Question for dual citizens: passport

[NetWareHead]

I have a dual nationality (Italy & USA) and can travel with either passport of my choosing. I usually use my US passport to travel and have experienced the long lines when going through customs of a foreign nation and needing to fill out visa documents. I am going to Europe soon and thought that I could use my Italian passport to enter and avoid that whole process.

When I return to US, Id like to use my USA passport. It wouldnt make sense to use my Italian passport to return home and fill out a visa for a country I have citizenship in. However, passports are stamped when you enter each country and wondering what will happen when the stamps will be on two different passports. Any ideas?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I have a dual nationality (Italy & USA) and can travel with either passport of my choosing. I usually use my US passport to travel and have experienced the long lines when going through customs of a foreign nation and needing to fill out visa documents. I am going to Europe soon and thought that I could use my Italian passport to enter and avoid that whole process.

When I return to US, Id like to use my USA passport. It wouldnt make sense to use my Italian passport to return home and fill out a visa for a country I have citizenship in. However, passports are stamped when you enter each country and wondering what will happen when the stamps will be on two different passports. Any ideas?

Given the current state of affairs, I'd assume a full body cavity search, and possibly a tasing for being brash enough to assume you'd be allowed in.

 

[purbeast0]

I have no clue about the dual citizen ship stuff, but I would think this could bring trouble. When you leave the country they scan your passport and have a record of you leaving as the person on that passport. When you arrive back to the country, they scan it again so they know you are back in the country.

If you leave with one passport, and return with another passport, there will be no matching exit/entry for the passports. Again, I know nothing about this, but that just seems like it could be bad and look kind of fishy.

 

[SKORPI0]

http://www.stylehiclub.com/cruising-flying/step-step-guide-to-traveling-with-two-passports/

 

[sdifox]

Exit usa with american passport, enfer italy with italy passport. Exit italy with italian passport and enter usa with american passport.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Exit usa with american passport, enfer italy with italy passport. Exit italy with italian passport and enter usa with american passport.

Might raise a flag if his passport doesn't have an entry stamp from his last visit. Might look suspiciously like he's hiding where he went.

 

[OutHouse]

sign up for Global Entry with DHS and you will be golden

 

[OutHouse]

Exit usa with american passport, enfer italy with italy passport. Exit italy with italian passport and enter usa with american passport.

since they are scanned, wont doing that get you flagged?

 

[sdifox]

since they are scanned, wont doing that get you flagged?

I do this whenever I go to Taiwan :shrug:

 

[sdifox]

Might raise a flag if his passport doesn't have an entry stamp from his last visit. Might look suspiciously like he's hiding where he went.

Show thm the italian passport as well if you are concerned.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Show thm the italian passport as well if you are concerned.

And now you're internationally travelling with multiple passports. Time for that cavity search, terrorist!

 

[sdifox]

And now you're internationally travelling with multiple passports. Time for that cavity search, terrorist!

Been doing it for like twenty years. Mind you I am not American so your mileage might vary.

 

[andy2000]

I have dual US UK citizenship, and I've never had a problem. The only place I use my UK passport is when I enter the UK. When leaving the UK, I use my US passport because the airline is making sure I can enter the US before they let me board. I've never had any questions on entering the US.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Been doing it for like twenty years. Mind you I am not American so your mileage might vary.

That may be why.

The GF and I traveled this past holiday season. This was within the CONUS, mind you. The name on her ticket didn't match the name on her non-drivers ID (legal name change). Despite having the court order for the name change, the temporary ID issued by the DMV, and her passport, that got us both questioned and patted down.

 

[sdifox]

That may be why.

The GF and I traveled this past holiday season. This was within the CONUS, mind you. The name on her ticket didn't match the name on her non-drivers ID (legal name change). Despite having the court order for the name change, the temporary ID issued by the DMV, and her passport, that got us both questioned and patted down.

That is stupid.

 

[Mike64]

This is only vicarious advice, but fwiw, a friend of my late mother's who's a dual Italian/American citizen (born and partly raised/has family/owns property there, speaks not just fluent but eloquent Italian, etc) is of the firm opinion that she gets treated better by "officialdom" in the ordinary course of visiting Italy traveling on her US passport (though never claiming not to be an Italian citizen or "hiding" her citizenship, of course). Maybe it'd be different for a man than a woman, but she's nobody's fool, so I wouldn't dismiss her experience, nor would I trade any in-country benefit for a little time on line at the airport.

But in terms of appearances at customs in either country, international travel by dual citizens is very common in these "globalized" days we live in, so I don't think that alone will raise any red flags as long as you have and readily hand over either/both passports when asked. If you were a dual citizen of a "Muslim country" or appeared to be/had a "Muslim" name, obviously all bets would be off, but I really don't think it's a big issue for everyone else...

