Can the border guard match up the passports of a dual citizen?

3/17/2017 9:13:53 PM

From personal experience, yes.

I’m an EU citizen who acquired Australian citizenship. I visited the US several times on my previous EU passport, then got a new ESTA (which IIRC did not ask about other nationalities, only other names) for the Australian passport and visited again.

First visit on the new passport, I was asked:

  • “Have you visited the US on a different passport?”

  • “Yes, last November.”

  • “Welcome back.” stamp stamp

Second visit:

  • “You’re a dual citizen.”

  • “Yes sir.”

  • “Are you also an Iraqi or Syrian citizen?”

  • “No sir.”

  • stamp stamp “Next!”

Note that this doesn’t necessarily entail that the US and Australia share information, as the US could figure it out simply my matching my almost certainly globally unique name. (To be clear, I know they do share it, it’s just not required here.)

3/17/2017 2:10:48 PM

“You” always applies to you, the natural person. “You” does not change, regardless of how many citizenship or passports you hold – you are still only a single person.

Thus questions like have “you” ever had issues with immigration relate to you over your entire life – not just on the passport you are choosing to use at that time.

As to whether countries can match up passports, the answer will depend on the country. Your new passport will generally have the same name, date of birth and place of birth as your previous passport. Based on what I’ve been told by a reliable source for at least one major country, presuming you have entered the country previously, this correlation will trigger a soft match in at least some immigration systems. The immigration officer will then see the photo of the previous passport photo and the current one, and will be able to link them if he determines they are the same person.

If you have not entered the country previously then this becomes a question about data sharing between countries, which is information that is generally not going to be public – so anyone that actually knows the answer will not be able to disclose it…

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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