Dual citizen travel to Russia

[peejay 327]

It has been a while since I last posted in the Russian Forum.

My wife was born in Russia (Chita Region - Siberia), but took Belarusian citizenship when the USSR dissolved because that is where she was living at the time. She holds a valid Belarusian passport. She became a US citizen in the summer of 2008 and also holds a valid US passport.

Belarus and Russia have an agreement where they can travel to each other's countries without needing a visa. My wife traveled to Russia in March 2008 before she was a US citizen with her Green Card and Belarusian passport without any problem.

We plan to take a trip to Chita, Russia to visit my wife's relatives in May / June. Several questions have come up when my wife talks to other Russians / Belarusians that she knows here in Houston and also when she talked to some of the travel agents in our area that cater to the FSU community. I think they make it way more complicated than it really is and they have confused my wife (and me).

Here are the questions:

1) When she boards the airplane in Houston going to Moscow she shows the airline her Belarusian passport (same as last year). This should be enough to get her on the airplane and into Russia (same as last year). The question she has is how she comes back to the USA with a US passport (instead of the US Green Card she had last year). Last year she showed them her Belarusian passport and the US Green Card in Moscow and had no problem boarding the airplane back to the USA. What does she have to show to get on the airplane in Moscow to return to the USA with a US passport? Does she also have to also show them her Belarusian passport to show them how she got into Russia without a visa? Ditto for the registration and medical insurance required by US citizens? If she shows them only her US passport won't they ask her how she got into Russia without the visa required of US citizens and to show registration / medical insurance? What is the proceedure to travel to / from Russia with dual citizenship and two passports?

2) There is also a question about her two passports. Her Belarusian passport is in her Russian maiden surname. Her US passport is in her married (my) surname. In what name should she buy her tickets? One travel agent suggested she buy tickets in her married name and that she should bring our marriage certificate with us when we travel. Another travel agent suggested that we buy tickets hyphenated with both surnames listed.

We're so confused. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

[slim 1,514]

Married name for tickets with copy of marriage cert.

Exactly how you described sounded good for me. She's Belarusian on the way there, American on the way back. Pretty simple, really. If anyone gives any grief, slam fist down on the desk, yell at them and say, "My wife's an American." (They love it when you yell in English, and everyone loves it when you pull the "I'm an American card.")

Seriously though, yell at them in Russian and you shouldn't have a problem. "She is a from a Belarus. She is citizen from country whis no visa. What's problem? You stupid or what? We not will be wait for stupid people in aeroport. We will be go home NOW! I can't believe how people so stupid in aeroport." Yep, you'll be on the plane in 20 seconds. Russian style. Normalna.

[peejay 327]

Married name for tickets with copy of marriage cert.

Exactly how you described sounded good for me. She's Belarusian on the way there, American on the way back. Pretty simple, really. If anyone gives any grief, slam fist down on the desk, yell at them and say, "My wife's an American." (They love it when you yell in English, and everyone loves it when you pull the "I'm an American card.")

Seriously though, yell at them in Russian and you shouldn't have a problem. "She is a from a Belarus. She is citizen from country whis no visa. What's problem? You stupid or what? We not will be wait for stupid people in aeroport. We will be go home NOW! I can't believe how people so stupid in aeroport." Yep, you'll be on the plane in 20 seconds. Russian style. Normalna.

I dunno...do you have any personal experience using this technique with Russian border militia at the airport?

My co-worker related a similar incident he observed on a trip to Moscow in 2004. He is standing in line after getting off the airplane waiting to go through Russian customs. There is some drunk American guy behind him with a video camera filming the scene there at the airport. A female Russian border militia gestures to him to stop filming, but numbnuts ignores her and contintinues filming. She walks up to him and gestures for him to stop filming again, but he ignores her again. She leaves and comes back with "the guys". They also gesture for this idiot to stop filming, but he is so far gone that he ignores them too. So they draw their batons and proceed to show him some Russian hospitality. This fool tasted some wood. They wrestled the camera from him and confiscated his tape. Miraculously they then let him go after they confiscated the tape. My buddy saw this all go down from 5 feet away. It certainly made a lasting impression on him.

I dunno...it don't appear that Russian border militia is very intimidated by Americanski. It kind of looks that way to me. Maybe I'm just mistaken? I'm sure the clincher would have been if this guy would have cursed them loudly and demanded to get his tape back. Do you think he would have gotten another taste of wood? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

Anyway, not everyone is an important person with important friends and important places to go. Thanks, but no thanks for the advice. I dunno...have you ever spit in the face of Russian border militia as an added effect when trying to get your point across to them on your many trips to Russia? Give it a try and get back to me. I can always use some more travel tips to Russia.

