6

I am Canadian citizen with an Austrian passport as well. I wish to leave Pearson Airport using only my Austrian passport to live in EU. (I am in Canada a Canadian) Would this be acceptable?

Mark Mayo
  • 159,394
  • 103
  • 679
  • 1,477
user32905
  • 61
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
    Canada does not check your passport on departure. – Michael Hampton Aug 16 '15 at 04:19
  • I would say it's actually very much recommended. If you plan to enter Austria (or the EU as a EU citizen), you are supposed to use your Austrian (EU) passport, not a foreign one. Hence, you should use the Austrian passport for your flight in my opinion. – Chris Aug 17 '15 at 08:07

2 Answers2

8

The government of Canada won't check your passport upon departure, so this is not a problem.

Your airline will check your passport, but they just want you to hold a valid passport; they won't care what country it's from.

You will, of course, want to have your Canadian passport with you for your return to Canada.

Evan
  • 695
  • 5
  • 10
  • 3
    The airline may not care (that much) what country your passport is from, but they do care a lot if you are allowed to enter your destination country (depending on the country they will check if you require/hold a valid visa) and may not let you board without it. – Chris Aug 17 '15 at 08:10
  • ^ is seconded from personal experience. I'm dual Canada/Hong Kong citizen and when I showed them my Canadian Passport at departure, the airline almost didn't let me on until I mentioned I have a Hong Kong resident card. They have to register either a valid Visa or a valid citizenship documentation for the destination. – Nelson Oct 20 '15 at 03:48
3

I have dual citizenship in the U.S. & Canada, and I live in the U.S. Since I have relatives on both sides of the border, I have flown and driven across the border more times than I can count, presenting my U.S. passport when entering the United States and my Canadian passport when I have entered Canada. I have never once run into a problem with this. Since Canada does not have exit controls, I doubt that replacing "US" with "Austria" above will yield any problems.

Entering Canada, I always present my Canadian passport. This means that there's usually a part of the conversation with the border guard that goes like this:

Canadian border guard: Where do you live?

Me: Connecticut.

CBG: What's your legal status in the US?

Me: I'm a dual citizen. Do you need to see my U.S. Passport?

CBG: No.

This is the sum total of the explanations I've ever had to give about having multiple citizenships and passports. (But then, I'm a upper-middle-class white male; YMMV if you're from a group that gets treated with more suspicion.)

Community
  • 1
Michael Seifert
  • 18,970
  • 3
  • 68
  • 96