Dual passports and border crossing

[Peter Aherne]

Hi, So I just had an interesting and confusing situation. I have two Irish passports as I travel frequently. I got a business passport for general travel and my personal passport I use only for entry and exit to Thailand as it has my Non-O visa extended by marriage.

 

So, Last week my wife and I flew from Suvarabumhi to Phnom Penh and then traveled up to Siam Reap and were due to fly back to Bangkok on Sunday. In a last minute change we decided to travel over the border at O'Samach and stop off in Surin for a few days on the way back to Bangkok. At this stage I had my Cambodian visa & stamps in the business passport and Thai visa in my personal one. No problems on the Cambodian side and got stamped out but on the Thai side they refused me entry on the Thai visa because I did not have the Cambodian stamps on the same passport. This makes no sense to me as I've often traveled like this (Though only in and out of Suvaranabumhi). One immigration officer and another non-uniformed guy even agreed with me but not the ones that mattered apparently. Long story short, they would only give me a 30 days visa exemption which would have then invalidated my Non-O. In the end I had to cancel my exit stamp from Cambodia (There were some very helpful folks who sorted this for me) and come back to Siam Reap and fly out as planned on Sunday, then apparently this dual passport issue goes away. Is there some logic here that I'm missing, I obviously thought my personal visa with my Thai Non-O would work the same at every entry point....I'm very confused!

 

Cheers,
peter.

[steve187]

you can not change passports at a land border, where you went wrong was to mix the 2 passport on this trip, and trying to enter at a land border

 

[ubonjoe]

8 hours ago, Peter Aherne said:

Long story short, they would only give me a 30 days visa exemption which would have then invalidated my Non-O.

You one year extension based upon marriage is in one passport and the visa exempt entry would of been your other passport. Getting the visa exempt in a different passport would not of made your extension invalid.

Immigration at land border crossing look for the departure stamp for the other country when trying to enter either country. Many people have tried swapping passports and failed because they are strict about it. They are concerned about people sneaking by or going around departure immigration for the other country for nefarious reasons.

[Peter Aherne]

I'm not sure still though why there was an issue. The departure stamp for the other country was there, in the other passport they had in their hands. My entry to Thailand is surely determined by my valid passport and valid visa for Thailand. Anyway, I guess live and learn. Pity there is not some sort of Biometrics system so that people actually trying to dodge immigration would be caught and people with completely valid visa's would be left through ????. 

 

On another note, I've just done a very quick google yet still have not found anything stating this, is there somewhere that outlines this requirement at land borders and the rationale? Obviously a bit useless googling after the fact but curious now....

 

The other weird thing is that somewhere through this process one of the officers stapled the departure portion of a TM6 into my passport, it was in another persons name and had a different arrival state for Thailand. The can of beer one of the officers was "slyly" drinking from may explain it...when we raised this, card taken out and nothing said...TiT...

 

@ubonjoeYeah, it's a little weird but they insisted that if I entered Thailand on an exempt I would have to apply for marriage visa again...thus, happily back in Siam Reap on the original plan to fly back to Swampy....

Edited October 5, 2019 by Peter Aherne

[Bert Jones]

Quick question if I may...I need a visa to visit Vietnam on my Irish passport. Can I arrive by air from Thailand and present my British passport?

[Peter Aherne]

2 minutes ago, Bert Jones said:

Quick question if I may...I need a visa to visit Vietnam on my Irish passport. Can I arrive by air from Thailand and present my British passport?

Yep, as far as I know that should be fine. A lot of dual nationality citizens will use one passport leaving their country of residence and presenting another at immigration in their destination. Best to book flights under your British passport though as they will look for your Vietnam visa when checking in.

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, Peter Aherne said:

On another note, I've just done a very quick google yet still have not found anything stating this, is there somewhere that outlines this requirement at land borders and the rationale? Obviously a bit useless googling after the fact but curious now....

 

I have never seen anything official about the procedure.

Many reports on this forum about it happening. I can recall a post about a guy stuck on the bridge at Nong Khai. He went back and forth a few times until the the bridge was about to close. Thai immigration relented and let him enter using his other passport that had a new Tourist visa in it.

 

1 hour ago, Peter Aherne said:

@ubonjoeYeah, it's a little weird but they insisted that if I entered Thailand on an exempt I would have to apply for marriage visa again...thus, happily back in Siam Reap on the original plan to fly back to Swampy....

That is certainly  not correct since they would be in different passports. 

If they had let you enter to get a visa exempt entry you could of turned around and used both passports to leave the country again using the other passport. Entered Cambodia then turn around again and entered here again.

[Bert Jones]

Sorry Peter, "as they will look for your Vietnam visa when checking in" who will? My British passport allows a 15 day stay without any visa.

[Peter Aherne]

11 minutes ago, Bert Jones said:

Sorry Peter, "as they will look for your Vietnam visa when checking in" who will? My British passport allows a 15 day stay without any visa.

Hi Bert,

The airline will look to ensure you have the right to enter Vietnam. So if you book with your Irish passport they will look in that for a visa and if you then show your British passport to prove you have the right to enter they may update your booking, probably not an issue but a waste of time. If you book with British, they should know (or you can tell them) that British citizens have 15 day visa exempt entry. I always book with the passport that will have the visa/right of entry for my destination as the airlines will usually check...