[eekee 182]

OK, take a deep breath.

She goes through the "getting your passport stamped" process with her Belarusian passport. They don't care about where she is going next. Then she shows her American passport to get on the airplane to America. They don't care about how she got into Russia; she's past customs and is leaving. It's all legal; they don't want to waste time with pestering questions like US Customs people.

Edited April 12, 2009 by eekee

[peejay 327]

OK, take a deep breath.

She goes through the "getting your passport stamped" process with her Belarusian passport. They don't care about where she is going next. Then she shows her American passport to get on the airplane to America. They don't care about how she got into Russia; she's past customs and is leaving. It's all legal; they don't want to waste time with pestering questions like US Customs people.

Thanks for the reply.

I don't know about this stuff and neither does my wife. We don't travel often and this is the first trip since she got her US citizenship. My wife goes to a russian women's group meeting once a month and she asked the women how she should travel with two passports. Unfortunately she ended up with a lot of conflicting answers and scary scenarios. It seems all these women had a different opinion. None had actually flown with dual passports. Some had let their Russian passports expire and get Russian visas in their US passports when they go back home.

At this point she is worrying about what surname to buy the tickets in. I told her to just choose one and we will work it out as it plays out. We'll bring our marriage certificate along in case somebody questions the different names on the passports.

At this point I don't think there is a wrong way to do this, just several different ways to do it. One way costs money to buy a visa and the other does not. I'm not worried about cost...we just don't want any problems or hassles.

[eekee 182]

Huh? They're Russian citizens who got Russian visas? Seems absurd. I'm not even sure how the consulate would let that one fly--perhaps they assumed that they had given up their Russian citizenship? I think that being a Russian citizen and getting a visa for Russia as a US citizen would cause more problems down the road...

If you're really worried, you could always talk to the Russian consulate.

Edited April 13, 2009 by eekee

[peejay 327]

Huh? They're Russian citizens who got Russian visas? Seems absurd. I'm not even sure how the consulate would let that one fly--perhaps they assumed that they had given up their Russian citizenship? I think that being a Russian citizen and getting a visa for Russia as a US citizen would cause more problems down the road...

If you're really worried, you could always talk to the Russian consulate.

I know it sounds absurd from an American viewpoint, but the bueaucratic roadblocks to renewing Belarusian passports from inside the USA can be rather tortured. It isn't easy in Belarus either if you no longer have a residence there. I have heard it can be just as daunting for Russians too if they no longer have a residence in which to be registered to for propiska. People tend to forget that in the USA we don't have the equivalent to the Russian or Belarusian propiska. Renewing a US passport is relatively easy in comparison for that reason.

My wife actually made a trip back to Belarus in March 2008 specifically to renew her passport because doing it from the USA was not very desirable because of this propiska problem. It wasn't very easy for her to renew it in Belarus either, but she managed to somehow get it done.

No wonder many let their passports lapse and just travel on their US passports after they became US citizens. And they end up having to get a visa even though they are citizens of Russia or Belarus because they no longer have Russian or Belarusian passports anymore. It sounds absurd, but that is how it turns out for many. I don't personally know a lot about this phenomenon, but I have heard my wife talk about it.

[bobb 0]

OK, take a deep breath.

They don't care about how she got into Russia; she's past customs and is leaving. It's all legal; they don't want to waste time with pestering questions like US Customs people.

First, I am not any kind of knowledgeable person for this question. I do have a question for the above post. When you leave Russia with a U.S. passport you don't have to show them you were registered? I honestly can't remember from my two trips.

I have read here and on another forum that buying the tickets in your married name and carrying a copy of your marriage certificate is a very common method.

[bobb 0]

In addition, they stamped the exit stamp on my Russian Visa both times. Won't they be looking for a Russian Visa in a U.S. passport?

[eekee 182]

In addition, they stamped the exit stamp on my Russian Visa both times. Won't they be looking for a Russian Visa in a U.S. passport?

No, I am saying that peejay's wife should enter and leave Russia with her Belarusian passport, and then reenter America with her American one.

As far as needing registration to exit the country, they've never looked at mine when I've left and just handed it back to me when I've tried to give it to them, and whoever registered you is technically supposed to send in the original copy of the registration once you've left. If my old employer were to get a new invitation for me, they would need my old registration to start that process. But I also have heard of people who have been hassled for not having it, so it's a good idea to have a copy of it even if you're sending the original back, just in case.

