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Hypothetical question:

If you are a dual national of two countries and have two passports. Suppose this is an Australian passport and a British passport. If you are in Australia, and wish to travel to the UK, if you exit the country on a British passport, and then try to enter Australia again, it is my understanding you can stay in Australia visa free for 90 days.

If you were to exit Australia again on the British passport, what would happen, if you have overstayed your 90 day limit, despite being an Australian citizen?

Ari Brodsky
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cdknight
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3 Answers3

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As an Australian citizen, you have an absolute right to live in Australia, and thus cannot "overstay" in your own country. This is regardless of what passport you used to enter: you don't stop being an Australian citizen just because you used a British passport.

Your hypothetical situation of entering and exiting on a different passport would be quite unlikely in practice, because all visitors to Australia need to get a visa (ETA), which will (should) not be granted if you are an Australian citizen.

But if you do manage to get one, stay longer than the allowed period and then try to leave, you will most likely stopped at the airport and held up until they can confirm that you are indeed an Australian citizen and thus have not overstayed. Once they do, that's it, you've committed no crime. And while you "should" use an Australian passport to enter and leave Australia, anecdotally you will be allowed to leave without one, although this will occasion considerable grumbling -- mostly because they're rightfully concerned that airlines will not let you return without one.

lambshaanxy
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Please note: some countries require (i.e. it is the law) that you to enter/leave their country (of which you are a citizen) with the passport of that country.

Not doing so (when not required by law) may lead to you have wasted a lot of peaple's time by not using the passport of the country of which you are a citizen of when entering or leaving that country.

Also note: The country you are leaving does not care, in any way, shape or form what you told a non-official (commercial) organisation (such as an airline) which passport you will present to the destination immigration authority

  • they will only be interested in the passport that you present to them
phoog
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Mark Johnson
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In Ivory Coast, theoretically, yes, you can actually overstay as a dual-national, but this entails that you have no Ivorian documents, so I think that would be outside the scope of that question

Abidjan airport states :

Attention : un passager n'ayant aucun papier d'identité ivoirien (passeport ou carte d'identité), est considéré comme un passager étranger même s'il bénéficie d'une multi-citoyenneté. Il doit en conséquence être muni d'un visa.

Warning : a passenger who doesn't hold any Ivorian identity document (passport or ID card) is considered a foreign passenger, even if they have dual-citizenship. They must hold a visa

I don't know how it works in practice, but it is theoretically possible that if you overstay your visa and don't have an Ivorian ID card or a passport, you'll face repercussion for overstay or at least be denied exit until you get such documents

Nicolas Formichella
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