Confused about traveling with dual citizenship

jerseygirl22 · Jul 19, 2011

I have a traveling dilemma and I would love some advice from dr1. I have to travel to Canada soon because I won a scholarship to go study there for a few months. The thing is that the flight from here to Canada has multiple stops in the United States. Now this normally wouldn?t be a problem because I have dual citizenship, I was born here (DR) but I also have a US passport because of my parents. Now the problem is that because of the scholarship i don?t think I can use my US passport and my Dominican passport doesn?t have a US visa since I am already a US citizen. My question is can I use my Dominican passport to travel to the US and just show my US passport as my visa? Or does anyone have any idea of what I could do?

I hope i didnt confuse anyone with this post.

VJS · Jul 19, 2011

Just use your US passport at US airports and the DR passport when you get to Canada. I have dual citizenship also and tend to show whichever passport is more convenient / has more space for visa stamps, never had a problem with that.

jerseygirl22 · Jul 20, 2011

VJS said:
Just use your US passport at US airports and the DR passport when you get to Canada. I have dual citizenship also and tend to show whichever passport is more convenient / has more space for visa stamps, never had a problem with that.

The problem is that i have to book the flight with my Dominican passport because of the scholarship and you have to use the passport you booked your flight with at the airports. So i dont think i can just change the passport i use between airports on the stops.

windeguy · Jul 20, 2011

jerseygirl22 said:
The problem is that i have to book the flight with my Dominican passport because of the scholarship and you have to use the passport you booked your flight with at the airports. So i dont think i can just change the passport i use between airports on the stops.

Then you will have to use your US passport and hope for the best.

HumbleHindu · Jul 20, 2011

Why is it necessary to travel through states? Try direct flights to canada. Sometimes you can get it cheaper than the US transit.

hammerdown · Jul 20, 2011

Air Canada flies direct to Toronto and Montreal, and Westjet flies direct to Toronto, with easy connections to other cities....no need to go through the States

VJS · Jul 20, 2011

then use your dominican passport with the airline on the US stop, and say that you also have the US passport that grants you the right to enter the country, I am sure they won't have a slightest problem with that.

Ezequiel · Jul 20, 2011

jerseygirl22 said:
The problem is that i have to book the flight with my Dominican passport because of the scholarship and you have to use the passport you booked your flight with at the airports. So i dont think i can just change the passport i use between airports on the stops.

Book your flight with the Dominican Passport and present both passport at the airline ticket counter in the DR. When you are passing through the DR immigration show them your U.S. passport as you are going to travel from the DR to the USA, and when you are ready to board the plane to Canada from the USA show them your DR passport with your visa.

I hope both passports have the same name.

william webster · Jul 20, 2011

If you hold a US passport, you MUST use that passport upon entering the US.

US citizens may hold multiple passports but are obliged to use the US passport on entering the US.

If you try to enter Canada on your RD passport, won't you need a visa?
You will not if you use your US one.

jerseygirl22 · Jul 20, 2011

william webster said:
If you hold a US passport, you MUST use that passport upon entering the US.

US citizens may hold multiple passports but are obliged to use the US passport on entering the US.

If you try to enter Canada on your RD passport, won't you need a visa?
You will not if you use your US one.

I have the Canadian visa on my DR passport. But thanks i didn’t know it was mandatory to use the US passport when entering the US, i thought you could just use whichever was more convenient.

La Rubia · Jul 20, 2011

Whoever granted you your scholarship should be helping you with this. If you got the scholarship as a Dominican, and them knowing you have US citizenship would put the scholarship in jeopardy, then "they" would certainly help with those transit issues. What are Dominicans that only have Dominican citizenship doing?

belmont · Jul 20, 2011

La Rubia said:
Whoever granted you your scholarship should be helping you with this. If you got the scholarship as a Dominican, and them knowing you have US citizenship would put the scholarship in jeopardy, then "they" would certainly help with those transit issues. What are Dominicans that only have Dominican citizenship doing?

