, I think.

So, basically, keep doing what I've been doing?
Yes.
You described most succinctly what works in every case I know of.
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Old Apr 19, 2014, 7:20 am
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Dual passports - transit in the US

Hi All,

I am traveling from HKG to Buenos Aires transiting via the USA.

With API, I was told that I can only check-in with one passport. I plan on checking in with my Canadian passport so that I don't need a US transit visa. However, my flight from the US to EZE is on the same itinerary. Would it be an issue if I show my Hong Kong passport to enter Argentina which would not match with the APIS details? I want to avoid paying the reciprocity fee for Canadian citizens. Vice-versa, would it be an issue if I use my HK passport at check-in and present my Canadian passport at US Immigration for transit cause I would need a US transit visa if I were just to use the HK passport? I don't want to be denied boarding. Thanks a lot.
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Old Apr 19, 2014, 2:01 pm
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Originally Posted by JTHKG
Hi All,

I am traveling from HKG to Buenos Aires transiting via the USA.

With API, I was told that I can only check-in with one passport. I plan on checking in with my Canadian passport so that I don't need a US transit visa. However, my flight from the US to EZE is on the same itinerary. Would it be an issue if I show my Hong Kong passport to enter Argentina which would not match with the APIS details? I want to avoid paying the reciprocity fee for Canadian citizens. Vice-versa, would it be an issue if I use my HK passport at check-in and present my Canadian passport at US Immigration for transit cause I would need a US transit visa if I were just to use the HK passport? I don't want to be denied boarding. Thanks a lot.
It is possible for a person in your situation to present the Canadian passport for checking in for the trip from HKG to the US and from the US to EZE while flashing your HK passport to show you don't need to have paid and received the online/sticker reciprocity fee amount for Canadians heading to Argentina.

If the check-in agent at HKG gives you a problem, just tell them to check you in to the US and you will re-checkin in the US for the US-EZE trip. If it comes to this, then you can choose to present whichever passport you wish and which gives you less hassles with the airline and/or government authorities.
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Old Feb 18, 2018, 3:19 am
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Dual Citizenship & Advanced Passenger Information

I am asking this question on behalf of my friend. He is a dual US/Canadian Citizen with NEXUS who lives in the Philly area. Next month, he is heading to Thailand with another friend of his for about three months. They will fly round trip together with KE YYZ-ICN-BKK. That trip includes a 2-night stopover in Seoul on the way to Bangkok and another 1-night stop on the way back to YYZ. That friend of his is based in YYZ, hence he chose it as the KE gateway so they can fly together.

My friend has already secured a Thai Multiple Entry Tourist Visa. The visa is on his US passport, not his Canadian one. He applied it from the Thai Embassy in DC for convenience purpose, rather than going to the much further one in Ottawa. When he enters his APIS into the KE website, should he be entering his US or Canadian passport? AFAIK, Canada does have APIS requirement and so does both Thailand and the ROK.

Scenario 1: He enters the CDN passport into his KE booking. The APIS sent to the Thai immigration will be the CDN one, not the US passport where his visa is located in one of the pages. Considering his length of stay in Thailand is beyond the 30-day visa exemption period, could KE @ ICN demand he show his Thai Visa when checking-in for the BKK flight? If that's the case and he shows the visa on the US passport, could the airline deny boarding since the APIS he provided reflects the Canadian passport? If check-in @ ICN concerning the visa proof turns out non-eventful, could he encounter problems with Thai authorities when he lands and hands to the immigration officer his US passport as it does not match with the APIS KE sent to them?

Scenario 2: He enters the US passport as the APIS into his KE reservation. On the way back when he checks-in for the return flight at ICN, the APIS KE sends to the CBSA reflects his US passport. When he arrives back in YYZ and scans his NEXUS card into the kiosk, could he land in hot water with the CBSA where they could deem this as a violation and revoke his NEXUS? As a CDN citizen, he is required to enter with his CDN passport.

Scenario 3: He enters the US passport as the APIS into his KE booking. During the middle or latter portion of his trip where he has already spent more than half or more of his time in Thailand, he calls KE reservation and ask them to change the APIS from the US to the Canadian passport. Is this possible?? Will airlines generally allow you to change passports on the APIS for tickets where several sectors have already been flown? In this case he would have already flown 50% of his ticket (2/4).
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Old Feb 18, 2018, 4:42 am
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Originally Posted by dtl173
Is this possible?? Will airlines generally allow you to change passports on the APIS for tickets where several sectors have already been flown? In this case he would have already flown 50% of his ticket (2/4).
APIS can generally be changed. That said, I'm not sure how Thailand could possibly know from the APIS how long he would be staying.
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Old Feb 18, 2018, 4:59 am
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I'm not an expert but APIS isn't usually the end all. I would travel on one passport consistently if that passport doesn't have any visa or travel restrictions (i.e. not being able to enter w/o visa). APIS is more of a problem if one of the countries you hold citizenship in does not allow dual citizenship (e.g. China, South Korea, etc).
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Old Feb 25, 2018, 2:20 pm
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IME, it doesnt matter from the Thai side. Ive checked-in one passport on my flight to BKK and entered with passport from different country. The Thai inspection was uneventful. Neither passport were Thailand.
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Old Feb 26, 2018, 1:56 am
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1) API is a requirement on the airline, not the passenger.

2) API is not always related to immigration checks - for example not in all EU countries (yet).

3) AFAIK, API is not a requirement for flights involving Thailand, where the other countries involved also don't require it.



Of course, where one or more countries on your itinerary do require API, it will need to be collected before you can check in.

But, if you don't submit API yourself, the airline will just collect it when you present yourself for the flight, by swiping your passport. And it's much easier for a machine to read the MRZ of your passport(s) and fill in the data automatically, than to have to type in the information yourself - especially if you haven't memorized your passport information!

If you don't particularly care about checking in as soon as possible (T-24, T-48, or even at time of booking depending on airline) then you might as well save yourself the bother. If you need to check-in ASAP because you want to choose a seat, or because your airline has a history of overbooking and bumping the pax who were latest to check in, then obviously entering a few fields of data is not particularly difficult.

On the itinerary mentioned in the OP, it really doesn't matter which passport is used! If the airline is unhappy, they will just ask to see the other passport, and if the API needs to be altered it will be done by the check-in / gate agent.



I occasionally transit Thailand, on separate tickets, when flying between my countries of citizenship (A and B). On the flights to and from A, I check-in with passport A. On the flights to and from B, I use passport B.

I only enter Thailand with passport A. Nothing ever comes up at Thai immigration when going to/from B. Sometimes at BKK check-in, I present passport B for my flight to B, and they will ask why there is no Thai entry record. I then show passport A, and that's the end of the matter.

Sometimes, the API for my flight to B contains passport A's info because it is a through ticket from A. Country B doesn't seem to care about this, provided that I enter B with its passport.
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Old Feb 27, 2018, 8:53 am
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Just use his US passport for everything including APIS, except when coming through immigration back into Canada. There is no requirement to leave Canada on a Canadian passport, and US citizens don't need a Visa or ETA to fly to Canada (on the off chance the airline asks about about why he only has a one way ticket to Canada with a US passport, he can show them his Canadian passport) .
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