Due to security concerns, Canada passed law in 2016 which requires any Canadian citizen who is also a citizen of any other country except the US, to produce a valid Canadian passport. Canadian Americans are allowed to use a valid US passport. Anyone else will be denighed entry without a Canadian passport by law!
Dual Citizen entering US
- Thread starter b52shot
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While this is about entering Canada rather than the U.S. (the primary subject of this thread is about entering the U.S.), for clarification there is NO Canadian law which allows Canadian border officers to deny entry to a Canadian citizen, and even if there was such a law (but again there is NOT) it would be unconstitutional because the Charter protects the mobility rights of Canadian citizens in Section 6.(1), which prescribes: "Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada." see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html
It appears you misunderstood the impact of implementing regulatory provisions requiring visa-exempt travelers to have advance electronic authorization (eTA) when boarding commercial flights destined for Canada. Because of the eTA requirements, Canadians (both Canadian PRs and Canadian citizens) may be denied boarding flights for Canada unless they present a valid PR card or valid Canadian passport prior to boarding the flight.
This does NOT affect the right of Canadian citizens to enter Canada at a Port-of-Entry into Canada.
Indeed, both Canadian PRs and Canadian citizens retain the right to enter Canada regardless of their documentation, which for most means they will be allowed to enter Canada by establishing their identity.
Of course technically the traveler needs to establish identity and status. For most, and for Canadian-born citizens in particular, ordinarily documentation showing identity will suffice to accomplish this. While typically this would be a passport issued by another nation (for dual citizens), other forms of identification may be used . . . the only issue is that if the CBSA officer has some questions the traveler may be delayed at the PoE as it may take some time for CBSA to conduct checks to verify the traveler's identity and status as a Canadian.
As noted above, Canadian citizens have the Charter right to enter Canada. This cannot be taken away by an act of Parliament let alone by the adoption of regulations.
In contrast, the "right" of a Canadian PR to enter Canada is a statutory right (often referred to as a "privilege" to distinguish it from fundamental and charter rights), which is prescribed by Section 27(1) in IRPA:
"A permanent resident of Canada has the right to enter and remain in Canada, subject to the provisions of this Act." see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-2.5/page-7.html#docCont
This "right" is also prescribed by Section 19(2) IRPA, which prescribes:
"An officer shall allow a permanent resident to enter Canada if satisfied following an examination on their entry that they have that status." see http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-2.5/page-5.html#h-17
Note: foreign born Canadian citizens who have not obtained official documentation of their status as a Canadian citizen may encounter greater difficulty at a PoE because just showing their identity will not facilitate establishing their status as a Canadian citizen. Once the foreign born Canadian citizen has obtained a Certificate of Citizenship or Canadian Passport, there should be no problem obtaining entry at a PoE even if the traveler does not have either the certificate or Canadian passport, subject to potential delay while CBSA verifies identity and status.
The logical thing seems to be to enter the US with my US passport and Canada with my Canadian passport.
To Natan's point, once I have a Canadian Passport, I should still show my US passport coming back into Canada so as to appease any requirement of the US to enter and exit with a US passport. (I thought there wasn't much in the way of data sharing between the two countries in regards to entry/exits?) If I do that, you're saying that I'll likely have to deal with some waiting while the agent scans my passport and verifies that I'm a Canadian citizen? That doesn't seem awful, less than a minute I'd think. Although it'll come with a comment about how I should enter with a Canadian passport, I'm sure.
You should enter Canada on your Canadian passport only. CBSA may ask if you're a dual citizen, but it's extremely unlikely they will ask to see your American passport.
You should enter America ONLY on your U.S. passport (unless specifically asked to present foreign travel documents, in which case you should call out that you are only presenting the foreign travel document because they requested it).
When flying to Canada from outside the U.S. and Canada, if you're flight will be stopping in the U.S., or if it will be overflying U.S. airspace, you should present an American passport to the airlines.
If flying between the U.S. and Canada, you should present an American passport to the airlines on both sides of the border to board your flight. But once in the customs area, present only the passport for the country you are entering.
Presenting an American peace officer (any law enforcement officer) with a foreign travel document, after having become a Canadian citizen, can be used by the Department of State as proof you intended to relinquish citizenship upon becoming a Canadian.
Okay. I misread your previous post, perhaps, in suggesting the US would like us to scan the US passport in and out.
