11

I am German and I am holding two valid German passports. My first passport (Passport A) contains a Chinese visa. My second passport (Passport B) is still empty so far.

Now I want to travel from Germany to Singapore and move on to China from there.

My plan is to fly to Singapore and enter with Passport B. When leaving, I need go to China with Passport A (as it contains the visa - I can clear immigration with passport B in Singapore).

Are there any problems about this plan, at the check-in in Singapore, immigration in Singapore or immigration in China? If I check-in with Passport A, I can't prove legal immigration to Singapore (as the stamp is in Passport B) If I check in with Passport B, I can't prove I hold a valid Chinese visa).

Will the problem be solved by presenting both passports? Which passport should I book the flights on?

mts
  • 26,300
  • 16
  • 123
  • 239
Frank
  • 111
  • 1
  • 3
  • 5
    Why not just use passport A for the entire trip? – phoog Jul 05 '16 at 20:29
  • It's not a problem. Make sure you enter and exit Singapore with the same passport, but you can use a different passport to enter China than exit Singapore. Avoid telling the Chinese about passport B, they are suspicious about dual passport holders. If you have less than twenty-four hours in Singapore and this is one ticket, you may have to check in with passport A in Germany (to prove you will be admitted to China), but you can exit the Schengen zone with either passport. – Calchas Jul 05 '16 at 20:31
  • 1
    That would be possible of course, but due to reasons of convenience, I would prefer the way I described. – Frank Jul 05 '16 at 20:31
  • The solution is to check in with one passport and use the other passport to pass through exit control, then switch back to the first passport when you land. – Calchas Jul 05 '16 at 20:33
  • 1
    I will stay in Singapore for a couple of weeks, so that proof won't be necessary – Frank Jul 05 '16 at 20:33
  • 2
    With respect to "which passport should I book the flight on" I don't think it matters. I have two passports of two different countries and I often check in for some portions of an itinerary using the passport other than the one I put into the airline's system initially. Nobody has ever seemed to notice, much less care. But I've never traveled to Singapore or China, so YYMV. – phoog Jul 05 '16 at 20:34
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of I have two passports/nationalities. How do I use them when I travel? – Michael Hampton Jul 05 '16 at 21:09
  • Anyone who would not give green light for the plan so far? – Frank Jul 05 '16 at 21:12
  • 7
    Voting to leave open. The suggested dupe is about people with two passports from two different countries, this one about two passports from the SAME country. Also none of the answers there really addresses the OPs problem here. Close-voters, please be more careful! – mts Jul 06 '16 at 07:44
  • I have edited the question title to be more clear and to stand out more against the suggested duplicate. – mts Jul 06 '16 at 07:48
  • The question being suggested as a duplicate, you should read - it will tell you most of what you need to do. There's no likley problem with what you do propose, but I can't see any reason for it either (Singapore has nothing against you visiting China, so it wouldn't hurt for them to know you had that visa) – CMaster Jul 06 '16 at 07:55
  • Post 23 in this old forum thread is slightly related: http://www.travellerspoint.com/forum.cfm?thread=26326&start=21 but better than that I suggest you to contact the German embassy / consulate in the city you wish to travel to in China. I once had a question and staff from the consulate in Shanghai replied with good info within few days. – mts Jul 06 '16 at 09:14
  • @mts It is an exact duplicate of the "Same name, dual citizenship OK" situation in the other question. It doesn't matter if the two passports are from the same country or from different countries. – JonathanReez Jul 06 '16 at 10:42
  • 2
    @JonathanReez I would second that, however I am against closure as dupe since it is not the same question. See the meta post A friendly reminder that duplicates should be the same QUESTION, not different questions with similar answers – mts Jul 06 '16 at 11:13
  • @mts Editing the original question to make it a bit more broad is the appropriate move here. Otherwise I could just copy-paste the first paragraph of the original question's answer. – JonathanReez Jul 06 '16 at 11:16
  • @JonathanReez let us discuss this rather in chat, see [my post there]http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/30842666#30842666) – mts Jul 06 '16 at 11:21

3 Answers3

10

While I haven't been in the exact same situation, I have two German passports as well and I have been travelling in Asia for the last few years using both of them.

Pretty much always, use the same passport to exit a country that you have used to enter it. Using the second passport when arriving in the next country should be fine. If they really want to see prove of your stay in the previous country you can show them your second passport.

Some tips:

In some(many) countries it is illegal for locals to own two passports of their country, so immigration officers may be confused, but you can tell them that is is perfectly legal in Germany.

If you plan to apply for a third country visa in a foreign country, you may have to use the same passport that you used to enter that country, example is applying for a Chinese visa in Hong Kong.

In general keep your second passport away from the immigration office. When entering Turkmenistan from Iran, I handed in both passports because one had my Iranian exit stamp and the other one my Turkmen visa. The border guards were completely confused because they didn't realised both passports belong to the same person and complained about the missing Turkmen visa in the first passport, I just explained to them, they are both mine and all was fine.

One of the reasons why you can have two passports in Germany is to allow you to get many visas in a short period by sending them off to embassies in parallel, so you may end up with some visas in one passport and other visas in the other one. In my experience it was perfectly fine to 'switch' passports between border gates (or on the plane)

Peter Hahndorf
  • 24,737
  • 9
  • 93
  • 151
1

I also have 2 passports from the same country... I often have problem to swap the passports though-especially when coming to Thailand they always want to see my Malaysian stamp which confirms I left malaysia.... So I show them my first passport with my Malay visa but ask them to use the second for the Thai visa- and so far they always disagreed and I needed to wait a long time before they accepted the fact that im possesing 2 valid passports. Saying this, I think it's easier when flying ..probably because the immigration officers at the airports have seen more people like me.

user76621
  • 11
  • 1
1

I have the same issue, different country and travel to China frequently. I just hand them both passports. There has never been a problem. The first time I flew to Hong Kong and then crossed into Shenzhen, the border lady told me it is common. Ps. It can cause problems to enter on one and exit on another. They know when and where you enter and exit. True for Vietnam too.

CMaster
  • 13,020
  • 7
  • 59
  • 100
Karen
  • 11
  • 1