Which passport?
 

My fiancee and I will be going to Europe on our honeymoon. We will be renting a car from Paris and driving to several other countries. I have both an EU and American passport. I will use the American one to leave the US but am wondering if I should bring my EU one, since we will be crossing quite a few borders. Is it helpful to have one of their passports when driving through Europe? Last time I went, I flew right into my country, so no driving was involved. Thanks for any tips!

You should bring the passport of your EU member state.

You're best advised to use it to enter the EU, and for all other purposes until you get to the airport to travel to the US. At the outbound airport, you MUST use the US passport for checking in with the airline: if there's outbound passport control, you're wisest to show the passport from the European country there.

The reason for using it to enter the EU is that the queues for citizens of EU countries are often shorter, but more importantly because there's then no record of "John Doe, US citizen" entering on, say June 1. John Doe, US citizen, HAS to leave the Schengen area by Sept 1, and even if you don't intend being in Europe longer, having entered as a citizen of an EU nation makes life a lot easier if anything goes wrong.

The EU treaties require member states to avoid any discrimination between citizens of EU countries. Therefore, having an EU passport might occasionally give you access to concessions not open to non-Europeans.

Which "borders" will you be crossing?

What I wrote was ambiguous.

You should show your US passport to the airline in the US. You should use your European passport for all purposes in Europe (including entering in the first place) with the one exception of when you come to check in for the flight to the US.

It's absurd - and in some countries might be illegal - to hide your European nationality in Europe.

unless i am mistaken, the rules of passport usage for double nationals is

1) you use the EU passport ONLY when in the country it is issued.

at all other times you are an american citizen, thus showing your US passport.

People probably play around with whichever passport they want.. but that is not how it is. Double nationals have a strict passport usage obligation unless they want to put their US citizenship in jeopardy.

Read the rules on the US embassy page, and follow them.

lincasanova is completely wrong.

Whatever absurd airs the US might give itself, or might be thought by its more impressionable citizens to have, anyone holding - say - an Irish passport (aka "an Irish citizen") is nuts to use a non-European one in Italy or Germany.

No foreign country - however big it thinks it is - may tell an Irish or Italian citizen how to behave in Ireland, Italy or France. HJrunr3 might be considered American in some countries: here he's Irish, Italian or whatever.

>>>unless i am mistaken, the rules of passport usage for double nationals is

1) you use the EU passport ONLY when in the country it is issued.<<<

Unless I am mistaken, the rule is that you MUST use the passport of a country of which you are a citizen when entering that country. You can of course, use it anywhere else.

My daughter holds passports from both US and UK. She uses her US passport when checking in for a flight to the US, and when entering the US. She uses her UK passport when returning the UK, while I am stuck in the queue waiting to have my US passport stamped by HM Immigration.

I think the issue is if you needed your state help (disaster like earthquake, or getting caught with drugs in Thailand). If you've used a EU passport to enter that country the US will not be able/or willing to help you.

heimdall provides all you need to know. in practice, it makes very little difference (aside from the requirements heimdall mentions). and if your fiancee is not an eu citizen, quicker queues are hardly an advantage.

jamikins is wrong...the us embassy will treat you the same, no matter what passport you use to enter the foreign country. but you also have the potential to be helped by the embassy of your other citizenship. the us embassy, however, will be of limited use if you get into legal trouble in the country of your other nationality regardless of what passports you present. that's because it is a domestic matter. anyway, embassies generally provide little help if you have legal problems...maybe give you a list of english speaking lawyers and make sure international law is not broken in your detention (hardly an issue in civilised countries).

I could be wrong, but thats the info that I was told by the CDN embassy when I got my UK citizenship. Maybe not relevant to teh US.

I have dual citizenship. I carry a US and EU passport. Generally, I use my US passport to show the airlines when leaving the USA and my EU passport from the time I land in Europe until I'm back on American soil.

That said, I judge every situation in which I need a passport individually and use whichever seems most appropriate at the time.

Crossing "borders" is an irrelevant issue these days. I haven't crossed a border in years where anyone demanded to see a passport - heck, there aren't even human beings at the border crossings anymore. So that isn't even an opportunity to decide about which passport to use. But if it were, I'd be using my EU passport for that.

my children are dual nationals.

I was told by the US Embassy that they are to use their US passport everywhere EXCEPT in Spain, (enterng and residing)the second country in which they hold nationality.

sorry if i am completely wrong flanneruk. just repeating the usage information i was given when they received their US passport after birth.

hope i haven´t lead anyone the "wrong way" with this embassy info.

your embassy is the best place for the correct information.

Dual nationality is not a "convenience" game. There are strict rules of when and why you are granted this.

I have an EU and a US passport, and I use my US passport only for entering the U.S. I use my EU passport for every purpose in every other country in the world.

Passports are valid for travel to foreign countries. If you have more than one passport, you can use any valid passport you want to enter any other country that recognizes it. Otherwise the whole concept of passports would be invalid.

Well, there are sometimes human beings at the border when entering Switzerland. We crossed over the Rhine into Switzerland from Austria. At the Swiss end of the bridge there was a booth. There was a person inside who was awake.

As we approached, an arm emerged from the booth and waved us onward. All we saw was the arm, two propped up feet, and the top of a cap.

As for the two passports I know one thing for certain: Don't show both of them to TSA. That could lead to mass confusion in the ranks.

The guy who once checked out my titanium hip might have gotten a promotion to passport inspector.

This may clarify <i>some</i> of the issues under discussion: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1753.html

bob_brown, good post! :-D

Thanks for all the tips. The countries we'll be driving through are France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Italy.

US Immigration once saw both of my passports at JFK by accident. Didn't even raise an eyebrow.

Most U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport does not endanger U.S. citizenship.
That is from the State Department.
I am a dual national, when I leave the USA, I do so on my USA passport. When I am returning to the USA, I do so on my USA passport. In the EU, I use my EU passport.
Other than entry and exit, the choice is yours.