What part of the "special relationship" affords either citizen/subject of each country some privileges or right not given to those outside of the two countries. Hint - nothing.
The special relationship does not exist in any form other than the imagination....

It doesn't have anything to do with being "high enough". You get a black passport as a member of the diplomatic corps, you get a red one as a non-diplomatic government employee. I carried a red one for many years as a DoD employee. We were required to carry it when traveling on USG business. I also always carried my blue one (hold over from an earlier time when you were encouraged to not produce a red passport if the the aircraft was taken over or any other hostage situation.)

If there is such a line I never found it on any of my trips to the UK. Just went through the same line as I would with the blue one.


We did get some expedited service on a visit to South Korea a while ago. And it used to be that flashing a red passport got you less scrutiny by customs when returning to the US, but that hasn't been true for some years now.

Some countries do have different visa requirements depending on whether you are on a red or blue passport. I am surprised someone mentioned that happened in Spain as I don't recall any visa requirements for either red or blue passports on visits to the EU for under 90 days. Maybe this happened before Spain joined the EU?

Even though I always carried both passports when on government business, I agree with the earlier post that you should always have the same one scanned when going through passport control.

You are quite wrong. There are numerous examples. As a government contractor in the U.S. I have been able to get UK citizens (vendors who are working on my company's equipment) onboard U.S. military installations. They are the only foreign citizens who have been allowed. Those not allowed include people from other NATO countries. Intelligence sharing between the two countries is also unique (at least for the U.S.); even Canada and Australia do not have as close a relationship (though those are very close as well). There are many other examples. The special relationship is far from imaginary.

Hint: Try to be well informed if you're going to make absolute pronouncements.

See this older thread for some discussion as to the differences between red and blue passports

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-business.html

Cultural attaches are accredited diplomats ("Public Affairs Officers"), are on the diplomatic lists and therefore have diplomatic passports and diplomatic immunity in the country to which they are accredited. Public Affairs Officers have the same security level as any other U.S. diplomat and they all commonly switch back and forth between political, economic, administrative, consular and public affairs specialties - with appropriate trainig. Some countries still separate diplomatic and consular officers and do not afford consuls diplomatic immunity, however. It all comes down to the agreement between the two countries.

Generally this is true, but the State Dept. requires its diplomats to use their diplomatic passports when traveling to certain countries, even if on personal travel. At least this was the case before the Berlin Wall fell. My information is not up-to-date, but it might still apply to China.

Okay, I admit that I was using the term "cultural attachés" in jest. We all know that being a cultural attaché is the customary cover for being something else.... or maybe I just watch too many spy movies.

South Korea giving expedited services wouldn't surprise me. With the exception of The existence of an Army Garrison in Seoul, they seem to love our presence there.

I'm equally surprised about Spain, being a Schengen country you should be able to get in with any passport without a visa.

Israel is a pretty good example of a country that requires a visa for an official passport (and their consulate is sloooooooow to grant them!)

Hmmmm ;)

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You're welcome.
I'm a bit worried about "US government business" will be conducted by whom officially not knowing where to go at LHR with an "offical red passport" along with an "unofficial" blue passport or so implied...

A group of us (DoD employees) traveled to South Korea for a technical exchnge conference with their military. We were met as we came off the plane and escorted through immigration and customs. Yes, they seemed very pleased that we were there.

You're right about Israel. My one trip there was actually arranged by DoS, who also did the country clearance, and they told me to use my blue passport because it would greatly reduce the paperwork and for OPSEC.

I would hope that that gets you invited to the "fast track" line. But, it might just mean that you get more questions.

Say you have a special skill making widgets and the US government wants to hire your widget making skills on the behalf of the US government for something the UK (I dunno, maybe that widget has something important to do with making US-UK relations better or something).

In either case, since you are there on the behalf of the US government needing your widget skills, you are going to have to enter the UK on an "official passport" instead of a normal one. Basically it tells you that you are a contracted civilian working on behalf of US government business. A little bit different from a diplomatic passport because those are issued to diplomats (and their spouses and children) who already work for the US government traveling on US government business.

Simply stated:

Normal US blue passport: Any American traveler on non-government business
Red US official passport: An American civilian traveling on the behalf of the US government
Green US diplomatic passport: An American government worker traveling on the behalf of the US government

To have a US passport of the official type (distinct from ordinary or diplomatic type US passports), a person need not be a US Government (or government contractor) employee, but employees of the US Government are the biggest proportion of holders of such passports.

The OP shouldn't have any general problem of using the regular passport control lines when having a travel companion on an ordinary US passport. It is quite normal for many people in my family and friends circle.

I think it also has to do with purpose as well.

For example, if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were to visit Japan on government business, then she would enter Japan on her official (or would it be diplomatic because she is the top US diplomat?) passport.

However, if she and Bill were to say go skiing in Nagano for their wedding anniversary or so and the trip to Japan were entirely personal, they would enter Japan presenting their own personal passports.