Comments on: The reality behind dual nationalities and multiple passports

By: sue

sue — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:03:11 +0000

Hi….my partner has recently applied for British citizenship after living here for the past ten years. He originates from Lebanon and has now been told by the Lebanese Embassy that by applying for British citizenship he has given up the right to his Lebanese citizenship and have detained his passport….is this fair? He’s obviously devastated, is there anything that we can do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I can be contacted on sueengland2@msn.com

By: Alex Pierre-Traves

Alex Pierre-Traves — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:19:23 +0000

I have four passports and love it. I can live in Canada, the USA, UK and more. I mostly use my UK but the others are great for visa situations as someone said above – sometimes it’s cheaper to use one of my other passports or, like with Brazil, if I use my Trinidad passport I don’t need a visa at all. Oddly, life is no less simple entering the USA with a USA passport (but apparently I have to regardless). So far I haven’t had any problems carrying all of them but someday I suppose I may get strip-searched and have a hand up my anal cavity (bonus if he’s cute).

By: Danna

Danna — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:34:41 +0000

I have American and Israeli citizenship; I never thought my Israeli passport of all things would give me any special benefits, but after a recent trip to Brazil I learned that I could have bypassed the expensive & time consuming tourist visa process required of Americans by traveling as an Israeli! This applies for Russia as well and probably a bunch of other countries – going forward I will be sure to check.

By: richard

richard — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:25:00 +0000

While traveling with 2 passports can have real advantages in terms of where you are eligible to work, what countries you can visit, and applying for multiple visas at once, it can cause anxious moments too!

I traveled for 4 years in Africa, where many border officials are very suspicious of travelers with multiple passports. When crossing a land border from one country to another officials often ask to see the exit stamp from the last country, before stamping you in to theirs. Since passports aren’t as easy to conceal up your sleeve as poker cards, the need to play the ‘passport shuffle’ in these cases can be a little nerve-wracking. But I guess that just adds spice to the adventure!

By: Liv

Liv — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:32:34 +0000

I just got my Italian passport last year and am thrilled but a little scared to travel with it. I must do so when I begin graduate school in Europe this fall, but can’t help but fear that something will go wrong. We’ll see what happens once I get past customs! I really look forward to being able to live and work in Europe legally …

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 05:15:21 +0000

I love having two passports I’m Irish, but my dad is English; so I decided to apply for the British one! Having an Irish and a British passport has no advantage whatsoever for working etc. (since they are both EU)
BUT it has come in quite handy in other situations!! For example when I decided to go to India, I had to send my passport to the Indian embassy to get the visa. For most people, this would mean waiting the 3 weeks processing time and requiring to stay in one place. I actually travelled the entire time using my other passport
Another advantage is that I could theoretically stay in a country like Brazil as a tourist indefinitely. They have a 6 month limit per year (and you renew it after 3 months), so I could just leave Brazil as an Irish citizen and come back as a British one and vice versa every 6 months
Although since I barely consider myself at all English (only spent a month in England), I almost always use my Irish passport as the main one. It was also horribly complicated to get the British passport with so many layers of bureaucracy, despite my DAD being English. I almost gave up at one stage – I imagine they make it even more frustrating for non-EU nationals, or when it’s a grandparent instead. I hear other countries are more casual in the application process though.