I mean, is it any different traveling abroad as a dual citizen between two nations (carrying both passports with you) or does it remain the same as traveling with only a single passport? Are there also complications of possessing two citizenships during times of crisis? (Like who takes charge when something occurs from war, natrual disaster, kidnapping & ransom, etc.).
The idea of being a citizen of two countries sounds good but can come with caveats when you take into account of diplomatic reciprocity or foreign relations, whether both countries are friends or enemies. Some countries forbid dual citizenship (like Japan or UAE) while there are countries that allow it (such as UK or USA).
You should enter and leave the country with the same passport (important if your country checks passports on exit), but you can switch it up en route. Generally if you need help with something in one of the countries of your nationality you go to that embassy, for example if a disaster hits and you need to be evacuated, whichever embassy would attempt at assisting you to get to that nation.
Off on a tangent, but:
I hear some Naturalized US citizens still attempting to use their Chinese passport to enter China…
China does not allow dual citzizenship… 👀
If they get on the CCP’s radar, they can’t get help from the US Embassy anymore since they entered with a Chinese passport…
We have several family friends who do this regularly. What helps is there are no direct flights to their destinations. They leave with their US passport, and if they have to exit the terminal, go through customs with their US passport.
When it’s time to board, they use their other passport. At the destination, they go through customs with their local passport and don’t have to stand in long lines.
The only situation I’ve heard of is if they stay in the other country and make money while there, those may incur US taxes as foreign earnings.
IIRC my dual citizen friend just uses his EU passport when entering the EU and his American passport when he travels back home. How would the customs person know what you are carrying?
Except most passports are electronic and countries share all of your movements. If you appear out of thin air at an EU border without leaving a country, it will raise suspicion.
“most passports are electronic” and “most passports checks are electronic” are two different things tho
As long as you enter or leave on the right passport you should be ok.
Most countries have laws that mean you must enter or leave on their passport or you can be punished for false identity papers.
Yup, the rules have just been changed in the UK and people are getting stuck abroad because they forgot their UK passport for the way back.
It’s so annoying, if I want to go to the UK again I need to get a UK passport because I am citizen by decent. While my wife can go on her native passport.
I am not a dual citizen, but know several. The benefit is that you have all the rights of a citizen in either country, the chief benefit is that you can stay in either country as long as you want to, and not worry about any visa limits.
The main drawback is that you are subject to all of the regulations in both countries, and if you get in some sort of legal trouble in one country, the other country can’t help you at all. (Of course, they may not have helped either way).
If you are a citizen of a country, you often must show that passport when entering. So these people frequently travel with both passports, and when going to a third country, use whichever one is most advantageous.
Dual citizen here, 2 European passports. A lot of counties do not recognise dual citizenship of their own citizen, so you get a warning that even if you legitimately hold another citizenship (which they can’t do nothing about), it is not recognised in any way. The other country, which does acknowledge dual citizenship, tells me that the passport I travel abroad with is the consular service I may call upon: it is expressly forbidden to seek assistance from 2 nations over one problem when abroad. That’s all the limits I see / experience.
it is expressly forbidden to seek assistance from 2 nations over one problem when abroad.
This is very interesting to me and I’d like to see who/where it says that.
Not doubting you, I’d just love to dig into the history of why that’s a rule.
Pretty much the same as travelling just with one, but with the knowledge that you utterly ruined the day of whomever you stole the 2nd passport from.
Double Barrelled Immunity
