Dual Citizenship - Two Passports

I researched this a bit on the internet and found the following tid bit that seems to imply that there is no one answer that covers it all... it depends on the country you are visiting:

"Accordingly, anyone who is planning to travel to an ancestral homeland -- even for a brief vacation trip -- would be strongly advised to check that country's citizenship laws carefully beforehand. Otherwise, the trip could run into unpleasant snags if you discover, say, that Country X considers you to be one of its citizens because your father (or even your grandfather!) came from Country X -- and that, as a result, you need a passport issued by Country X in order to leave -- and in any event you can't leave until you have put in a year's worth of military service in Country X's army -- and when consular officials of the only country where you thought you were a citizen try to intervene in your behalf, they are told to get lost because your case is strictly an internal matter between Country X and one of its own citizens (i.e., you)!"

This quote is thanks to http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

quote:

Originally posted by trekker:
leave country on ???? passport
-if I leave on the US passport they want to know where my entry stamps are
-if I leave on the South African passport they want to know where my US visa / greencard is

Trekker

Leave on the SA passport if you're getting a SA official stamp.

When you get officially stamped out of a country the border guard couldn't care less whether you have the necessary visa to get into the next country. I think however you're talking about which passport do you hand to the airline when boarding, in which case you give them the American one. They couldn't care less if you got stamped out of the country... they just want to make sure they don't have to fly you back for free.

I'm trying to remember if I've ever been stamped out of a country when flying. I'm not sure it's ever occured.

While I agree in theory that you could safely show your US passport leaving the US and show your Irish passport upon arrival, I wonder how this is affected by the fact that passenger peronal info is freely exchanged between the US and Europe, particularly when you are flying TO the US.

Its maybe not a problem for you since you are a dual citizen, but I know someone who has two passports, one of which in theory had to be surrended when that person took citizenship of the second country (but the authorities of that country did not demand the American passport be turned in.

quote:

Originally posted by chanol:
I know someone who has two passports, one of which in theory had to be surrended when that person took citizenship of the second country (but the authorities of that country did not demand the American passport be turned in.

That rule varies country to country though, some countries allow it and some don't.

why don't you show the custom officials both passports to see what happents. let's say for example , that you've been living in usa for more than x years and your irish pass has expired. that means that you cannot enter in ireland without paying a visit at the irish consulate?

btw,starting from tomorrow, i don't need a passport to travel to france . that's great !

Hey Pat, yes I've done this and there are no problems at all. The first time I did the trip I thought US immigration would question the lack of stamps in my passport but no one noticed and if they had I would just show them my Irish passport. The Irish officials couldn't care less about any of it so don't worry about them.

Generally, show your Irish passport to the European officials and your US passport to all American officials and there won't be a problem.

One thing to keep in mind though is that the airlines are supposed to review the immigration rules before they check you in and if you have a round trip ticket to Ireland that shows you overstaying the legal time for an American visitor to Ireland, they may question your ticket. If that happens, show them your Irish passport so they know you're legally allowed to stay there.

Have fun in Ireland and enjoy breezing through the EU immigration queues.

Thank you everyone for your input. It sure has been helpful to me to read the kind of dialogue generated by the original question. Thank you so much for the feedback.

Pat

Pat, I've both Irish and US passports and travel regularly back and forth.

Think of it like this: to each sovereign country you are their own citizen and they need to see proof that you belong there.

Here's a fun thought: if you committed a crime in Ireland, you'd be tried as an Irishman. In the states, as a US citizen. You couldn't run to the US embassy to hide from Irish authorities in Ireland any more than you could run to the Irish embassy to hide from US authorities in the states.

So, in Ireland you're Irish (use your Irish passport) in the states, you're a US citizen (use your US passport).