Having two passports is not so unusual.
First "no stamps from Israel", like mentioned before.
Next, a friend of mine, who travels really, really often, has two passports; while he is traveling to country X, one of his passports is sitting at the embassy of country Y waiting for a visa.

I work with someone who has 2 passports in 2 different names. Here is the deal -
She was born in Italy and is now a US citizen. That accounts for the 2 passports. The different names is because once she divorced she continued to use her married name. In the US that is the name on her passport. However, in Italy you cannot use your married name on a passport after divorce. Her passport from Italy now has her maiden name. We were just talking about this the other day and she mentioned that does cause problems when she travels home to Italy and all of her documentation except her passport shows her married name.

As for 2 different names, an unique situation exists (or existed until recently) in Canada. If you are a woman in Quebec, you cannot use your husband's name for legal purposes, only social. So contracts and whatever legal documents (presumably including passports) will be in your maiden name only. If, for the sake of argument, the woman is married to a foreign citizen and takes on his name and country of citizenship, she'll have a foreign passport in her married name and Canadian passport in her maiden name.

As for dual nationalities, my GF is a Canadian by birth but recently formally obtained Austrian citizenship and a passport by descent (perfectly legal for her but her parents have to forfeit their Austrian citizenship if they become naturalised citizens of Canada - this is an Austrian requirement). I actually have dual nationality but my country of birth won't accept my attempts to renounce citizenship.

A passport is acquired based on citizenship - some people who are so-called state-less may have a passport of a certain country without being a citizen of that country. Some countries allow dual citizenship to maintain unity of nationality within the family. Say the mom is from the USA and dad is Belgian - the children would have both so they don't have one parent who doesn't have a different citizenship. Mostly, the right to citizenship is almost always denfined in a consitution/laws independent of the laws of a different country.

I hold two passports, with same name, place and date of birth:

Brazilian - No lines in Brazil, no visa required for South America, "friendly" country (no wars, everybody likes our football);

Italian - No lines in EU, no visa required for Japan and US, cheaper visa for China, "respected" country (despite Don Berlusconi efforts).

Both countries recognize dual citizenship, I don't see why I should not take advantage of this.

In countries based upon English common law, anyone can call themselves by any name at any time, so long as no fraud is involved.

You do not need to go to court or anything. Your passport can be in this name or any name that you care to use, actually.

That is what the "aka" is used for. John Smith, aka John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith. Prince, aka The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. etc.

--richard, aka richard

I, for over 20 years, have two (identical) swiss passports - legally. Otherwise I could not have done business (selling licencies for non-alcoholi beers) at the same time with Saudi Arabia/Egypt/Iran and Irak on one side and with Israel (with the other passport).

Here are a couple of other threads that deal with this issue:

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/009275.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...ML/008596.html

I have two passports also. One from Canada, and the other one from Taiwan (birthplace)

Whenever I travel I use my Canadian one, because frankly, due to Mainland China's strongarmed diplomatic tactics, whenever a Taiwanese national needs to go to a foreign country, they need an entry visa. And entry visas can be bloody expensive.

I just went to Europe for a week. With my Canadian passport we can go almost anywere because at the last minute since most countries does not require Canadians to have a Visa. Had I used my Taiwanese passport, I would've had to make precise travel plans months in advance

[This message has been edited by ben1979 (edited 02-06-2003).]

I have two passports, UK and US, mostly I just use the UK one to skip long lines when I visit the UK.

I dont want to start too much of a debate about freedom and privacy here, but I think that is a pretty insidious statement, and I cant help but respond with my opinion...I, for one, consider it my right to move around, shop, bank, and carry on with my life without the government having explicit knowledge of the details. I value my privacy, and have little intention of giving it up to make you or anyone else feel safer. There are many smaller countries which would sell me citizenship and issue me a passport with either a variance of my name, or even a different name if I choose...and this would, in theory, allow me to "cavort around the world" in complete privacy without leaving a trail for the government or anyone else to monitor. We may live in a hostile world, but there's a price to pay for living in freedom, and I wont subscribe to any efforts by governments or citizens to further their efforts to keep track of everyone with special ID cards, bar-coded passports (I dont live in my native country, so I always renew my passport at the local consulate, where it is made by hand, without a bar-code, and therefore un-scannable), etc etc. If someone wants to carry multiple passports, or take whatever other actions they feel necessary to maintain their privacy or allow for more convenient, reduced-hassle travel, then more power to them.

My better half has two (different countries) passports with different last names (essentially a European variation and an American variation), but the difference is at the beginning of the last name so they alphabatize differently.

The two names can come in quite handy for offshore accounts, etc. Also, the separate passports makes for easier travel, visas, etc.

Both names and passports are legitimate, and I see no reason why anyone should be concerned with this. Either one or the other identity is tracked when that passport is used.

Related question: exactly which countries does the U.S. -- in actuality -- recognize dual citizenship? I say in actuality b/c the official party line is that the U.S. doesn't.

I know Britian is one. Israel???

You are right. The U.S. officially doesn't (or didn't) recoqnize multiple citizenships. Apparently there was a law forbidding U.S. citizens to have citizenships of other countries but that law was struck down by a Supreme Court decision. You were supposed to renounce all other citizenships in the pledge you make when taking out U.S. citizenship but that's not enforced any longer. Perhaps a legal scholar will more accurately state the situation.

(Great Topic. Great Discussion. Continue on now!) http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif