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Can a Chinese citizen travel to Hong Kong with the HK passport (issued in China to visit HK for up to 7 days) and, after arriving in Hong Kong, use a second passport from a country that allows dual citizenship and travel on to another country?

The initial part of traveling to Hong Kong is clear and straightforward, but the second part, when leaving Hong Kong with another passport, and when returning to China 3 weeks later, will there be issues with the Chinese Customs authorities?

Has anyone with kids born in China with one parent being a foreigner experienced this?

Giorgio
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der_bayer
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  • Is there a reason why you're going through Hong Kong? – user102008 May 15 '17 at 20:44
  • @user102008 Presumably they would require a visa to exit China with their Chinese passport, and can't show the foreign passport without risking their Chinese citizenship. – lambshaanxy May 15 '17 at 21:52
  • @jpatokal: Why would it risk their Chinese citizenship? If the child is legally a Chinese citizen, as well as a foreign one, then that's perfectly fine and accepted. They can use a Chinese Travel Document (or a Chinese Entry/Exit Permit) in combination with a foreign passport to exit China. – user102008 May 15 '17 at 23:31
  • @user102008 The OP did not state that the dual national in question is a child. – lambshaanxy May 16 '17 at 08:12

1 Answers1

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I presume that by "HK passport issued in China", you are referring to the Exit-Entry Permit (往来港澳通行证). If so, standard procedure would be that you exit China using the EEP, enter Hong Kong using your second passport, and then you can exit and re-enter Hong Kong freely (assuming your second passport has visa-free rights to HK).

The problem you will have is that the EEP limits visits to Hong Kong to 7 days. So the above works for trips <7 days in total, but if you are away for three weeks and then cross the border back from Hong Kong to China, China is highly likely to notice that you have overstayed and then you will have a hard time explaining why and how.

I would advise getting a full Chinese passport and using this to travel via a country that does not require advance visas, such as Thailand or Indonesia.

lambshaanxy
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  • A full Chinese passport means they cannot be dual citizens I believe as PRC does not allow that – Matt Douhan May 15 '17 at 10:45
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    @MattDouhan Just because they're not supposed to be dual citizens doesn't mean they aren't...! – lambshaanxy May 15 '17 at 11:33
  • @jpatokal could you expand on that? If you become a citizen of a different country then you are considered no longer chinese by China so you cannot have dual citizenship – Huangism May 15 '17 at 13:59
  • @Huangism If you don't report to Chinese authorities, how do they know you aren't a Chinese citizen anymore? – xuq01 May 15 '17 at 14:53
  • @xuq01 well you don't need to report it, case 1 is your chinese passport expires, when it does, you won't be able to get a new one. Case 2 is if you enter china with a different passport then they will know you are no longer a chinese citizen. So they might not know right away but you cannot hide this forever – Huangism May 15 '17 at 15:56
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    @Huangism Technically these are all true, but all of them are very hard to discover. 1. If you never report your loss of nationality, passport authorities in China will likely never discover that you have naturalized, so they will continue to issue passports to you. 2. No one will force you to enter China on a foreign passport, so people who want to hold on to their Chinese passport just don't do it. – xuq01 May 15 '17 at 15:58
  • @xuq01 sure you could lie about everything when renewing your chinese passport. If you are that kind of person then yes you could fool the country for awhile – Huangism May 15 '17 at 17:41
  • Also another thing to consider is the country you left from, it's very possible to get into trouble when they don't see any entry stamps to other country when they see an exit stamp – Huangism May 15 '17 at 17:43
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    @MattDouhan: "A full Chinese passport means they cannot be dual citizens I believe as PRC does not allow that " A country cannot "allow" or "not allow" dual nationality -- each country only determines who has its own nationality and when multiple countries' laws say a person has their respective nationalities, then the person has multiple nationality. For every country on Earth, there are situations when its laws will say a person has its nationality when another country's laws say the person has that nationality at the same time. – user102008 May 15 '17 at 20:31
  • @Huangism: "If you become a citizen of a different country then you are considered no longer chinese by China so you cannot have dual citizenship" That's for Chinese citizens who later voluntarily acquire a foreign nationality. But that's not the only way for dual nationality to come about. Many people are born with multiple nationalities. – user102008 May 15 '17 at 20:32
  • @user102008 sure I never said it was the only way – Huangism May 15 '17 at 20:49
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    If you become a citizen of another country it is illegal for you to keep your Chinese passport, confirmed by shanghai entry and exit department this morning, so unless you want some serious issues do not keep it, you can end up barred for life from PRC, HK and Macau, my wife is Chinese and I am Swedish and we just had a baby and are going through this process right now so this is first hand information directly from the shanghai government – Matt Douhan May 15 '17 at 23:36
  • @MattDouhan Make your child Swedish if you have to choose, unless you'll be living in China permanently, because the Swedish passport lets you visit so many more countries visa-free – Crazydre May 16 '17 at 02:18
  • Most definitely agree – Matt Douhan May 16 '17 at 02:35
  • @MattDouhan: "If you become a citizen of another country it is illegal for you to keep your Chinese passport" If a Chinese citizen voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality, they automatically lose Chinese nationality according to Article 9 of the nationality law, and some without Chinese nationality should not use a Chinese passport. However, if a person legally has both Chinese nationality and foreign nationality, there is nothing "illegal" about holding a Chinese passport, as they are legally a Chinese citizen. China simply does not recognize the foreign nationality of a dual national. – user102008 May 16 '17 at 19:11
  • @MattDouhan: Though people who legally have both Chinese nationality and foreign nationality would use a Chinese Travel Document or Chinese Entry/Exit Permit in combination with a foreign passport, rather than a Chinese "passport", to exit China. – user102008 May 16 '17 at 19:13
  • What you are saying is not accepted by the shanghai entry and exit department and I rather trust them on this as I sat with them for 4 hours the other day – Matt Douhan May 16 '17 at 19:35
  • @MattDouhan: No, that is wrong. What you are claiming to be saying "If you become a citizen of another country" is not relevant here because there is no indication that the person in question ever voluntarily "became" a foreign citizen. All we know is that they are a foreign citizen, as well as a Chinese citizen, according to the question. – user102008 May 17 '17 at 07:35
  • It does not matter if you become or are a citizen, PRC still makes it illegal to hold a PRC passport as a citizen at the same time as you are a citizen and passport holder of another country – Matt Douhan May 17 '17 at 07:38