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I enter country X with my passport from country Y.

I leave country X with my 2nd passport from country Y.

Both passports are of the same type but they have different passport numbers.

  1. Is that ok?

  2. If I have connecting flights, can I switch passports on the way?

  3. If I'm in a union, can I enter using the 1st passport from one union member and leave using the 2nd passport from another union member?

  4. Does my country disclose to other countries that I have two passports? When a passport control agent looks at his monitor, can he see I have two passports?

phoog
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kamksmdkasdm
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    For completeness, why do you have two passports from country Y, and what exactly does ‘different IDs and so on’ mean? – Traveller Oct 08 '23 at 18:13
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    Did you get a stamp in the passport when you entered country X, and please name country X as the answer can be rather different between countries. – Willeke Oct 08 '23 at 18:17
  • @Traveller different passport numbers. Does the reason matter? – kamksmdkasdm Oct 08 '23 at 18:29
  • @Willeke no stamp, X can be Peru or Germany – kamksmdkasdm Oct 08 '23 at 18:29
  • @Traveller The UK allows multiple passports and the web page on the subject gives some examples of why you might want them. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/additional-passports/additional-passports-accessible – badjohn Oct 08 '23 at 18:51
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    @kamksmdkasdm I don’t know if it matters however it certainly sounds unusual and without it I’m not sure if ‘is that ok?’ is answerable. Unless you’re just referring to eg an about-to-expire passport and a renewal. – Traveller Oct 08 '23 at 18:51
  • @badjohn Right, however the OP doesn’t mention their citizenship – Traveller Oct 08 '23 at 18:54
  • @Traveller That is just one example; there might be others. In fact there is at least one more: Ireland; I never thought to check before: https://www.dfa.ie/passports/second-passport/. – badjohn Oct 08 '23 at 18:58
  • That page mentions that a passport card might serve the purpose. In that sense, I already have two Irish passports. – badjohn Oct 08 '23 at 19:00
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    @Traveller does the citizenship matter? (badjohn: France is another example.) – Franck Dernoncourt Oct 08 '23 at 19:19
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    An EU citizen, when entering an EU (or other Schengen) country only needs to show proof of citizenship which can be a passport or ID. Any allowed 2nd passport (that has not been reported as lost or stolen) can also serve as proof of citizenship. For any other combination the exact country/citizenship must be made clear to answer properly. – Mark Johnson Oct 08 '23 at 19:44
  • @Traveller People can get two different passports if they want to visit both Israel and Iran for example – kamksmdkasdm Oct 08 '23 at 20:01
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    This is really too broad. To state the obvious: countries do not routinely share data about passports with every other country in the world (think about what that would entail in practice) but there are ways and situations in which border guards may be able to suspect you have another document and inquire further (e.g. matching name and date of birth in some entry/exit database or failing to find any record of entry). – Relaxed Oct 08 '23 at 20:28
  • Another obvious thing: What border guards see on their monitor will vary a lot depending on the country, your status, whether they have any reason to look for additional info or are satisfied with a cursory check, etc. So what are you hoping to learn from such a generic question? It sounds like you may have a specific issue in mind but if you don't disclose the specifics, it's difficult to know if there might be an issue. Your reason for having two passports may not be the most important factor but your citizenship, the countries in question, or the purpose of your trip may be important. – Relaxed Oct 08 '23 at 20:30
  • So the answer has to be “it depends” and working through all possible combinations is way too broad. Also what do you mean by “I'm in an union“? The EU? The Mercosur? You are a citizen of one of these countries? Visiting it? Voting to close until all this is clarified. – Relaxed Oct 08 '23 at 20:39
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    @Relaxed furthermore it's not clear whether "I'm in a union" (I have edited the question to correct the article) means "I'm a citizen of a country that is part of a union" or "I am present in a country that is part of a union" or perhaps both. – phoog Oct 08 '23 at 22:08
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    @phoog Yes, indeed, that's what I was trying to get at with my last two questions. – Relaxed Oct 09 '23 at 06:59
  • Is it a real case question or just a trivia? I have difficult to understand why one would change passport of same country mid travel (but for governmental purpose: diplomatic, military or spying, but so you should have better answer from your gov). For ID in any case it is ok (but remember: you are the same person), for the rest: should be ok (people do it all time with lost passports/temporary), but it is asking for trouble (and so delay at checks) – Giacomo Catenazzi Oct 09 '23 at 07:00
  • Does this answer your question? I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel? – Andrew Ferrier Oct 09 '23 at 13:51

2 Answers2

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  1. You can, in the sense that it's not illegal or anything, but the mismatch in IDs is highly likely to be picked up and you'll be asked why. A common and perfectly acceptable reason would be that your original passport was lost/stolen, you have a police report to prove this, and you were issued the new one as a replacement.