[Peter Aherne]

22 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

If they had let you enter to get a visa exempt entry you could of turned around and used both passports to leave the country again using the other passport. Entered Cambodia then turn around again and entered here again.

Yeah, I was thinking that, if I could get a new visa for Cambodia on my other passport just turn around and leave again on that and no problem. For some reason or another we were told that was not possible, Irish normally need to apply for VoA before travelling to Cambodia so I guess this is why. Luckily someone on the Cambodia side managed to get our departure stamps cancelled so we could come back into Cambodia. Nice that Cambodian immigration can be so helpful to a tourist but Thai cannot do the same for a long-term resident and one of their own citizens!  

[Krupps]

THis cannot swap passports crossing land borders seems to be a Thai specific thing.

I am dual national and have done it many times between EU and Russia,

never been bothered by Russia. Same with Ukraine.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Krupps

[QPRFC]

4 hours ago, Krupps said:

THis cannot swap passports crossing land borders seems to be a Thai specific thing.

I am dual national and have done it many times between EU and Russia,

never been bothered by Russia. Same with Ukraine.

Yes I agree, I always switch passports to my advantage ie visa waiver for certain nationalities, cheaper visas for some nationalities etc

This is purely a Thai logic and Ferang haters thing.

 

Always airline check-in using the Passport you will enter the country on as they check for validity (it is their responsibility to ensure you can legally enter the destination country....otherwise they have to fly you back to origin point at their expense).

Then you are free to switch and show the Passport you entered the current country on to exit through Customs/Border Control (you must leave through Customs on the same Passport that you arrived).

[LukKrueng]

9 hours ago, Peter Aherne said:

Yeah, I was thinking that, if I could get a new visa for Cambodia on my other passport just turn around and leave again on that and no problem. For some reason or another we were told that was not possible, Irish normally need to apply for VoA before travelling to Cambodia so I guess this is why. Luckily someone on the Cambodia side managed to get our departure stamps cancelled so we could come back into Cambodia. Nice that Cambodian immigration can be so helpful to a tourist but Thai cannot do the same for a long-term resident and one of their own citizens!  

It is not "a Thai thing". What the Cambodians did was to cancel your departure stamp and could only do that as you didn't stay there till the end of your original permit to stay. Should it have been the other way around ie departing Thailand and refused entry to Cambodia, the Thai immigration would have done the same. On the other hand, should you have exited Thailand on passport 1 and tried to enter Cambodia on passport No. 2 - the Cambodians would have refused your entry as well. Passport switching is only possible when flying in/out.

 

 

6 hours ago, Krupps said:

THis cannot swap passports crossing land borders seems to be a Thai specific thing.

I am dual national and have done it many times between EU and Russia,

never been bothered by Russia. Same with Ukraine.

Not sure about EU / Russia, but maybe it's because there is no exit stamp when departing the EU? (I only departed the EU into Russia by land once, and can't remember if they stamped me on exit - this was 9 years ago...)

 

2 hours ago, QPRFC said:

Yes I agree, I always switch passports to my advantage ie visa waiver for certain nationalities, cheaper visas for some nationalities etc

This is purely a Thai logic and Ferang haters thing.

 

Always airline check-in using the Passport you will enter the country on as they check for validity (it is their responsibility to ensure you can legally enter the destination country....otherwise they have to fly you back to origin point at their expense).

Then you are free to switch and show the Passport you entered the current country on to exit through Customs/Border Control (you must leave through Customs on the same Passport that you arrived).

As stated above - this is NOT a Thai thing and has nothing to do with "Thai logic and Ferang haters thing". You CAN switch passport when flying in/out but not overland crossing. I once traveled from Thailand to Laos with a guy who has dual nationality. Upon getting to the Lao side he realized that the visa fee for his other passport (not the one he left Thailand with) was cheaper and tried to present that passport to Lao immigration. Once they saw he didn't have a departure stamp on that passport they refused and demanded he use the same passport he left Thailand with.

 

If I had to make a WILD guess as to why you can't do it by land crossing I would say that the out/in should show continuity as you are not supposed to stay in "no man land" for more than the time it takes to move from one country to the next, whereas when you fly you are basically in "no man land" for the duration of your flights (which with connecting flights over long distances can be a very long time anyway).

[dabhand]

This 'no switching at land borders' rule has been standard for decades.

 

Experienced it at Sungai Golok over 25 years back when i tried to switch between my two UK passports. Working in Kelantan and main pp was almost full and 2nd pp nearly empty. Completed the imm form with 2nd pp  info and handed to Thai IO. He started looking through the pp and then asked me where I had come from. What? It could only be Malaysia, surely. That's when I thought I had a problem (no TVF in those days!) and would be checked over for having two passports. Anyway, I blurted out 'Malaysia', fished out my main pp from my bag,  completed another form and was on my way after the IO stamped me in with no further comment and me feeling rather relieved and a bit red faced.....

 

As mentioned many times, switching when travelling by air is no issue, done that many times, but by land borders is a definite no-no.

[Peter Aherne]

On 10/5/2019 at 9:44 PM, LukKrueng said:

On the other hand, should you have exited Thailand on passport 1 and tried to enter Cambodia on passport No. 2 - the Cambodians would have refused your entry as well

Hmm, as I said above live and learn, I never would have considered (Obviously given I got myself into the mess) that land and air borders would be treated differently. Still, don't really get the logic, fair enough they want to see where you just came from but the other passport does that...C'est la vie

 

Thanks for all the informative responses....