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Assume a traveler holds two passports from two different countries. Does the passport they use to enter and leave a country sometimes determine which passport they must use when entering the next country, or is that always independent? The holder of these passports is not citizen of either country.

I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel? does not address my question, they just say "B passport" without specifying it (i.e. they don't say if when entering country B one can always use the passport used to enter and leave a country A, assuming both nationalities are granted entry of course).

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    @mlc Not a duplicate: they don't address my question, they just say "B passport" without specifying it. Commented Nov 22 at 22:42
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    This question is not covered by the duplicate question. It can/should be included in that but is not at this time. Commented Nov 23 at 12:24
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    There are about 200 passports world wide, so if you look the case of "I want to travel from country A to B and I have passports from C and D" there are about 1.6 billion different combinations, each with (potentially) its own set of rules. For the cast majority of these cases the answer to your question is "no". Are you looking for an single exception, and if so, why ? Commented Nov 23 at 15:56
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    As mentioned, this raises far too many questions to be answerable. Stack Exchange is intended to handle actual real-word problems, not abstruse combinatorics. In the modern world of instant data sharing, who knows what might get flagged up or what might result in an issue? Commented Nov 23 at 16:49
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    @StuartF there are already 3 answers so some people know. As I stated earlier, it's to know the logic and to know if that's something to watch for, so no need to look at all combinations. Commented Nov 23 at 16:55

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As a rule, the passport you previously used is irrelevant, but there's at least one exception that I'm aware of.

There are three different nationalities in my family and we freely swap between our various passports when traveling to make use of visa free entry etc. In all our travels, we've had trouble exactly one (1) time, when flying into Laos. We had bought tickets and checked in using passports written to one name (let's say SMITH), but on arrival wanted to enter on Japanese passports, which enjoy visa free entry to Laos but have a different last name (TANAKA (SMITH)).

Laotian immigration refused to accept this: apparently the name used to enter the country has to match the name on the plane's passenger manifest, full stop. So we had to fork out US$40 per person to buy visas on arrival for our other passports.

Note that even in this case the problem was the different name in the other passport, not the passport per se.

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    The issue you had when entering Laos was that Laos wanted you to enter with a passport matching the details in the passenger manifest. It has absolutely nothing to do with which passport you used when leaving the last country before going to Laos. Commented Nov 23 at 12:57
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    One should always book and check in with the passport that will be used at the destination. The passport which is relevant for the origin should only be shown to exit passport control, not the airline (unless they also ask for it). Commented Nov 23 at 13:08
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    @jcaron it is worth noting that "always book with passport you'll use at the destination" may cause complications on countries without exit immigration or on those that disallow dual citizenship (assuming you're a citizen of them). Commented Nov 23 at 14:38
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    @Tor-EinarJarnbjo Passports are "used" at both check-in and immigration. Commented Nov 23 at 19:27
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    @terdon: I think the point is that the plane's passenger manifest will be constructed from (or at least, must match) the passport used on exit, because that is how the airline verifies they have the correct passengers. So if a country verifies your passport name matches the one on the passenger manifest, that may end up restricting your choice of passport. Commented Nov 24 at 20:39
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There are a few corner cases, where the situation you are describing may have relevance. The most common situation is probably where a visit to country A prohibits you from entering B or at least adds complexity or expected scrutiny when intending to enter B.

Some examples are:

  • You are not allowed to enter Iran if you have ever been to Israel.
  • You are not allowed to enter the USA with a visa-waiver if you have ever been to Iran.
  • You may expect issues or additional scrutiny if entering Serbia after having been to Kosovo or in both directions, if travelling to both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Most of these issues can be avoided if you don't care about the rules and travel with two passports. You don't even necessarily need passports based on two different citizenships. A lot of countries willingly issue two passports to one holder if the purpose is to circumvent such travel bans. It is also not uncommon that countries posing a potential issue for later travel voluntarily abstain from stamping visitors passport to avoid such problems, either on request or by default.

So back to your question: If a dual citizen e.g. flies from Israel to Iran (via a third country) and gets an Israeli exit stamp in passport A, he will be required to use passport B to enter Iran. Or alternatively in this case, ask the Israeli border police not to stamp the passport. AFAIK they abstain from doing so if asked.

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    I believe that Israel hasn't given entry/exit stamps in passports for a long time. Instead you get a separate piece of paper. Of course if you crossed into Israel from a land border it may be possible to deduce that you entered Israel if the country you are exiting from stamped your passport. Commented Nov 23 at 15:33
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    I thought that the Iran restriction for the USA was after a certain date. I have obtained ESTAs without lying since the question was "have you been to Iran since (date I forget)?" but my visit was before. However, this does not affect your general point. Commented Nov 23 at 16:09
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The only case where I have encountered a passport dependency was for an itinerary US->Schengen->Schengen->Thailand and back on a single PNR. I have both a US and a Schengen passport so I was planning to use the US passport to enter/leave Thailand and the Schengen passport to enter/leave Schengen.

Apparently the airlines have trouble doing this: i.e. changing passports on a single bound with a single check-in. In my particular case the following happened

  1. On the outbound, the check-in agent basically overruled me: "Your US passport is good in Schengen, so you need to use that".
  2. On the inbound, things were more complicated. Thai airways pondered this for about half an hour and after a lot of spirited discussion among the staff and many phone calls, they eventually rebooked me to Thailand->Schengen->US, eliminating the domestic leg.

I don't think there are any legal issues that would have prevented me from using my passports as I wanted, but maybe the airline information systems are not setup to handle multiple passports for a single bound.

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