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I am an Italian citizen by birth and hold an Italian passport; in 2015 I moved to the UK using said passport, and I recently acquired British citizenship (both Italy and the UK allow dual citizenship) and hold a British passport as well.

I am due to travel to Italy in August for a week, and in September for two weeks and I haven't checked in yet with the airlines.

Which passport should I travel with?

  • Travelling with my British passport means I don't have to worry about being questioned when re-entering the UK, but it also means being unable to prove in Italy that I am a citizen, and risk being questioned by the authorities (a small chance of that happening, but I have seen it happen multiple times nonetheless). Both trips are road trips, where the chances of being stopped and searched are quite high.
  • Travelling with my Italian passport means I don't have to worry about being questioned in Italy but I'm afraid I will be denied re-entry, as I don't think I can use my Italian passport anymore to prove that I have the right to live in the UK (gaining British citizenship means I have lost my EU settled status, which was linked to my Italian passport).
  • Travelling with both solves the above issues, but it means that I'm at risk of losing both passports at the same time. If I do lose them while in Italy, I cannot ask for help at the British Embassy in Italy; quoting the gov.uk website:

As a dual national you cannot get diplomatic help from the British government when you are in the other country where you hold citizenship.1

Getting a replacement Italian passport while travelling in Italy is a proper pain but it's doable, and I actually had to do so when I lost it travelling there in 2022 (but I was not a British citizen yet). It would also mean having the same issue re-entering the UK, as I cannot prove I have the right to live in the UK.

Are my worries well-founded, or am I just being paranoid?

EDIT: as suggested by the accepted answer, an Italian ID card can be used as proof of citizenship while in Italy. I will then travel on my British passport and with my Italian ID on me, while leaving the Italian passport at home here in the UK. Something that I did forget to mention, in Italy there is the obbligation to carry a form of ID with you at all times (art. 294 reg es. TULPS), and show it upon request from any law enforcement authority. Since a British driving licence might not be recognised as a form of ID (there have been issues in the past where even an Italian licence would not be a valid form of ID), that would have left me with the only option of carrying my passport with me at all times, hence increasing the risk of losing it.

Adding to this hurdle is the fact that, upon stopping, I also need to prove that I am legally in the country; a Schengen or EU citizen won't have this issue of course, and all they have to do is showing a Schengen/EU ID or passport, but the UK is neither in the EU nor in the Schengen area. I've seen a dual Moroccan/Italian citizen been brought to the police station for questioning, even after showing his Italian ID as proof of citizenship, just because he had a non-Italian sounding name, and that's just to mention one of the multiple power trip instances I have witnessed myself. So while I might be a bit paranoid, I have also seen things from the Italian authorities that just reinforce my paranoia.

vale.maio2
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4 Answers4

25

Travel with both:

  • At check-in/gate UK-Italy, present the Italian passport or ID
  • At Italian entry border control, present the Italian passport or ID
  • At check-in/gate Italy-UK, present the British passport
  • At Italian exit border control, present the Italian passport or ID
  • At UK border control, present the British passport.
Crazydre
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I am due to travel to Italy in August for a week, and in September for two weeks and I haven't checked in yet with the airlines.

To enter the Schengen Area, EU citizens are only required to prove that they are EU citizens.

Therefore an Italian ID card can also be used.

If you don't have one you can apply for one at the responsible consulate in the United Kingdom.

Schengen Border Code
Article 8 (Border checks on persons)
...
2. On entry and on exit, persons enjoying the right of free movement under Union law shall be subject to the following checks:
(a) verification of the identity and the nationality of the person and of the authenticity and validity of the travel document for crossing the border, including by consulting the relevant databases, in particular:
...

The Annex of the European Agreement on Regulations governing the Movement of Persons between Member States of the Council of Europe from 1957-12-13 list which documents are accepted and was last updated in 2016.

Sources:

Mark Johnson
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You are worrying too much.

It is rather unlikely to lose a passport and in any case your Italian passport would allow you entry into the UK, you will not even get a stamp. Only if you are asked how long you are going to stay you will have to explain why you use the Italian rather than the UK passport.

Same with the UK passport in Italy other than you would get a stamp unless you can prove you are Italian.

Show the airline (or ferry company) the passport of the country you are heading to, and the passport officers the passport of their country (or the Italian one if another Schengen country.)

phoog
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Willeke
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Ad an addition to other answers (so maybe your question was too broad/you asked too many questions, which it is not good for this website design).

If you are Italian, you can always enter in Italy, and if you are British citizen the same apply to UK, so you have not such risk (but without valid documents things may be slow because they should be sure you are a citizen). So do not worry about deny reentry. So part of your worries are non-existent.

I think you also misquoted the UK site, or better: you misinterpreted it. You can always go to a British consular office to ask help about documents (get British documents), or also to vote. So you can ask to replace your passport without problems. What you quoted is not about that.

The quote is about diplomatic help (not consular help), which it is different: if you get arrested, usually you can ask your embassy for help (often it means translations, legal help for first steps, etc.), IIRC this is required by some of the Vienna conventions (or maybe an other basic international treaty about embassies). But if you are also a citizen of local territory, local nationality has priority: they just reinforce what was in past common sense: you are not a foreigner to local laws. Also diplomatic help may occur for evacuations (wars, disasters), etc. I think the meaning of such quotation is about that (and newspapers give me think a lot of people thinks about embassies have free from jail cards).

Giacomo Catenazzi
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