That is correct, you should only present a U.S. passport while within the U.S., whether entering or leaving. If boarding a flight, while situate in the U.S., requires a foreign passport, then you should present both passports to the airline. But at TSA and other airport checkpoints (before boarding the flight), never volunteer a foreign travel document.
The post by @Natan covers it and I fully agree except the part about risking the U.S. Department of State treating use of a foreign travel document as relinquishing U.S. citizenship (at least not for the vast, vast majority of dual citizens, and particularly those who have U.S. and Canadian and no other citizenship).
My post was a response to the erroneous post that Canadians would be denied entry into Canada unless they present a Canadian travel document (Canadian passport for Canadian citizens; PR card for Canadians with PR status), not about U.S./Canadian dual citizens. Note, for example, that U.S. citizens (including dual U.S./Canadian citizens) are NOT subject to eTA requirements and can board flights to Canada by presenting their U.S. passport.
While I agree with @Natan that when entering Canada, Canadian citizens SHOULD present their Canadian passport (noting that many or most countries generally require its nationals to present that country's passport rather than TDs from another country), in my experience and as I have seen reported by many others (including reports from people I know personally, no connection to forum discussions), Canadian border officers are usually far less picky, that is much more tolerant, about this than their American counterparts. I've known individuals, dual U.S./Canadian citizens, whose border crossing into the U.S. was delayed, and unreasonably confrontational, because they were not carrying an American passport. They were eventually allowed to enter the U.S., after being given a rather severe (and largely unenforceable) admonition. In contrast, I have forgotten my Canadian passport on occasion and have had no problem at the Canadian border presenting my U.S. passport.
(Well, actually, my wife and I previously had a bad habit of mixing our Canadian passports up, so when I have traveled to the U.S. alone, it turned out I had her Canadian passport not mine . . . until the time I did not check my passport before handing it to the Canadian border officer, and thus handed him my wife's passport as if it was mine, and was quite pleasantly surprised at how well that went . . . particularly since we do not share any part of the other's name. What I did could be considered a fairly serious violation of law (if done with intent, which it was not) and technically CBSA may have had an obligation to seize the passport. Instead, it was almost a humorous exchange, the PIL (booth) officer asking me "who is X Z?" and me answering, in a somewhat perplexed tone, "she is my wife." I am well enough aware of how serious it can be to present a passport not one's own, or for that matter to even possess it without adequate explanation, I greatly appreciated the officer's smile and friendly acceptance of my explanation, without a referral to Secondary even, but have since been a lot more diligent about keeping our respective documents separate.)
In contrast, on one occasion after handing the PIL officer my U.S. passport upon arrival at a PoE into the U.S., the officer asked me my citizenship and he got very cranky when I answered "I am both a U.S. and Canadian citizen." He asked me what my citizenship was again, and I answered "U.S." and while his tone remained cross, he only asked the usual perfunctory questions and did not refer me to Secondary (over the years, despite being a U.S. citizen presenting my U.S. passport, I have spent more than an occasional amount of time in U.S. Secondary, including some rather intense, confrontational, even hostile experiences, despite my best efforts to be polite and cooperative).
It warrants acknowledging that how the border crossing transaction goes can vary greatly depending on many individual factors, some of them rooted in discriminatory biases (which is contrary to the law both sides of the border, but recognizing that much of this is not enforceable unless it crosses a significantly egregious line and too often not even then).
It also warrants recognizing that actually the U.S. and Canada share a great deal of information about travelers, who are FNs or PRs, crossing the border going both directions. And legislation is pending which will further extend this to include information sharing about Canadian citizens as well as FNs and PRs. Note, for example (and this has long been the case regardless of citizenship), that Canadian border officials can readily access a traveler's U.S. criminal record history.
If asked what my citizenship is, (which is the way they phrase the question), I'm sure I'd answer that I'm a citizen in both the US and Canada. If they ask again, I'd say the same thing. I mean, if you just answer that you are a US citizen, could it not be considered a lie by omission?
I forgot that they can access the criminal history. Can they do that from the booth upon scanning the passport?
The "correct" answer at the U.S. border is, "I am a U.S. citizen." CBP officers can get quite cross if you don't answer their questions the way they want you to. As a general rule of thumb, one does not want to provoke, or make cross, any American law enforcement officer.
