Dual Citizenship
 

Hi All,

I hold both British and Canadian passports. I will be travelling YOW-IAD-LHR and back. Can I use 2 passports on my journey? For example, YOW-IAD I would preclear in YOW and want to use my Canadian passport. IAD-LHR. Once I reach LHR i would clear British customs and want to use my British Passport. On the way back - use my Canadian passport in IAD and Canadian passport in Canada. Will this work? I just want to use the fast line at LHR with my British Passport.

Thanks,

W

A simple search will give you several threads on this very topic.

Short answer - yes you can use both. You simply need to be sure to enter the country of citizenship with that country's passport. i.e. enter Canada on Canadian and UK on British. You'll be fine

But - remember the search function is your friend

I wish I had dual citizenship too...

I have Australian and Italian

You'll be fine. I'm dual US/Spanish and I use the Spanish passport to enter any EU country/territory.

My husband and daughter have dual citizenship and do this all the time...

There is no requirement in the UK to enter on your British passport.

Perhaps not, but if you enter as a Canadian, you'll be a "tourist" in your own country and subject to length of stay restrictions etc. Why risk the hassle?

If the immigration folks in the destination country don't see an exit stamp in the passport you present to them, will they get suspicious and ask more questions? Will they assume you are a freedom-hating turrist and detain and interrogate you? Or will they just scold you?

My son has dual citizenship and we are going to take him on his first overseas trip in a few months, so I am wondering about US CBP's reaction if he presents a US passport on arrival that doesn't have an exit stamp from Japan.

I'm dual US & Polish. To be honest, I've done this numerous times and I've never had trouble with this--including travel to Brazil (where I used my Polish passport to avoid the visa hassles). I should have had a Brazilian visa in my US passport upon returning from there--but the US passport control folk have never so much as looked past my photo page.

I don't think you're technically doing anything illegal. While the US may not recognize your 2nd citizenship, I don't think there's anything that prevents you from using a foreign passport to enter foreign countries. As long as you're not doing anything that breaks US law (ie traveling to Cuba...for now at least :-D )...you should be just fine.

It's not just that you're not technically doing anything illegal, you're not doing anything illegal.

To be honest, I have never heard of anyone having problems with missing stamps because they legitimately hold, and use, two passports. I'm not saying it has never happened, but it is clearly not a major issue. Indeed, not all countries stamp passports anyway (even of foreign visitors), or stamp only on entry, or stamp erratically, so any attempt to trace a passport holder's travels using the stamps in the passport is likely to be unsuccessful anyway.

The people that run into problems with this are the people who do not hold one of the passports legitimately (e.g. because the country in question does not allow its citizens to hold a second nationality).

As noted above, British citizens are not in fact required to enter the UK using a British passport, as long as the documentation that they present is adequate for the purpose of the trip. Many other countries take this approach (e.g. Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, France), and many do not (e.g. the USA, Australia, South Africa). Those that do not are typically very strict about it, insisting that their citizens use the country's passport to enter and leave the country, whatever (legitimately held) passport they may choose to use elsewhere.

I'm dual US/UK and the US CBP agents have never, ever once looked through my US passport to see if I have any exit/entry stamps. I don't really think they care. I always put "United Kingdom" as my country of residence and no-one even looks twice.

For what it's worth, it's not the concern of the US CBP agents which other countries' nationalities you possess. Their legal remit is to ensure that you are a US citizen entering on a US passport, and that's where it ends. They might ask you certain questions about where you've been to determine if you're breaking the law, but being a dual national and entering other sovereign nations on other passports is, simply put, none of their business.

Agree with the above, often travel through dxb using the egate card so no exit stamps on my UK passport never once been asked by UK Immigration why this was the case...

I've passed through UK immigration a few hundred times (most recently about three hours ago) and have never had any agent do anything but make sure that the picture matches my face.

I think the OP will be fine.

Thanks for the replies all. Next time I will make better use of the search function.

Regards,

Wayne