ROA Sticker in US Passport

[Racutis]

Hi all,

Is it possible to have a Right of Abode sticker in a US passport?

Thanks,
Racutis

[RobinLondon]

Yes.

If you naturalise, you may have a right of abode sticker placed in your original passport (like I think Rogerio did) in case you lose one passport or really don't care about getting a UK one. Some Commonwealth citizens who also hold a foreign passport (i.e., non-Commonwealth) can have their ROA stickers placed in the foreign passport if they so choose.

Do note, however, that although the ROA allows you to go through the UK/EU line at UK immigration, you've got to go through the "other nationalities" queue at other EU checkpoints.

[Rogerio]

That's absolutely right, Robin... great memory!

I only really used it once in the UK... then always used my UK passport.

Rogerio

[Christophe]

Hi all,

Is it possible to have a Right of Abode sticker in a US passport?

Thanks,
Racutis

Yes it is - as long as you have the right of abode - most likely by being a British citizen - your British citizenship doesn't have to have been acquired by naturalisation; a person who is a British citizen by birth can also have a right of abode certificate put in a non-British passport if they possess another citizenship. (In addition, some Commonwealth citizens have the right of abode without being British citizens.)

As noted above, with a right of abode certificate in your passport, you may use the UK/EU/EEA/Swiss gates at UK ports of entry. A right of abode certificate confers no special status in other EU/EEA countries, even if you have the right of abode as a result of being a British citizen.

See http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applying/rightofabode for an explanation of the right of abode and certificates of entitlement to the right of abode, as well as information about applying for a certificate if you are in the UK. If you're not in the UK, you apply at a designated British embassy, High Commission, or consulate. Note though that the cost of applying outside the UK is similar to the cost of applying for a British passport, unlike inside the UK where - for some reason - the cost is a more-than-reasonable £20.

[ppron747]

I can't see that there's much point in it though, Racutis.

As a British citizen (to be...) I think you'll find a British citizen passport is a more useful and flexible document, if you intend to live in UK. It proves that you're a British (ie EU) citizen, entitles you to British consular protection in the unfortunate event of your needing it. And I suspect that UK banks, employers, etc, are likely to be more reassured by it than by the passport of another country, endorsed with a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode.

I haven't got statistics for it, but I suspect that most CofE holders are either those relatively few Commonwealth citizens who have ROA without being British citizens; and dual nationals from countries who object to dual nationality - they hope that the CofE will mask the fact that they've also got British nationality. Since you're not in either of those categories, I can't think of a reason for you to go down the CofE route. But maybe that's just me....

[Christophe]

I can't see that there's much point in it though, Racutis...

I think you're right. The only reasons for a US citizen having a certificate of entitlement placed in the US passport seem to me to be:

• • it would enable travel between the USA and and the UK with just the one passport - the USA insists that US citizens use their US passport to enter the USA, and while the UK does not insist that British citizens use their British passport to enter the UK, an unendorsed US passport is useful only if one is entering the UK as a short-term visitor, whereas a certificate of entitlement in the US passport circumvents that problem
  
  • it means that one would have a "second chance", as it were, if one's British passport were lost during a trip

Neither reason seems particularly overwhelming to me. I don't know if anyone can think of any others.

[RobinLondon]

My mother is a US citizen with a Cert of Entitlement placed in her US passport. However, she is also a Canadian citizen who holds right of abode as a result of being a Commonwealth wife married to a UK husband with right of abode on 31 December 1982. She has it in her US passport because the validity of a US passport is ten years; a Canadian one, five.

[Christophe]

My mother is a US citizen with a Cert of Entitlement placed in her US passport. However, she is also a Canadian citizen who holds right of abode as a result of being a Commonwealth wife married to a UK husband with right of abode on 31 December 1982. She has it in her US passport because the validity of a US passport is ten years; a Canadian one, five.

Yes, that makes sense. But I assume that this is her only claim to the right of abode in the UK, and therefore she is not a British citizen and so is not entitled to a British passport anyway.

In my post I ought to have said, "The only reasons for a dual British/US citizen having a certificate of entitlement placed in the US passport instead of having a British passport seem to me to be...".

[Racutis]

Hi all,

Christopher nailed it on the head. I am not yet a US citizen but shortly when I do acquire US citizenship I want a US passport with CoE since the US has a peculiarity of almost demanding it citizens to carry US passports. I want to have as little trouble as possible. I already have CoE in my Canadian passport and I would rather put it in a 10 year US passport and travel on it. This would remedy entering the UK as CoE holder and entering the US as a citizen. In the meantime, I would carry the UK passport and enter the US with foreign passport and green card.

