Duel Passports

[Admin]

My turn to ask you brainy people for advice as I'm short on time (or just plain short ;D)

When the missus eventually gets her UK passport (probably 3026!), I know they can still keep the Philippine on active, but say you got to Manilla on the Philippine passport, do you then have to return on the same passport, or can you use the UK one?

Not important, just a niggling question :P

[ginapeterb]

Of course Keith if Ping is retaining Philippine nationality, as is a dual national, this has to be made clear, to the Home office that she is retaining nationality of the Philipines, then she will of course be a balik-bayan, that is (a returning hero) or returning Filipino.

She would most likely fly in on her Filipino passport, and show that to Philippine Immigration.

When returning back to UK, she would of course expedite her entry to UK on her British Passport, so that she does not have to have the inconvience of waiting in the foreign natioals line.

Its best of both worlds di ba ??

[Admin]

...and gets you off the hook for paying the extra charge for the Philippine passport holder at the damn airport when trying to escape ;D

[ginapeterb]

yes only 500 pesos exit charge...makes sense Keith...she has best of both worlds there

[peterdavid]

yes only 500 pesos exit charge...makes sense Keith...she has best of both worlds there

Hi guys.

Now I could be completely talking out of my .... here, and if I am wrong, apologies, but it was my understanding that you had to finish a flight with the same passport you started it with - ie, if you leave the UK with a UK passport, you can only enter the country of destination with the same passport - and same with the way back - if you leave on a philippine passport, (eg, because you stayed longer than 3 weeks there), you have to arrive in britain with it.

This is based on what happened to a friend of mine from Bangladesh a few years ago, who had both a Bangladesh and UK passport but had to decide, before starting her journey, which passport she would be using for the entirety of it (it had to be one or the other) and thus apply for relevant visas accordingly for any stop over points. Needless to say, she used her UK passport, the Bangladeshi one being about as useful for travel as an Argos catalogue (ie, not much different to a philippine passport).

However, I could be very wrong, and if I am, would be grateful for an update.

So, if you can leave the UK with a british passport and enter with a Philippine one, and do the same on the way back, would be very grateful to know - my daughter has both a UK and a philippine passport but we've never had the bottle to try starting with one and finishing with the other - don't want to give Philippine (or UK) immigration any excuse to make life difficult - you know how they love it. If you can do it, let me know - and if it all goes wrong I'll send a box of chocolates to the Philippine Immigration holding cell.

[Admin]

The missus told me the Phillipine goverment do not allow you to hold a UK passport as well, but then how would they know, and they couldn't stop you using them anyway.

Looks like a little digging is needed over the dual passport usage.

[peterdavid]

For a long while, the Philippine government didn't allow you to hold a philippine passport if you got one from another country (heralding the good old crab mentality again - how dare you try for a life in another country, and if you do, we don't want you in the Philippines).

However, within the past 12 months, in a surprisingly unusual fit of common sense, Gloria changed the rule to allow filipinos to hold dual citizenship. Presumably because she realised that all those OFWs and whatever who got a second citizenship and were faced with the ridiculous philippine ultimatum of one passport or the other were telling the philippines where they could shove it and she didn't want to lose out on all that life saving lovely remittance income which is propping the country up.

For my daughter, we got passports at the same time and, being the Philippines, their "robust and detailed governance checks" (ho ho) did not spot she was already a british citizen. There is, I think, a form to fill in from (I guess) the Bureau of Immigration which will now allow any filipino/a to hold dual citizenship and either regain, or not lose, philippine citizenship (and thus legally hold two passports).

Although, to be honest, I would always choose the UK passport to travel on - lessens the possibilities for any immigration twonk to make exiting the country difficult. Seeing as the philippine embassy dishes out 6 month visas to anyone, provided they can stand upright, I would probably go for that option if I wanted to stay longer, then you have the added assurance of travelling "at her majesty's pleasure", and no-one at the airport can challenge your right to return to the UK (or anywhere).

[peterdavid]

I think you can get a form from the Philippine Bureau of Immigration website - don't know the address off hand, but it should pop right up in google if you search for Philippine Bureau of Immigration.