Dual Passport - Entry/Exit question?

[Trident280]

Hi,

 

I'm a Bangkok old-hand now living abroad with my Thai wife and family. My son (born in Thailand) recently returned to Thailand on a NZ passport. While there he has secured a new Thai passport (his old one expired several years back, and wishes to stay beyond the 90 days of his NZ visa.

 

So my question is, having come in to Thailand on a NZ passport, can he now ignore this entry visa, and exit later on his new Thai passport? This seems to me to be fairly obvious, but my wife says he will get in to trouble when departing Thailand since she believes the passports will be cross referenced.

 

Thanks for your input.

[BritTim]

If he entered on the NZ passport, he must exit on the NZ passport. It would have been better to renew the Thai passport while overseas, and enter on that (or even have entered with his expired Thai passport which is also allowed). On future visits to Thailand, he should use his Thai passport, but may get into a discussion on why there is no Thai exit stamp in the Thai passport. If he stands his ground, and asks to see a supervisor, it should generally get sorted out OK, but it is better to avoid these kinds of complications. Anyway, short term, he must exit on the NZ passport before on overstay, and try to re-enter by air using the Thai passport.

[dutchweller]

Send him across a Land border for the day and re enter on his Thai Passport 

We had the same issue

Yes he will be on Overstay if he stays on his NZ passport 90 day stamp beyond the allowed 90 days

 

[novo58]

cant he just state that he had his NEW Thai passport mailed to him overseas......when he first uses it to enter Thailand also stating that it was his FIRST Thai passport.

 

Slightly off topic but back in the last century I lived in london for 6 yrs . I am an Australian with an aussie passport . After living in london for 12 months I applied for ( what was then called ) a British visitors passport. It was basically just a 3 fold cardboard id card ....but permitted me to travel thru europe without visa's ( in very early days of the EU.)

 

When I was finally leaving England for good to return to Aust , I told the Immigration officer at Heathrow that according to their records I had left the country about 10 times but never returned as I used the Aussie passport to leave the country and the British visitors passport to return as the queue there was always quicker

 

he just looked at me with a perplexed smile and waved me on.

[speckio]

5 hours ago, BritTim said:

If he entered on the NZ passport, he must exit on the NZ passport. It would have been better to renew the Thai passport while overseas, and enter on that (or even have entered with his expired Thai passport which is also allowed). On future visits to Thailand, he should use his Thai passport, but may get into a discussion on why there is no Thai exit stamp in the Thai passport. If he stands his ground, and asks to see a supervisor, it should generally get sorted out OK, but it is better to avoid these kinds of complications. Anyway, short term, he must exit on the NZ passport before on overstay, and try to re-enter by air using the Thai passport.

 

the above sums it up...

 

do not overstay on your NZ passport end of discussion!

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, dutchweller said:

Send him across a Land border for the day and re enter on his Thai Passport 

We had the same issue

Yes he will be on Overstay if he stays on his NZ passport 90 day stamp beyond the allowed 90 days

 

Very likely this will not work since he will be missing exit stamps in his passport from the neighbouring country.

 

Fly out and in.

[HHTel]

The above is correct.  He would need to re-enter Thailand by air.  A land border would query entry/exit stamps.

[Dan5]

I have a related question. My daughter who is a little over 1 year old will be getting an American passport soon and since her mother is Thai, she will also have a Thai passport. There are many countries where she can enter without a visa using the USA passport so it would be preferable to use it. But from this discussion it sounds like that would present a problem when she returns since they would likely stamp her passport for a 30 day stay or whatever it is. But of course she is a Thai citizen so that would allow her to stay as long as she wants. What is the best way to handle this?

[dutchweller]

The way to use dual passports is enter and exit the country with the passport issued by that country.. 

If you live in a country that does not allow dual passports just don't tell them.. 

As far as I know passport checkpoints are only interested in the dates you enter and exit their country... 

[elviajero]

Yes it is possible that his Thai/NZ passports will be linked. If so they will insist he uses the NZ passport to exit otherwise an entry will remain open. 