Thanks all for your help.
Racutis

[Dawie]

Hi all,

Christopher nailed it on the head. I am not yet a US citizen but shortly when I do acquire US citizenship I want a US passport with CoE since the US has a peculiarity of almost demanding it citizens to carry US passports. I want to have as little trouble as possible. I already have CoE in my Canadian passport and I would rather put it in a 10 year US passport and travel on it. This would remedy entering the UK as CoE holder and entering the US as a citizen. In the meantime, I would carry the UK passport and enter the US with foreign passport and green card.

Thanks all for your help.
Racutis

Your argument doesn't make sense though. Once you become a US citizen, simply use your US passport to enter the USA, use your Canadian passport to enter Canada and use your UK passport to enter the UK. There's no need to confirm your right of abode in your US and Canadian passports.

[ppron747]

Once you become a US citizen, simply use your US passport to enter the USA, use your Canadian passport to enter Canada and use your UK passport to enter the UK. There's no need to confirm your right of abode in your US and Canadian passports.

Precisely! That's exactly the way that the vast majority of dual/multiple nationals do it, all the time - unless (as mentioned above) they're trying hide their dual/multiple status from one of the countries concerned. And this consideration simply does not apply with this particular group of countries.

[Dawie]

Once you become a US citizen, simply use your US passport to enter the USA, use your Canadian passport to enter Canada and use your UK passport to enter the UK. There's no need to confirm your right of abode in your US and Canadian passports.

Precisely! That's exactly the way that the vast majority of dual/multiple nationals do it, all the time - unless (as mentioned above) they're trying hide their dual/multiple status from one of the countries concerned. And this consideration simply does not apply with this particular group of countries.

In any case, I would imagine that many countries who forbid dual citizenship (like India) or require permission before aquiring a second citizenship (like South Africa) are well aware that a COE in your passport means that you are effectively a citizen of the UK and therefore the COE is the very proof they are looking for in order confirm this fact. If anything a COE would be detrimental to your cause if you were trying to hide your UK citizenship from someone.

[JAJ]

In any case, I would imagine that many countries who forbid dual citizenship (like India) or require permission before aquiring a second citizenship (like South Africa) are well aware that a COE in your passport means that you are effectively a citizen of the UK and therefore the COE is the very proof they are looking for in order confirm this fact.

It is possible for an Indian citizen to have a COE without being a British citizen.

[Christophe]

Hi all,

Christopher nailed it on the head. I am not yet a US citizen but shortly when I do acquire US citizenship I want a US passport with CoE since the US has a peculiarity of almost demanding it citizens to carry US passports. I want to have as little trouble as possible. I already have CoE in my Canadian passport and I would rather put it in a 10 year US passport and travel on it. This would remedy entering the UK as CoE holder and entering the US as a citizen. In the meantime, I would carry the UK passport and enter the US with foreign passport and green card.

Thanks all for your help.
Racutis

It is not generally possible to have a right of abode certificate in two passports, so if the strict letter of the regulations is followed, the certificate in your Canadian passport ought to be cancelled by the authority that issues any certificate in the US passport. (It is possible, generally, to have a right of abode certificate plus a British passport, however.)

[Christophe]

In any case, I would imagine that many countries who forbid dual citizenship (like India) or require permission before aquiring a second citizenship (like South Africa) are well aware that a COE in your passport means that you are effectively a citizen of the UK and therefore the COE is the very proof they are looking for in order confirm this fact.

It is possible for an Indian citizen to have a COE without being a British citizen.

The certificate shows, by way of subsection numbers, which portion of the Act is relevant for the issuance of the certificate. Therefore, an on-the-ball immigration officer in, e.g., India would be able to tell, or ascertain, whether the certificate was issued as a result of British citizenship or not. (But my suspicion is that that would be generally outside the remit of non-British immigration officials!)

[Racutis]

Hi all,

Christopher nailed it on the head. I am not yet a US citizen but shortly when I do acquire US citizenship I want a US passport with CoE since the US has a peculiarity of almost demanding it citizens to carry US passports. I want to have as little trouble as possible. I already have CoE in my Canadian passport and I would rather put it in a 10 year US passport and travel on it. This would remedy entering the UK as CoE holder and entering the US as a citizen. In the meantime, I would carry the UK passport and enter the US with foreign passport and green card.

