Traveling to Philippines after US citizenship

[danlrob 6]

My wife just completed her oath ceremony amd is now a US Citizen.  She plans to travel to the Philippines in April.  Can she still use her filipino Passport to enter he Philippines.  We will complete the dial citizeship process, just don't know if it will be completed before she travels.

 

Thank you

[Liam2021 551]

23 minutes ago, danlrob said:

My wife just completed her oath ceremony amd is now a US Citizen.  She plans to travel to the Philippines in April.  Can she still use her filipino Passport to enter he Philippines.  We will complete the dial citizeship process, just don't know if it will be completed before she travels.

 

Thank you

Congratulation. Her Phil citizenship is a separate issue and it can be done later. The important issue right now is apply for  a US passport which can take up to 6 weeks(expedite) or 10-12 weeks for routine processing time.

[danlrob 6]

11 minutes ago, Liam2021 said:

Congratulation. Her Phil citizenship is a separate issue and it can be done later. The important issue right now is apply for  a US passport which can take up to 6 weeks(expedite) or 10-12 weeks for routine processing time.

I was not sure is the Philippines was notified of her naturalization.  Yes we already have an appoint ment to apply for the passport.

 

Thank you

[payxibka 10,044]

41 minutes ago, danlrob said:

My wife just completed her oath ceremony amd is now a US Citizen.  She plans to travel to the Philippines in April.  Can she still use her filipino Passport to enter he Philippines.  We will complete the dial citizeship process, just don't know if it will be completed before she travels.

 

Thank you

She cannot enter using her Philippines passport.   She enters as a former Filipino citizen,  which she proves by showing her Philippines passport along with the US passport 

[Talako 756]

As payxibka stated, she can't use it.

 

From the Houston Philippine Consulate, but it stated in many other places:

 

Quote

 

MY OLD PHILIPPINE PASSPORT IS STILL VALID. CAN I STILL USE IT?

No. Taking the US oath of allegiance effectively renounces all other citizenships. As a result, you temporarily lose Philippine citizenship. As a Philippine passport may only be issued to a Filipino citizen, you lose the right to possess a Philippine passport the moment Philippine citizenship has been lost upon taking the US oath of allegiance. Because of this, the old passport must be surrendered and cancelled, and a new one must be issued upon retaining or reacquiring Philippine citizenship under RA 9225.

 

 

[Hank_ 9,173]

14 hours ago, danlrob said:

My wife just completed her oath ceremony and is now a US Citizen.  She plans to travel to the Philippines in April.  Can she still use her filipino Passport to enter he Philippines.  We will complete the dial citizeship process, just don't know if it will be completed before she travels.

 

Thank you

 

No.   She is no longer a Philippine citizen thus her Philippine passport is void.   She needs to complete the re-affirmation process, then apply for a new Philippine passport.

 

 

[Tahoma 2,291]

On 2/23/2021 at 1:34 PM, payxibka said:

She cannot enter using her Philippines passport.   She enters as a former Filipino citizen,  which she proves by showing her Philippines passport along with the US passport 

There's no need for her to show her Philippines passport to prove she's a former Filipino citizen citizen because her U.S. passport shows her place of birth.  My wife and I have traveled to the Philippines numerous times, with my wife using only her U.S. passport, and I have always been granted the balikbayan privilege.

[ultrasoul 51]

On 2/23/2021 at 4:33 PM, danlrob said:

I was not sure is the Philippines was notified of her naturalization.  Yes we already have an appoint ment to apply for the passport.

 

Thank you

@danlrobThe US does not care nor will inform other countries governments of newly naturalized citizens.

 

As far as the Philippines government is concerned, her current Philippines passport is still considered valid until they learn of otherwise (i.e. your wife informing the Philippines consulate in the US of her US naturalization or if she presents both her PHL and US passport to PHL customs entering MNL).

 

Dual citizenship is allowed under Philippine law. Your wife has to make an in person appointment at a PHL consulate in the US to re-acquire PHL citizenship and re-apply for a new PHL passport. Because her existing PHL passport will be nullified at the time of her reacquisition interview, my suggestion is to time the dual citizenship appointment with when your wife's PHL passport expires. That way when she applies for a new PHL passport after her dual citizenship swearing in appointment, it will be valid for 10 full years from that date.

