I recently got my Swedish citizenship, and I’m heading back to the US (also a citizen there) for about a month. Which passport should I use going into the US and then coming back to Sweden?
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Use one to enter and the other to leave.
Some replies are legally or procedural wrong. I enter one of my country of origin with that passport or a foreign one, which is attached to my nationality (so they know I don’t overstay).
Some countries constitutionally cannot refuse you entry if you enter with a different passport because you have a right to be there (e.g. UK).
SPECIFIC TO THE US - US Nationals MUST enter and leave the US on a US travel document (unless there is some kind of humanitarian crisis or what not)
By law U.S. citizens must enter and depart the United States using U.S. passports, even if they hold a passport from another country.
Even on a foreign passport I am not overstaying if I stay beyond a tourist stay date. This is because I am a citizen and it is allowed in law (I must carry my ID card as a citizen) and the laws don’t prevent me doing this.
This is true. It is not possible to “overstay” or otherwise violate immigration restrictions in a country where you’re a citizen, because those rules do not apply to citizens.
That said, this can still cause you trouble. For example, if you enter the country on a foreign passport, your name will typically be entered in a database of visitors and whatever departure date they give you will also be entered in that database. This is incorrect as you’re a citizen, but if you give them a foreign passport, how will they know?
Once that departure date hits and no departure is registered under that name and passport number, it’ll be flagged as an overstay. Which can lead to consequences such as being stopped on departure when you DO try to leave (from a country that has exit controls) or having to manually correct the database if they encounter you in some other context (say, traffic sobriety checkpoint, to pick a random example.)
These logistical problems tend to be worse in countries that don’t have a central registry of citizens and/or residents, and avoiding these kinds of scenarios is why it’s best to enter and depart countries of which you’re a citizen on that country’s passport. And why you want to use the same passport on arrival and departure in each country you enter.
There’s a law that if you have US citizenship, you have to use your U.S. passport to enter and leave the U.S., and you have to live as a citizen while in the U.S.
There’s a law that if you have US citizenship, you have to use your U.S. passport to enter and leave the U.S., and you have to live as a citizen while in the U.S.
I don’t think there is a law worded quite in that way, but the US does not recognize dual-USA+other citizenship individuals any differently than they do people who only hold USA citizenship. To enter the country you need to show you have permission to enter the country, and failing to show your USA passport can make them pissey. As a USA citizen, you cannot be denied entry to the country, but if you do not jump through the hoops they want you to, they can certainly make the entry take a very long time and be very unpleasant. Probably if you mistakenly hand them the wrong passport there will be no problem if you politely correct the error.
I understand that it IS illegal to have multiple USA passports at the same time, and I have encountered boarder agents who mistakenly have through that having passports from two separate countries is a problem - hopefully this gets cleared up quickly when they confer with their superiors, but it is much simpler if the issue never comes up. Possibly with better data integration between places, this is no longer an issue.
It’s not illegal to have multiple US passports. US government officials will often have both an official and regular passport, for example. You may have multiple regular passports if you need to travel and get visas frequently. This is all documented, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some border guard grunt doesn’t understand it.
I only made that mistake once! You will be denied boarding to the US if you are a citizen and do not have your US passport.
I enter the US with my US passport. I enter the EU with my EU passport.
Everywhere else, I choose the one that is easiest, visa free and non controversial. Middle east? I’m not an American, I’m. European!
Same happened to me. Denied visa on my British passport, got the visa on my Romanian one.
Here’s where some of the confusion comes from: The EU has a passport control when you leave the EU, and there I show my EU passport. I haven’t ever seen a similar passport control when leaving the US. When I check in for my flight from the EU to the US I use my US passport. When I check in for my flight from the US to the EU I use my EU passport.
Have been doing this for years and haven’t had a problem.
I want to add that you should always carry your US passport while exiting and entering the US. You could encounter problems if you do not. All US citizens are required to enter and exit using their US passport.
Use the passport of the country your in
At the airport counter with the airlines in Sweden, show your US passport. When you go through passport control before boarding, show your Swedish passport. When arriving in the US, show your US passport.