US Citizens, Re-entry, and your Passport
If you are a dual/multiple citizen with US citizenship, or a recently naturalized greencard holder, you might not realize that you cannot enter the US with any passport but your US passport. If you try to return to the United States as a US citizen on a different country’s passport, airline security will probably decline to check you into your flight, instead referring you to the nearest embassy to get appropriate one-time travel documents or an emergency passport.
This happened to me on a recent trip to Paris, France. I entered Paris using my Finland passport (European Union) with no trouble. However, returning home when asked if I were a US citizen I replied that I was, and was required to present my US passport. As I had lost it at home on the way over, I had to get an emergency passport from the US Embassy in Paris in Concorde Square. It only took 2 hours and $100, but I would have rather understood the requirements first and avoiding missing my scheduled flight.
The rule of law that makes this possible is 8 U.S.C. sec. 1185(b):
Except as otherwise provided by the President and subject to such limitations and exceptions as the President may authorize and prescribe, it shall be unlawful for any citizen of the United States to depart from or enter, or attempt to depart from or enter, the United States unless he bears a valid United States passport.
| This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 8:26 pm and is tagged with us embassy in paris, emergency passport, concorde square, united states passport, us passport, airline security, trip to paris, paris france, travel documents, returning home, time travel, rule of law, exceptions, us citizen, european union, citizenship, one time, citizens, finland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
Great post! If you need a US passport in s hurry, you can either make an appointment at a passport office or use a private expediting company like RushMyPassport.com. They got me my passport in just a few days with no problems.