 

The easiest fix is to hand over both passports on exit. Complete a departure card for the Thai passport, and ask for exit stamps in both passports.

 

Your son can easily get a 1 year extension of stay for the NZ entry. It costs 1,900 baht from your local immigration office.

[elviajero]

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

I have a related question. My daughter who is a little over 1 year old will be getting an American passport soon and since her mother is Thai, she will also have a Thai passport. There are many countries where she can enter without a visa using the USA passport so it would be preferable to use it. But from this discussion it sounds like that would present a problem when she returns since they would likely stamp her passport for a 30 day stay or whatever it is. But of course she is a Thai citizen so that would allow her to stay as long as she wants. What is the best way to handle this?

Exit and enter each country with the passport for that country.

 

If your daughter were to enter Thailand using the USA passport she could get a 1 year extension of stay, or simply overstay. There would be no overstay fine at her age.

[ubonjoe]

1 hour ago, Dan5 said:

I have a related question. My daughter who is a little over 1 year old will be getting an American passport soon and since her mother is Thai, she will also have a Thai passport. There are many countries where she can enter without a visa using the USA passport so it would be preferable to use it. But from this discussion it sounds like that would present a problem when she returns since they would likely stamp her passport for a 30 day stay or whatever it is. But of course she is a Thai citizen so that would allow her to stay as long as she wants. What is the best way to handle this?

Leave and enter Thailand on her Thai passport. Then enter the US or other countries on the US passport. Doing that way there should never be a problem.

On entry to Thailand never ever let them see the US passport.

[Dan5]

55 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Leave and enter Thailand on her Thai passport. Then enter the US or other countries on the US passport. Doing that way there should never be a problem.

On entry to Thailand never ever let them see the US passport.

Thanks. But I'm curious. Why should they never see her USA passport?

[ubonjoe]

2 minutes ago, Dan5 said:

Thanks. But I'm curious. Why should they never see her USA passport?

So that they don't insist on stamping her into the country on it.

[Jonmarleesco]

Safest way would be to check with immigration.

[Jonmarleesco]

1 hour ago, ubonjoe said:

So that they don't insist on stamping her into the country on it.

They won't.

[ubonjoe]

11 minutes ago, Jonmarleesco said:

They won't.

I can assure that there have been many people stamped in using their non Thai passport because they showed the other passport.

It is a case of out of sight out of mind.

[HHTel]

As usual what a load of crap from the 'know-alls'.  If you enter Thailand on a foreign passport regardless of your nationality, then you must leave on that passport. If you leave Thailand on a foreign passport then if you want to re-enter on a Thai passport then it must be done at an airport.  It doesn't work at a land border.  Simple logic lost to many.

[StevieAus]

My wife and I live in Thailand and my wife holds both Thai and Australian citizenship and passports 

We regularly travel overseas and as advised above she uses her Thai passport to exit or enter Thailand she never shows her Australian passport to Immigration and we have never experienced a problem

Unless it is an ASEAN country we are visiting she usually uses the Australian passport to enter as it avoids the need for a visa ( unless we both need one)

Again no problems experienced

[Dan5]

 

27 minutes ago, StevieAus said:

My wife and I live in Thailand and my wife holds both Thai and Australian citizenship and passports 

We regularly travel overseas and as advised above she uses her Thai passport to exit or enter Thailand she never shows her Australian passport to Immigration and we have never experienced a problem

Unless it is an ASEAN country we are visiting she usually uses the Australian passport to enter as it avoids the need for a visa ( unless we both need one)

Again no problems experienced

Thank you. Advice based on a lot of experience. The best kind.

[Trident280]

Thanks everyone who commented on this thread. I want to update it for other people in the same situation...

 

After roughly 5 months in Thailand my son left on his new Thai passport, no problem. We were advised by the NZ embassy that he should not try to return to Thailand on his NZ passport, but then why would he (now his Thai passport is up to date he would only ever enter or exit on his Thai passport). At check in when asked for his NZ visa he showed his NZ passport and the Airline was satisfied. Nothing special at passport control. And obviously he entered NZ on his NZ passport.

