this may be a stupid question, but since i don’t know the answer i figured i would ask.
i am a citizen of both the US and Canada, so i actually have two passports. i have heard that it is ‘better’ to travel with a canadian passport if given the choice, but it probably doesn’t matter that much in europe.
when traveling should i carry both passports? is this even legal? i would assume that when entering and leaving a country you would have to use the same passport which would imply that you would only ever use one passport. i think the only reason the second passport would be important is in the case of an emergency of some sort.
i don’t have a clear understanding of the ins and outs of having more than one passport and i was hoping some of you may be able to shine some light on this for me.
Eurotrip Developer
Swill, I moved this — most of the passport/citizenship questions end up in “packing.”
I’m not familiar with the ins and outs, but I think I’d just take one. In the very unlikely event that you get completely searched somewhere you may end up with some serious explaining as to why you have two passports. A friend of mine came to the US from France and was the one person they pulled from that flight for a complete search. They found her name tag from when she had worked as a volunteer translator in a US hospital on a previous trip — lots of explaining to prove she was a tourist and not illegally looking for work which, of course, caused her to miss a connecting flight.
I’d take the passport for the country I was flying to/from.
Swill,
Did these people explain why it’s better to travel with a Canadian passport? I can’t think of any instances where a Canadian passport would be more beneficial in some way.
Lots of dual nationals travel with two. Although that would suck to get stuck in a situation like Cil’s friend.
oldlady: ya this is pretty much what my instincts were saying, but its nice to get input from others. i read in another thread that you should take 3 different good quality black and white photocopies of your passport and keep them in different bags etc. this would probably take care of most of the emergency situations i was thinking of and keep me from having issues if i am searched…
luv_the_beach: i think their reasoning was that canadians have a good international reputation so if you have the choice to travel as canadian, do it. i think it mainly had to do with situations where you were in trouble or in a hairy situation in general. i really dont think this would apply in europe though. if you were traveling in politically unstable countries it may be of some relevance.
Eurotrip Developer
American foreign policy is generally hated around the world; this has been a fact for a long time, but most Americans were sheltered from this sentiment until 9/11 and the Iraq war that followed. However, ordinary Americans traveling to Europe have absolutely nothing to worry about. No one will hold you responsible for the actions of your government; Europeans are, by tradition, very critical of their own politicians as well. And American cultural products regarded as American counterculture (like rock, jazz, hip hop, or Hollywood films), are popular; hence while the US government and the American establishment are disliked, Europeans (as well as Latin Americans, Asians, even Middle Easterners) seem to identify with what they regard as American counterculture; this is misunderstood by some in the US who see it as a paradox.
The only way someone would have a problem with you personally would be if you acted like a know-it-all arrogant “ugly American”, and you definitely don’t seem like that type of person.
It is not illegal to have or carry two passports as long as you obtained them legally. Both countries are visa-waiver countries in the Schengen Union and all of Europe plus God knows what else. Your Canadian pass will help you get a working holiday vacation in many countries in Europe (for example, Denmark) you can’t get with a US pass. I don’t think the UK and Canada have any special agreements other than that for how long you can stay, but maybe they do, and you can always check the Canadian embassy in the UK web page to find that out. That would be good.
In most of Europe people aren’t sophisticated enough or have enough experience to tell the difference between Canadian and US culture. You are all from North America.
In most of Europe people aren’t sophisticated enough or have enough experience to tell the difference between Canadian and US culture. You are all from North America.
Likewise, Americans and Canadians aren’t “sophisticated enough” to tell the difference between Syrians and Jordanians. English-Canadians (60ish % of Canadians) and Anglo-Americans (70-75% of USA) are ethnically the same, and culturally almost the same. You’re forgiven if you confuse the two, in fact most Americans and Canadians themselves do.