Canada has access to FBI records (generally only arrests, but not case outcomes). In the U.S., the accurate criminal records are at the municipal/county level, and the further up the chain to the federal level one goes, the less accurate, and less complete, the criminal records become. In Canada, it is the opposite, the most accurate and complete criminal records are at the federal level, and tend to become less accurate/complete as one goes further down the chain to the municipal level. The records exchanged at the border are generally at the federal level.
Technically the U.S. acknowledges but does NOT legally recognize dual citizenship. Thus, U.S. authorities will not, not ordinarily, recognize that a U.S. citizen has any other citizenship.
This is the way many countries approach multiple citizenship: if a person is a national of the country, that is the only citizenship which is legally recognized by that country. This includes Canada. Which can be confusing since many governments, like both the U.S. and Canada, acknowledge that many of their citizens also have citizenship in another country, but do not legally recognize that other citizenship.
It has been around a decade and a half since I was regularly asked about my citizenship when entering the U.S. by car . . . before 09/11/2001 I only very rarely was even asked for any identification at all when crossing the U.S./Canadian or U.S./Mexican borders on foot or by car (even in the 1960s when my hair was long and my attire blatantly counter-culture), and over the course of the last half century I have indeed crossed the Canadian border scores and scores of times, but was often asked "what is your citizenship?"
In contrast, since around early 2003 or so, since the border officers on the U.S. side (likewise the Canadian side but beginning a few years later) began requiring identification on the occasion of nearly every crossing, and I've always handed them my U.S. passport, and I cannot recall being asked that question except that one time, and it caught me a bit off guard, and like you my instinct was to be forthright, to acknowledge I was both a U.S. citizen (which he knew, since my U.S. passport was in his hands) and a Canadian citizen.
I have been around a long while, crossed borders many, many times, and since I knew that the U.S. does not formally or officially recognize any other citizenship if the traveler is a U.S. citizen, it was easy for me to pick up on how distinctly he emphasized the singular form, asking me to state my citizenship (singular), the second time he asked . . . particularly since he was so clearly agitated by my first response (I do not recall what he said in particular, before asking me my citizenship again, but I distinctly recall the confrontational hostility in how he said it).
While it is not common, more than a few times I've encountered a degree of disdain for obviously being an Ex-pat (I have not lived in the U.S. for a rather long time now). I have occasionally been questioned about my status in Canada, asked to show my PR card (when I was a PR), asked to show my Canadian passport, asked about WHY I live in Canada ("there's a woman to blame" I am inclined to say, except I know better than to so much as hint humor to American law enforcement including border officers), and gotten the sarcastic "welcome home" comment on occasion (at least it seems sarcastic to me, since even these days I tend to harbour some anxiety about traveling in the U.S.).
I am guessing they "could." I doubt they do. PIL interviews are intentionally shallow. If the PIL officer has any reason to think a more probing interview is warranted, their instructions are to make a referral to Secondary. Even in Secondary, I doubt they initiate the query for the criminal record history unless there is something which triggers reason to do so.
Sometimes a PIL officer will ask a traveler if the traveler has a criminal record. But generally they are instructed to not ask questions like this openly in front of others (there is a statistically better chance to get a frank, honest response to this question if it is not asked in the presence of other persons accompanying the traveler, and at least on the Canadian side there is an overt practice encouraging officers to ask potentially embarrassing questions outside the presence of other travelers).
I totally agree with your assessment, dpenabill. This is true because of the policy pursued by the last several presidential administrations.
It should be noted that it is no guarantee that current, or future, administrations shall maintain the current policy. Should the policy change, and should an administration choose to vigorously purge the citizen roles of those it deemed to have relinquished citizenship, they would not be restricted to acts committed recently, but could use acts many years/decades in the past as evidence.
I get this disdain too. And when I'm asked why I live in Canada, the CPB officer's attitude is often of the "why would anyone want to live anywhere but America if they had a choice" variety. The "welcome home" bit is odd too, since I've already told them I live in Canada and am entering to go to work, like I do every other morning.
I do express some humour at the border, from time to time. Like the day after Trump was elected, a CBP agent asked me how I found living in Canada. I responded, "far less interesting!" Which caused us both to chuckle. Or once, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, when travelling with my cat, the CBP agent stuck his head into the window to look at my cat, which caused my cat to run to the back of the SUV in fear. The officer asked, "What's up with her?" I responded, "White cop, black cat..." He responded, "Paws up!"
But as a general rule, I agree with you. (Sometimes the words pour out of me before I've thought them through.)