As far as registrations go, I'm not sure if peejay's wife has to register at all, as a Belarusian citizen, since the migrations cards are for Russia AND Belarus. Since there's visa-free, invitation-free travel, I would think that probably you only need to register if you're living somewhere, just like a Russian citizen needs to register wherever they live.

And peejay, it does makes more sense that it was Belarusian women getting Russian visas.

Edited April 14, 2009 by eekee

[peejay 327]

In addition, they stamped the exit stamp on my Russian Visa both times. Won't they be looking for a Russian Visa in a U.S. passport?

No, I am saying that peejay's wife should enter and leave Russia with her Belarusian passport, and then reenter America with her American one.

As far as needing registration to exit the country, they've never looked at mine when I've left and just handed it back to me when I've tried to give it to them, and whoever registered you is technically supposed to send in the original copy of the registration once you've left. If my old employer were to get a new invitation for me, they would need my old registration to start that process. But I also have heard of people who have been hassled for not having it, so it's a good idea to have a copy of it even if you're sending the original back, just in case.

As far as registrations go, I'm not sure if peejay's wife has to register at all, as a Belarusian citizen, since the migrations cards are for Russia AND Belarus. Since there's visa-free, invitation-free travel, I would think that probably you only need to register if you're living somewhere, just like a Russian citizen needs to register wherever they live.

And peejay, it does makes more sense that it was Belarusian women getting Russian visas.

Entering and leaving with a Belarusian visa does simplify everything as long as the Russian customs doesn't question how she can leave without a US visa, green card, or passport. Most likely they could care less. In any event, she will have her US passport as backup. Along with a ticket back to the USA, why would they want to stop her? She does not have to register with her Belarusian citizenship. I do have to get a visa and register because I only have US citizenship.

I do know that the airlines do care. They are liable if they transport someone somewhere they are not authorized to enter. The airlines won't let you on the airplane unless all your passports, visas, etc. are in order. But that is all they care about. They could care less about registrations or anything else.

Anyway, I think some of my wife's friends have convinced her that it is a lot more complicated than it really is. The travel agent that is doing my Russian tourist visa has explained to my wife that she has nothing to worry about.

In any event, we have already bought tickets from Houston to Moscow and from Moscow to Ulan Ude. We will return back to Houston on the same route. From Ulan Ude we will make our way to Chita and back to Ulan Ude via her relative's cars or by train.

Thanks to everyone for advice.

[chili74 0]

Peejay- look forward to a report of how this trip goes; I'm sure all will be well. I just have one thing to add, which has nothing to do with your situation but refers to the experiences of some people you mentioned. "No wonder many let their passports lapse and just travel on their US passports after they became US citizens. And they end up having to get a visa even though they are citizens of Russia or Belarus because they no longer have Russian or Belarusian passports anymore. It sounds absurd, but that is how it turns out for many. I don't personally know a lot about this phenomenon, but I have heard my wife talk about it."

According to our research, a Russian citizen who has not made a formal request to renounce Russian citizenship and pay $550) (and that request can be denied) will NOT BE GRANTED A RUSSIAN VISA to travel to Russia with a US passport, much as he may want one. Therefore, he must either formally renounce R citizenship or keep his Russian external passport current in order to travel to Russia. It sounds like this was more difficult for your wife than it was for my husband (he successfully renewed R passport here through the consul) (I started a whole thread about this and propiska and ПМЖ a while back).

PS Husband has not been back so we are eager to hear how it went.

Edited April 14, 2009 by chili74

[chili74 0]

To clarify I meant to say this rule seems to be a relatively new one.

[slim 1,514]

My wife goes to a russian women's group meeting once a month and she asked the women how she should travel with two passports. Unfortunately she ended up with a lot of conflicting answers and scary scenarios. It seems all these women had a different opinion. None had actually flown with dual passports.

Well there's your problem!

It's like all the horror stories you hear here on VJ.... except they never happened to anyone who actually went through the process, they were from someone who heard a story about someone who....

Stick to your plan. Pick one, and go with it.

No, I am saying that peejay's wife should enter and leave Russia with her Belarusian passport, and then reenter America with her American one.

[Danno 1,228]

You know, I had all these AIRPORT NIGHTMARE stories in mind when we changed my wifes name (after marriage).

My great idea was to put her Russian last-name as her middle name and my last name of course as her last name.

This worked great everywhere but when we went for her AOS interview. They said her prior last name could not be used as a middle name.

Instead she could use her fathers firstname as in her RU passport.

Now her SSN had to be changed and her Drivers License changed to match the greencard.