 

FYI, there is another option (at least for NZers), and that's to get your Thai passport endorsed by the NZ embassy, meaning you can enter NZ any time without requiring a visa. This costs B4,500, and would have obviated the need to show the NZ passport at Check-in. Not sure what paperwork is required as we chose not to do it. But other than that, there is no advantage whatsoever.

[Mattd]

1 minute ago, Trident280 said:

FYI, there is another option (at least for NZers), and that's to get your Thai passport endorsed by the NZ embassy, meaning you can enter NZ any time without requiring a visa. This costs B4,500, and would have obviated the need to show the NZ passport at Check-in. Not sure what paperwork is required as we chose not to do it. But other than that, there is no advantage whatsoever.

Thanks for the update and glad all went as planned.

I would think that it is not worth spending 4,500 THB for this if all it does is save showing the NZ passport at check in, as that is not exactly difficult or time consuming, there is a possibility by doing this the Thai IO could question about it and dual nationality when departing Thailand, which could defeat the advice of not showing the NZ passport to Thai Immigration?

[Trident280]

Just now, Mattd said:

Thanks for the update and glad all went as planned.

I would think that it is not worth spending 4,500 THB for this if all it does is save showing the NZ passport at check in, as that is not exactly difficult or time consuming, there is a possibility by doing this the Thai IO could question about it and dual nationality when departing Thailand, which could defeat the advice of not showing the NZ passport to Thai Immigration?

Yeah - that's what we decided too - better not to raise any flags. From a conservative viewpoint B4,500 spent on that endorsement could save B20,000 worth of overstay fees. But even the NZ embassy (unofficially) said "just leave on your Thai passport."

[IMA_FARANG]

He entered on his NZ passport,  and therefore he has a current visa in that passport.

He should exit on  that same NZ passport so that his entry stamp shows a corresponding exit stamp to avoid overstay problems and cancel out the entry with an exit.

Use his Thai passport to enter a neighboring country, and then return to Thailand on hi Thai passport.

If they question him for not  having an entry  stamp in his new Thai passport, he should show the receipt r the fee for a new Thai passport that he received in Thailand. If necessary explain this to a supervisor in immigration who should have seen this situation before.

I recommend that  this be done by air re-entry as the immigration people at the airport should have seen this before, whereas land borders immigration may have never seen it.

But the first step is to clear the entry stamp on his NZ passport with a corresponding exit stamp to balance entries and exits out.

Then re-enter on your new Thai passport as described above.

Good luck.

 

[Mattd]

@IMA_FARANGMy understanding is that he is no longer in Thailand, he exited using a new Thai passport with no questions asked by Thai immigration, so long as he only ever uses his Thai passport to enter and exit Thailand from now on, then the NZ passport entry is no longer applicable.

He should have no problems entering Thailand using his Thai passport, as he has an exit stamp in it already, can't see that immigration would make, or even try to make, the link between him entering before on a NZ passport and exiting on a Thai one, especially now he has successfully exited using the Thai one.

[Eff1n2ret]

6 hours ago, Trident280 said:

FYI, there is another option (at least for NZers), and that's to get your Thai passport endorsed by the NZ embassy, meaning you can enter NZ any time without requiring a visa. This costs B4,500, and would have obviated the need to show the NZ passport at Check-in. Not sure what paperwork is required as we chose not to do it. But other than that, there is no advantage whatsoever.

The UK has a similar arrangement for dual nationals, known as the 'Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode', which can be endorsed in a foreign passport and indicates that the holder can enter and live in the UK without restriction. However, because of the potential for fraud, more than 5 years ago they stopped issuing these to anyone who also held a British passport. Now you can have either a UK passport or a Certificate of RoA in your foreign passport. I would guess that nowadays there are few applicants for the latter. 

[TerryLH]

"But even the NZ embassy (unofficially) said "just leave on your Thai passport.""

 

That doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.