  2. Yes, it's generally much better to switch your passports between two countries. See I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel? for more.

  3. Assuming you're referring specifically to the EU here, if you're a EU citizen you can use any EU passport you like. If you're not, you should stick to the original passport that your visa was issued in.

  4. Generally speaking, no, countries are not aware of each other's passports, but there are exceptions and some info like lists of lost/stolen passports are widely disseminated.

lambshaanxy
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    Other reasons for having a different passport: passport renewal, or having two passports from the same country and having one then the other blocked in an embassy whim a visa is being processed. More common if this happens in your fou try if residence, though. In some places it will annoy them but all are perfectly legitimate scenarios. – jcaron Oct 08 '23 at 22:47
  • @kamksmdkasdm why would it matter? They're not going to refuse to grant residence or nationality because you have two passports. But it seems to me that presenting two different passports to the same country (one on arrival and the other on departure) is going to increase the likelihood that a country learns that you have two passports, not decrease it. In particular the country to which you showed both passports is going to know. – phoog Oct 09 '23 at 09:55
  • I'll improve my question: Can exception be this? Applying for EU residence renewal or citizenship. Maybe during this process they'd learn I have two passports from the same country, even though I never present my second passport to EU countries? – kamksmdkasdm Oct 09 '23 at 10:36
  • @kamksmdkasdm What is your actual concern here? It is completely legal to have two passports. – lambshaanxy Oct 09 '23 at 10:54
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Generally you are expected to show the same passport on entry and exit to Immigration authorities (that's in countries that have exit controls, of course, but they're the majority anyway). You'd have to have a good reason to use another passport to exit than the one you used to enter.

It did happen to me once: I have two passports, and grabbed the wrong one when leaving – it was a bit of a hassle to pass through Immigration. I had to provide a bunch of information as to why, the original passport's number, sign a declaration, etc... Not worth it, unless I had no choice.

As for the question about a union – in the case of the EU it's probably fine. You're not stamped in anyway, and as long as the ID matches the person, what the officer sees is an EU citizen. Move along!

Connecting flights: sure, you can do that, possibly. I've done it often: one of my passports had plenty of pages left, the other not so much. So I'd present the one with more pages, regardless of which one I used to leave.

Finally, about disclosures. Some countries share information with other countries, but generally, they don't need to. I was asked by a Malaysian Immigration officer why I had 2 passports, and was not using the same one every time I visited Malaysia. She insisted that I should not do that. She knew that because she had the record of my entries and exits on her screen, and the previous entry had a passport number that was different from the one I had given her, and it was still valid – so she assumed, rightly, that I was using 2 passports. She wasn't happy, but who cares? Bottom line, they might not know for sure, they they have lots of data to have an opinion on the matter.

dda
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    +1, but in your final example, Malaysia knew you had two passports because you had already used both. The OP was asking about if they can know about multiple passports before you use them. – lambshaanxy Oct 09 '23 at 04:04
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    Yes indeed. However the OP asks When a passport control agent looks at his monitor, can he see I have two passports? Nowhere does it say BEFORE. Which is why I felt free to mention my case. :-) – dda Oct 09 '23 at 05:26
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    "As for the question about a union – in the case of the EU it's probably fine. You're not stamped in anyway, and as long as the ID matches the person, what the officer sees is an EU citizen. Move along!" @dda If you're an EU resident (not a citizen)? I think residence permits are not tied to passport numbers but I'm not sure – kamksmdkasdm Oct 09 '23 at 08:08
  • @kamksmdkasdm You may be right – I'm an EU citizen, and I thought as one. I know that in France resiodence permits are a separate ID card. So indeed it's the card that would be scanned. – dda Oct 09 '23 at 08:10
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    @dda They also look at the passport because they have to. If they look at it, I'm assuming it is scanned too? – kamksmdkasdm Oct 09 '23 at 08:24
  • From what I remember, being the spouse of a non-EU citizen, not necessarily. We would offer our ID cards, and that was scanned. Sometimes they'd ask for the foreign passport, sometimes not. – dda Oct 09 '23 at 09:54
  • @kamksmdkasdm are you wondering whether a resident of a Schengen country could prevent the country of residence from knowing about a second passport? Certainly if the country of residence is country X in the question then it's exceedingly likely that they would record the second passport number, and if they do, they will certainly be able to associate it with the residence permit and the first passport. Whether they actually do make that connection will depend on the country; they may not even try to do it, or their algorithms might not be up to the task. – phoog Oct 09 '23 at 10:02