There is plenty of confusion on the net about the US allowing dual nationality. According to the US government itself, it does ! Here are some relevant excerpts from the
US State Department web site :
- U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another.
- The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause.
- A U.S. citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth.
But here is the complication:
- Most U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States
My question is how to actually do this in practice ? As I was departing the US, because I had a 1-way tickets, the airline in the US insisted on entering details from my NZ passport (because I did not have a NZ entry visa in my US passport that I tried to use first). The airline check-in counter seems to be the only form of departure passport control in the US and I wonder if that information is linked to government data bases ? So, now I planning a business trip from NZ back to the US. I will carry both passports with me, but, apart from the obvious (re-enter NZ with NZ passport) which passport to use when ? In particular on the return leg back to NZ, I suspect that the airline will want to use the NZ passport again.
A search shows conflicting advice in this thread, eg:
and my situation is a little different. I am already in NZ and planning on visiting the US. Any advice on do's and don'ts, especially from dual US/NZ citizens who have been there and done that would be greatly appreciated.
Brent