Sorry if this is the wrong forum, cant find a better place to post.

Anyways my wife is a dual citizen (UK & Russian) she wants to travel to Russia from the US however is saying that on showing her Russian passport in the US they will wonder how/why she doesnt have a USA Visa and thus cause problems... is this true?

Will we need to get her a Russian Visa in her UK passport then?

OR

Can she travel to the US on her UK passport, once at the airport in the US then show her Russian passport which makes her valid to travel to Russia?

I should also mention she has a residence permit for the UK in her Russian passport which she believes will cause the issues as the point of origin was the US not the UK.

I would think so. US Immigration will want to see her UK passport (with ESTA I presume), and the airline flying her onward to Russia will only want to see that she has valid documentation for Russia, so show them her Russian passport.

Or do you mean you anticipate issues on arrival in Russia? All they should want to see is her Russian passport. Does Russian Immigration care about whether she was legally in the USA or not? If so, do they care that she has dual citizenship? In the past I know they didn't like that .. don't know about now. I'm pretty sure that what they would REALLY not like is a Russian citizen attempting to enter on a UK passport when they hold a Russian one.

The best forum advice on this usually comes from a poster called "everbrite" on the Lonely Planet Russia branch.

Neither the UK nor Russia has a problem with citizens holding other nationalities or carrying other passports that they are entitled to have.

Obviously there is no difficulty with her travelling to the US on her British passport.

The issue arises when she checks in to fly from the US to Russia (which I think is what the itinerary is). Since (as far as I know), "emigration checks" from the US are carried out de facto by the carrying airline, she might need to show them both passports at check in, lest she might have trouble re-entering the US in the future using her UK passport (on the basis that, if she shows the airline only her Russian passport, she might be counted as not having left the US). It would be interesting to hear of anyone who has dealt this issue (not necessarily involving UK and Russian passports, but any two passports where US entry and next-country entry are going to be by different passports).

The Russian authorities, on her arrival in Russia, are not going to be interested in her immigration status in the US, so she can just show her Russian passport there.

Check in with the US airline using the same passport on departure from the US as used on arrival to the US, in order to keep it simple. When/if the airline asks about the Russian visa, then mention the Russian passport and show it.

The US emigration checks are de facto conducted by the US Government using the info supplied by the airlines.

Well, I think in fact they're conducted de jure by the US government. Anyway, the point is that the point of interaction between the traveller and the US government is the airline, generally at check-in (or, if not) when boarding the plane.

The determinations for US emigration control purposes are made by the US government, relying largely upon the information collected and transmitted, under law, by the airlines to the government. The airlines have no highly reliable way to know what the US lawful presence status is of even an ordinary foreigner, admitted or not by the USG at a US POE, independent of the USG doing the checks. De facto and de jure, the emigration control checks have been done by the government (not the airline); the checks are mostly electronic, but sometimes physically airside (e.g. at the gate) or even arguably sometimes physically done at the approach to the security screening checkpoint.

The point is that the OP's wife will be dealing with the airline when it comes to the exit passport check! She needs to remember that when checking in, since she won't be seeing anyone (in that capacity) from the "US government".

... re-validating this earlier post:

Interesting, should clear it up some, she will be living here in the US then take the flight to Russia, IAH to Moscow, (SVO I think) which is direct. She said in her experience Russia is very picky on these situations (anything for a quick buck she says) and wants to know the official rules if any on this type of situation.