Post-Naturalization and Traveling on USA Passport

[Team J and B 2]

Hi, I'm really early in my AOS but I got to thinking about this question. For those of you who have acquired US citizenship and are from a first world western country (sorry for lack of a better term), have you all been traveling on your USA passport?

What would be the disadvantages of my traveling on my Canadian passport provided I keep renewing it?

Has anyone been using their USA passport to leave the USA, entering another country with their Canadian (or insert another first world western country), and returning to the USA showing their USA passport again?

Also while I'm here, is it wise to apply for a Canadian passport for my kids (when I have them) as soon as possible and at the same time as I apply for a USA passport for them? Or do most people just apply for USA passport for their kids?

Thanks for any information you can share!

J of Team J and B

[moonhunt 1]

One of implicit rule for dual citizenship is that you have to use right passport when you entering to your country.

Let's say you have Canadian citizenship, and US citizenship.

You must use US passport when you enter/leave US, and also, you must use Canadian passport when you enter/leave Canada.

For everywhere else, you can choose whichever country's passport you like based on your own benefit.

That is because if you are in US, and use Canadian Passport, it will be conflicted with each other's country for protecting their citizen essentially.

Also, it will make consistency for in/out entry from each country's border control viewpoint, too.

That is my understanding for passport use for dual citizenship situation.

For an example, Canada immigration doesn't care whether you use US passport when you leave US.

Essentially this means that your citizenship will be switched when you are in air riding airplane from country A to country B. ^^

Edited July 23, 2008 by moonhunt

[lucyrich 19]

Once you become a US Citizen, US law says that you must use a US passport when you enter and leave the US.

US law doesn't address issues about what passport you use to enter another country. So you can use any passport you validly hold.

However, it's not common that another passport will make things much easier for you. One exception is when you visit your other country of citizenship, and that country has a similar law which requires you to use their passport to enter and leave.

Another exception I can think of is if you visit Brazil. They have a "reciprocity" policy, so they charge US citizens a $100.00 fee and require them to get a visa to enter Brazil, because the US charges Brazilians the same fee and has a similar visa requirement for Brazilians. If your original country of citizenship doesn't charge big visa fees for Brazilians to visit them, then Brazil won't charge you a lot if you enter on that non-US passport.

But often, it's probably easiest to make the entire trip on one single passport.

The dual citizenship FAQ has a section on the practicalities of traveling when you have two passports:

http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html#twopass

[Team J and B 2]

Thanks for your answers. I guess my concern was for entering my home country of Canada. So that means when I am on Canadian soil, I use my Canadian passport. When on US soil, US passport.

I was just thinking in the future we'll be doing much traveling, sometimes to nations not so friendly with the USA, and so it might be less of a headache to whip out a non-USA passport.

Interesting info about Brazil. I will keep my Canadian passport current so I can visit there!

[victor+natasha 0]

As a side note, Canadian Citizens also need a visa when visiting Brazil.

[NickD 202]

As a side note, Canadian Citizens also need a visa when visiting Brazil.

Wife and I went up to Sault Saint Marie last year but didn't cross from fear we couldn't get back in again, strange feeling since I have been crossing freely ever since I was a kid. Wonder if that will all change back with new leadership. For us, going out east, Canada was the shortest route, hmmm, the longest unprotected border in the world they use to say, what happened since then?

We also elected not to go to Venezuela this year with all this mess with the ten year green card plus the airline rates have more than doubled since last year, 5 or 10% increase may be understandable, but more than doubled? What's going on with this? But last year, I wondered if we could have gotten back in with her Venezuelan passport, it still has a current US visa in it, didn't try that either, used the expired green card with that infamous one year extension form I very carefully carried with fear of losing that. Ha, would have been fun though to learn if they would issue her an I-94 so she could stay here for a couple of weeks or whatever they felt like stamping at the time.

Ha, now the fear of whether the Dept of State will lose her certificate of citizenship like they lost my birth certificate and debating whether we should go the normal route or pay the extra hundred bucks for so-called quick service. I paid that for mine and wondering if they lost it by moving so quick.

I am losing my taste for red meat, because I know what cattle must feel like when led to slaughter, feel the same way when traveling via the airlines today. Then I read on our tickets, if they kill us via the poor maintenance are beneficiaries will only get a couple of bucks, when did they change that? That greatly reduced liability on their part will make them be just that more careless.

I was the top troubleshooter for my company as a consultant and traveled a lot, but all that came to a halt after 9/11 as my company had to pay a 5 million dollar private policy on me, I didn't think I was worth that much, but it hurt both me and my company. While I did take an oath to defend the freedom of my country, still feel the same way, but replacing the word country with family. What a time to meet my wife, with a brand new DHS and USCIS staffed with people that don't even know what they are doing. Hopefully that will change as well. It's a battle for all of us, and do we really all want to be locked up in an eight by eight foot padded cell so that we will be safe? Seems to be getting that bad. Sorry for the ranting, but this was a great country once, just hope and pray that we can return to that. Sure is the time for Americans to take less interest in the superbowl and take a lot more interest in their country, while it is still here.

[warlord 72]

I was wondering if I should bother renewing my Canadian one as well or just use my US passport to enter Canada. So talked to my cousin who is also dual for many years and she said she just uses her US passport. I'm going to visit Canada in a month or so (first time in years) so I might just take both passports with me and use the US one to enter Canada. If an issue comes up I'll show my Canadian one and just claim I was confused on the proper proceedure...

[Saddle Bronc 124]

B)-->

QUOTE(Team J and B @ Jul 23 2008, 01:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, I'm really early in my AOS but I got to thinking about this question. For those of you who have acquired US citizenship and are from a first world western country (sorry for lack of a better term), have you all been traveling on your USA passport?

What would be the disadvantages of my traveling on my Canadian passport provided I keep renewing it?

I presume you mean "other than the cost of renewing it every five years?"

You cannot re-enter US on the Canadian (or any other non-US) passport.

B)-->

QUOTE(Team J and B @ Jul 23 2008, 01:17 AM)

Has anyone been using their USA passport to leave the USA, entering another country with their Canadian (or insert another first world western country), and returning to the USA showing their USA passport again?

Also while I'm here, is it wise to apply for a Canadian passport for my kids (when I have them) as soon as possible and at the same time as I apply for a USA passport for them? Or do most people just apply for USA passport for their kids?

Thanks for any information you can share!

J of Team J and B

Well, I used my Canadian passport (actually two--then current, and expired one with India visa stamped in it) to enter India in 2005. At Paris (mid-journey), i showed both--and was told "show only the Canuck ones in India, and show the US passport only for return".

I then used my US passport to re-enter at JFK.

I was wondering if I should bother renewing my Canadian one as well or just use my US passport to enter Canada. So talked to my cousin who is also dual for many years and she said she just uses her US passport. I'm going to visit Canada in a month or so (first time in years) so I might just take both passports with me and use the US one to enter Canada. If an issue comes up I'll show my Canadian one and just claim I was confused on the proper proceedure...

Do you have a Canadian Citizenship Card?