He might be wanting to visit the family on the way.

jerseygirl22 · Jul 20, 2011

La Rubia said:
Whoever granted you your scholarship should be helping you with this. If you got the scholarship as a Dominican, and them knowing you have US citizenship would put the scholarship in jeopardy, then "they" would certainly help with those transit issues. What are Dominicans that only have Dominican citizenship doing?

I'm not too worried about them finding out about it since i was born in the DR and I consider myself more Dominican than anything, plus the scholarship only made it clear that you couldn’t be a Canadian resident or citizen (which I’m not). But some people at my school do worry that if they find out i'm a US citizen that might jeopardize me, which i don’t think is fair because i didn’t lie about anything. As for your last question for those who only have a Dominican citizenship they just try to find them flights without stops in the US, but i really want to leave with someone who does have a visa and was wondering if there was another way around it.

Glenn68 · Aug 2, 2011

I would not recommend showing both passports to anybody travel agents and especially a customs official they will get suspicious. I am a dual Australian/UK national and I basically use my Australian most of the time.
Rule of thumb if you fly from your home country use that passport eg I fly from Australia and back in I use Australian, if I was to fly to the UK I change passports mid flight and handover UK say if going into UK or EU.
Do what ever works for you and is the easiest without having to get Visas etc. As above do not show both at immigration or to travel agents eyebrows and alarm bells will be raised and you may end up having to answer a pile of questions. Especially in the USA with the over the top security there now

bachata · Aug 4, 2011

william webster said:
If you hold a US passport, you MUST use that passport upon entering the US.

US citizens may hold multiple passports but are obliged to use the US passport on entering the US.

If you try to enter Canada on your RD passport, won't you need a visa?
You will not if you use your US one.

So if I get a blue passport all I have to do is to throwaway in a closet of my house the Dominican one....

No more taxes for Leonel!:smoke:

JJ

belmont · Aug 4, 2011

bachata said:
So if I get a blue passport all I have to do is to throwaway in a closet of my house the Dominican one....

No more taxes for Leonel!:smoke:

JJ

Dominican taxes are territorial. What you make in the the DR, you pay on in the DR.

bachata · Aug 4, 2011

You see, that's why I love DR1... I've learned another word in English today; Scholarship = beca.

JJ

bachata · Aug 4, 2011

belmont said:
Dominican taxes are territorial. What you make in the the DR, you pay on in the DR.

Dominicans abroad pay a lot of taxes in DR, any time you have to renew a Dominican passport, driver license, property taxes, vehicles registration etc...

Or just think about a Dominican working in the US sending every month an amount of Dollars to the family. a big percent of that money goes directly to government in taxes.

JJ

belmont · Aug 4, 2011

bachata said:
Dominicans abroad pay a lot of taxes in DR, any time you have to renew a Dominican passport, driver license, property taxes, vehicles registration etc...

Or just think about a Dominican working in the US sending every month an amount of Dollars to the family. a big percent of that money goes directly to government in taxes.

JJ

She is living in the DR. She was talking about throwing her DR passport away so the she would be exempt from Dominican taxes ("no more taxes for Leonel"). Doesn't work that way, anybody living and working in the DR is subject to DR taxes. In her case, as a US citizen living abroad, she is responsible to pay taxes to the US for any Dominican income in excess of around $92,000 (not sure of the current figure).

According to Fabio:

Dominican income tax law is primarily territorial. All income derived from work or business activities in the Dominican Republic is taxable, no matter if the person is a Dominican, a resident foreigner or a non-resident foreigner. On the other hand, income derived from work done abroad, even by a Dominican, is not taxable in the Dominican Republic.
The exception to the principle of territoriality is income from financial sources abroad (Articles 269 and 271 of the Tax Code). A Dominican or a resident foreigner receiving income from financial investments abroad (stocks and bonds, certificates of deposits, etc.) must pay taxes in the DR on their income from those investments.

Social security benefits and income from pension plans are not considered income from financial investments

La Profe_1 · Aug 4, 2011

OOPS!

Sorry, was trying to clean up a quote and accidentally double posted.

Confused about traveling with dual citizenship

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