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Currently, US citizens are somewhat banned from going to Iran. Even while US citizens are not banned, it is still a generally dangerous place to go as a US citizen. Switzerland, however, does have good consular relations with Iran and their citizens are not banned.

This leads to my question: if (theoretically of course) a US and Swiss dual-citizen who is of no persian descent wants to travel to a country such as Iran strictly as a tourist, can he/she go with that Swiss passport legally, and can he/she remain safe in that country? Would Iran be able to figure out that you are a US citizen?

Jan
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Nick C-M
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1 Answers1

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In answer the general question in the title:
No, it is illegal. Yes, it is possible.

If a country as a law forbidding another one's citizens from entering, and you're a citizen of the forbidden country, you're not allowed to enter. It doesn't matter what passport you present when entering.

Of course, when you enter a country they look at your passport, and base their decision on what they see. If you have a passport from a "good" country, you'll be admitted.

However, as I wrote above this is illegal, and if it's found out you'll be in trouble (anywhere between deportation and trial for espionage). For example, if you carry the forbidden country's passport in your luggage, and for some reason it's searched. But there's no database they can search and find your other nationalities.

For an example other than USA-Iran, Israeli citizens are banned from most Muslim countries, yet there are occasionally news stories by Israeli journalists travelling to these countries, with a foreign passport.

ugoren
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