Leaving the US with a foreign passport and entering with a US passport [duplicate]
![Leaving the US with a foreign passport and entering with a US passport [duplicate] - Crop unrecognizable person demonstrating British passport](/assets/images/leaving_the_us_with_a_foreign_passport_and_entering_with_a_us_passport_duplicate_0.jpeg "Leaving the US with a foreign passport and entering with a US passport [duplicate] - Crop unrecognizable person demonstrating British passport")
I will be traveling to Europe and Asia with my Hong Kong passport (tickets were booked with my previous legal name) and coming back with my US passport (I will be booking the ticket with my Hong Kong passport, since it has my previous legal name).
Will I get into trouble with US immigration when coming back? Since the US doesn't check passports going out of the country, how do they know who went out? Or doesn't it matter?
Best Answer
It does not matter. I've done this several times. There's a law that requires US citizens to "bear" a valid US passport when leaving and entering the US, but there's no penalty for violating the law, and in any case using a non-US passport is not forbidden.
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Can I travel in the US with a copy of my passport?
Can you use a photocopy of a passport to travel? No, a photocopy is not the same as a passport, and therefore is not a valid travel document. You will not be allowed to travel using a photocopy to anywhere that requires a valid U.S. passport.Can you have 2 passports at the same time?
Yes. U.S. citizens are allowed to have more than one valid U.S. passport at the same time, according to the National Passport Information Center, which is a division of the U.S. State Department. But in most cases, you are only allowed to have two valid passports at a time, according to the NPIC.Can I use my old passport while waiting for a new one USA?
The old passport may be sent separately from your new passport. We recommend keeping your old passport in a safe place as it is considered proof of your U.S. citizenship. If your old passport is linked to a valid visa, you can still use the valid visa. You must travel with both your new and old passport in this case.Can a US citizen enter the US without a passport?
A passport is not required. Citizens of Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda must present a valid passport from their country to travel to the U.S. by air. When traveling by land or sea, they must provide the necessary travel documents outlined by the Department of Homeland Security.AMERICANS ABROAD CAN ENTER THE U.S. WITH EXPIRED PASSPORTS
More answers regarding leaving the US with a foreign passport and entering with a US passport [duplicate]
Answer 2
One point of confusion here is that leaving one country is not the same as entering the next country. We have questions on this site (for example this one) about traveling between two countries using two passports, where you want to use one passport for one country and another for the other country. You should enter and leave each particular country with the same passport, so you should leave country A with the passport you entered country A with, but you can then enter country B with a different passport. In other words, on a single flight, you can "use" two different passports for the two ends of the flight. So "entering" the destination using your HKSAR passport does not imply that you "left" the US with that passport.
Of course, with the US, there are no exit checks (technically CBP could conduct random checks of departing passengers, but it is extremely rare and I have never seen it happen). In this case, you "leave" the US without needing to do anything. Although US law technically requires a US citizen to "enter" and "leave" the US with a US passport (with some exceptions for children and people with certain border crossing cards), when there are no exit checks, you vacuously satisfy the requirement to "leave" using a US passport without doing anything (technically the law says "bear" a US passport, which could mean just having it in your possession).
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Ethan Wilkinson, Uriel Mont, Charles Parker, Tima Miroshnichenko