I'm a US citizen as is my son. Due to COVID-19, I was unable to renew my son's passport. We have tickets and are supposed to travel to Spain within the next two weeks. He also has a current Spanish passport (holds dual citizenship). Will I have trouble boarding the plane or leaving/entering the US? I can provide a birth certificate, street address and school ID if needed. Will I need other documents, or can I get a letter from your agency to assist me with this endeavor?
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DavidRecallsMonica
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John
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1Please see the question I linked. The short answer is that it is a legal requirement for your son to bear a valid US passport when he leaves the US, but there is no enforcement of this law, nor any penalty for violating it. – MJeffryes Jun 26 '20 at 17:02
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1FYI Why would airlines not let a US citizen with an expired passport board a plane back to the US?. – Franck Dernoncourt Jun 26 '20 at 17:10
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7I'm not sure what you mean by "your agency". This site is not an agency and is not official in any way. It is just a community Q&A site. – Nate Eldredge Jun 26 '20 at 17:35
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1If you are not an EU-Citizen, make sure that you can prove that you are a legal guardian of a minor EU-Citizen, since the exact conditions for entering the Schengen Area from the 1st of July are not yet known. – Mark Johnson Jun 27 '20 at 07:31
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Short answer:
- He will have no problems leaving the country.
- Your son cannot be denied entry into the US. He may get questioned or yelled at by CBP but he will get in, if he manages to get to the border in the first place
- However, no airline will let him board a US bound flight with an expired US passport
- As a dual citizen you are required to use your US citizenship in all dealings with US government including entry and exit of the US.
In other words, he can easily get to Spain, but it's very difficult to come back to the US. There are potential work around but they are complicated not legally on the "murky" side of things, so I'd recommend against them.
Hilmar
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