 

As a bonus if she is planning to return at some point of time to the Philippines in the future for at least 3 weeks, she can hold off on applying for her new PHL passport in the Philippines as it is 950 PHP (~ USD $20) or 1200 PHP expedited (~ USD $25) compared to USD $60 + USD $7.95 priority flat rate if done at a PHL consulate/ embassy in the US.

Edited March 2, 2021 by ultrasoul

[payxibka 10,044]

7 minutes ago, ultrasoul said:

The US does not care nor will inform other countries governments of newly naturalized citizens.

 

As far as the Philippines government is concerned, her current Philippines passport is still considered valid until they learn of otherwise (i.e. your wife informing the Philippines consulate in the US or if she presents both her PHL and US passport entering MNL).

 

Dual citizenship is allowed under Philippine law. Your wife has to make an in person appointment at a PHL consulate in the US to re-acquire and re-apply for a new PHL passport. Because her existing PHL passport will be nullified at the time of her dual citizenship interview, my suggestion is to time the dual citizenship appointment with when your wife's PHL passport expires. That way when she applies for a new PHL passport after her dual citizenship swearing in appointment, it will be valid for 10 full years from that date.

It will be valid a full 10 years from any renewal date 

[ultrasoul 51]

5 minutes ago, payxibka said:

It will be valid a full 10 years from any renewal date 

@payxibka Yes. However, if OP's wife currently has a good amount of validity on her current 10 year passport (not likely as 10 year PHL passports started in 2018), timing the re-acquisition with the current PHL passport expiration date might make sense.

 

@danlrob One important thing to keep in mind is if you want your children to acquire PHL citizenship (in addition to their US citizenship), you will need to re-register both your marriage and birth of your children with the PHL consulate/ embassy in the US. COVID has made this process much easier- there used to be an in-person appointment required of these 2 processes but now mail in is allowed (at least for states under the Washington DC embassy or New York consulate jurisdiction) 

Edited March 2, 2021 by ultrasoul

[javadown2 308]

On 2/26/2021 at 7:15 PM, Tahoma said:

There's no need for her to show her Philippines passport to prove she's a former Filipino citizen citizen because her U.S. passport shows her place of birth.  My wife and I have traveled to the Philippines numerous times, with my wife using only her U.S. passport, and I have always been granted the balikbayan privilege.

Cool, this is great to know...we may just wait completely to get my wife's dual citizenship and new passport until getting back to the Philippines. No hurry it seems, since I will get the balikbayan, so did your wife just get entry with no time limit?

[Talako 756]

4 hours ago, javadown2 said:

Cool, this is great to know...we may just wait completely to get my wife's dual citizenship and new passport until getting back to the Philippines. No hurry it seems, since I will get the balikbayan, so did your wife just get entry with no time limit?

While not stated, his wife would have been granted 1 year Balikbayan as well.  She is subject to the same restrictions as a US citizen.  It is just that as a former citizen, she can avail the balikbayan privilege and include her husband..  

[Tahoma 2,291]

On 3/4/2021 at 12:20 AM, javadown2 said:

Cool, this is great to know...we may just wait completely to get my wife's dual citizenship and new passport until getting back to the Philippines. No hurry it seems, since I will get the balikbayan, so did your wife just get entry with no time limit?

 

20 hours ago, Talako said:

While not stated, his wife would have been granted 1 year Balikbayan as well.  She is subject to the same restrictions as a US citizen.  It is just that as a former citizen, she can avail the balikbayan privilege and include her husband..  

Yes, my wife was given one year admission.

[tomigaoka 8]

I asked this concern here before for my friend who was on the same situation if she can still use her unexpired filipino passport after recently gaining citizenship and this was last year when those who gave up their filipino citizenship were not allowed to enter back the country due to covid

 

Most answered here that she cannot and by law that is correct. But she was able to do so coming in and out of the Philippines by just showing her pinoy passport. I would not recommend that though.

Edited March 13, 2021 by tomigaoka

[Talako 756]

16 hours ago, tomigaoka said:

I asked this concern here before for my friend who was on the same situation if she can still use her unexpired filipino passport after recently gaining citizenship and this was last year when those who gave up their filipino citizenship were not allowed to enter back the country due to covid

 

Most answered here that she cannot and by law that is correct. But she was able to do so coming in and out of the Philippines by just showing her pinoy passport. I would not recommend that though.

Can you do it? Yes.

 

Is it legal? No

 

It is simple as that.