Thanks all for your help.
Racutis

Your argument doesn't make sense though. Once you become a US citizen, simply use your US passport to enter the USA, use your Canadian passport to enter Canada and use your UK passport to enter the UK. There's no need to confirm your right of abode in your US and Canadian passports.

Yes, I could carry 2 (or 3?) passports when travelling but what if I lose one or both of them? It would be easier just to have one book (and easier to keep track of) with all the detail I need. I wasn't aware that one CoE would be revoked in one passport since I am the one that has the RoB not the passports but that is interesting and I will look into this.

Thanks for all your help.
Racutis

[costa]

According to US law, if you are an US citizen, you MUST only use your US passport to leave and enter the USA.

[Christophe]

I wasn't aware that one CoE would be revoked in one passport since I am the one that has the RoB not the passports but that is interesting and I will look into this.

That is the letter of the regulations - I strongly suspect that it might not happen, however!

[Christophe]

According to US law, if you are an US citizen, you MUST only use your US passport to leave and enter the USA.

That's true - but you may, of course, have any other passport(s) that you legally hold in your possession when you enter or leave the USA, and the USA cannot (indeed, doesn't try to) prevent a US citizen using a non-US passport outside the USA.

[Marco 72]

According to US law, if you are an US citizen, you MUST only use your US passport to leave and enter the USA.

From what I'm told, this is not strictly enforced.

[ppron747]

I was at a meeting early last year (mainly people in the travel business) at which we were told of three US-born people who were refused boarding by airlines in the UK because they were travelling on British passports whereas, so far as the airlines were concerned, they were US citizens and therefore had to travel on US passports. One of the people apparently wasn't, in fact, a US citizen because his father was a diplomat at the time of his birth, but the airline wouldn't carry him until he produced proof that he wasn't American, in the form of a letter from the US Consul in London.

I have an idea that children under the age of 12 might be exempted from the general rule, but I haven't checked this.

[Dawie]

I think Boris Johnson, Tory MP, would disagree with you, Marco 72. Look what happened to him when he tried to enter the United States with his British passport:

http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2 ... le_sam.php

[Christophe]

I think that Boris Johnson too was denied boarding by the airline, rather than being stopped at US immigration. So in a way it's academic, given that US-born people cannot board US-bound aircraft without a US passport (or, presumably, proof of not being a US citizen). People who are US citizens by descent or naturalisation are much less likely to be stopped, of course.

I too have heard that this law/regulation is applied less rigorously to children - I don't know if that is offician policy or if it simply a matter of expediency. In either case, it is, again, academic if the child is not allowed by the airline to board in the first place.

[Marco 72]

I think Boris Johnson, Tory MP, would disagree with you, Marco 72. Look what happened to him when he tried to enter the United States with his British passport:

http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2 ... le_sam.php

The problem with Boris Johnson is that he admitted having had a US passport. If you are born in the US, then according to the 14th amendment you are entitled to US citizenship (unless your parents are foreign diplomats or occupying troops). So, strictly speaking, anyone born in the US should travel there on a US passport and file their taxes to the IRS, each year, regardless of where they live. In practice, this is only enforced with people who have actually claimed US citizenship. When Boris Johnson applied for a US passport, he implicitly chose to be subjected to these rules. Now he has to use a US passport to visit the US and pay taxes to the US government each year, which I suspect he doesn't even know he has to do. If he wants to change this, all he has to do is go to the nearest US consulate and renounce his citizenship. In that case however he will probably be denied entry to the US for the rest of his life.

In any case, I think Mr Johnson was a bit unlucky (either that or his attitude irritated the immigration officer). I have heard of people born in the US who travelled there with other passports, and all they got was a brief comment from the officer.

My children are going to be US nationals through their mother, but I'm going to leave open to them the possibility of making use of that citizenship or not. If they want to use it it's going to be there for them, but they will have to accept everything that comes with it.

[Christophe]

[In that case however he will probably be denied entry to the US for the rest of his life.

I don't think that's true, is it? Plenty of people have renounced US citizenship to take on another citizenship in cases where their new country demands it, for example, and they are not denied entry to the US subsequently, although of course they must travel there as aliens and have no special rights there. People who renounce US citizenship in order to try to avoid tax or other obligations or in an attempt to avoid prosecution under the law might be treated differently in practice, but Boris J wouldn't fall into that category.