The name on her ticket didn't match the name on her non-drivers ID (legal name change). Despite having the court order for the name change, the temporary ID issued by the DMV, and her passport, that got us both questioned and patted down.

Maybe that official was being a little hyper, but the name on a ticket not matching any official ID on the person (even if they have various documents which together with the ID "establish identity") is a totally different scenario than having two different but entirely recognizable "official forms of IDs" (presumably in the same name) that the person is legally entitled to have, and having both of which is not at all uncommon... And one could argue that official wasn't even being especially hyper given that typical court orders aren't exactly "difficult to forge" and she was ultimately allowed to to travel...

 

[AznAnarchy99]

That may be why.

The GF and I traveled this past holiday season. This was within the CONUS, mind you. The name on her ticket didn't match the name on her non-drivers ID (legal name change). Despite having the court order for the name change, the temporary ID issued by the DMV, and her passport, that got us both questioned and patted down.

Why show your ID at all if you had a passport matching the name?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Why show your ID at all if you had a passport matching the name?

Passport didn't match the name on the ticket, neither did, she had just gotten it done and the DMV hadn't sent the new ID yet (nor had we gotten a chance to send her passport for a namechange).

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Maybe that official was being a little hyper, but the name on a ticket not matching any official ID on the person (even if they have various documents which together with the ID "establish identity") is a totally different scenario than having two different but entirely recognizable "official forms of IDs" (presumably in the same name) that the person is legally entitled to have, and having both of which is not at all uncommon... And one could argue that official wasn't even being especially hyper given that typical court orders aren't exactly "difficult to forge" and she was ultimately allowed to to travel...

Fair enough, not the same thing, but the court order wasn't a copy, it was stamped. The fact that they even require such extensive hoops to jump through in order to board an aircraft at all is astounding. Takes less paperwork to ruin a life than it does to get through airport security.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Passport didn't match the name on the ticket, neither did, she had just gotten it done and the DMV hadn't sent the new ID yet (nor had we gotten a chance to send her passport for a namechange).

Ah k. Read it wrong. Yeah name differences in airports are a weird thing. They're super strict on it. I had a friend who had to go to the federal building in LA to get a same day passport cause she didn't want to risk it.

 

[MrSquished]

I have dual US UK citizenship, and I've never had a problem. The only place I use my UK passport is when I enter the UK. When leaving the UK, I use my US passport because the airline is making sure I can enter the US before they let me board. I've never had any questions on entering the US.

Are you using your UK passport to get into the UK on a flight directly from the US after leaving the US with your American pasport?

 

[deadlyapp]

I have many friends with dual citizenship and they do the same thing as other posters have said. When you fly and enter the other country you use whichever is the preferred passport, when you return you use the preferred passport to exit the country (customs) but use the US passport for flying and re-entering the US. No issues with doing this.

 

[himkhan]

I have many friends with dual citizenship and they do the same thing as other posters have said. When you fly and enter the other country you use whichever is the preferred passport, when you return you use the preferred passport to exit the country (customs) but use the US passport for flying and re-entering the US. No issues with doing this.

I has dual citizenship and do this.

 

[Mike64]

Fair enough, not the same thing, but the court order wasn't a copy, it was stamped. The fact that they even require such extensive hoops to jump through in order to board an aircraft at all is astounding. Takes less paperwork to ruin a life than it does to get through airport security.

I deal with court orders regularly and frankly, in any "immediate" sense, even the ones with pretty seals and little ribbons (rare, but they exist) are really barely worth the paper they're printed on as far as "proving" anything in an "immediate" sense. The basic problem is that there's no formal standard for the hundreds of different courts that issue them and there's no unified tracking system for them, so there's no easy way to determine their validity at any given moment outside the courthouse where they were issued. And any remotely professional forger can crank something out that would look just as superficially Official, quickly and easily. What "really" makes them useful/necessary for other legal purposes isn't what they prove facially, but their being part of a "chain of documentation", and the deterrent effect of the legal trouble one gets in for using a forged one. Which doesn't help when the concern is about someone maybe doing harm in the short term, like an hour later in a plane flying 30000 ft up in the air...

 

[Svnla]

Might raise a flag if his passport doesn't have an entry stamp from his last visit. Might look suspiciously like he's hiding where he went.

I had been to numerous countries and when I was back in the US, none of the border agents checked for the stamps from other countries that I visited. They only concerned about what I had with me and my luggages content.

And for those that do not know, you HAVE TO take your luggages off the plane when your first landing location in the US and after you checked in with BCP, you have to check your luggages again to your final destination.