Second Passport
 

I am planning on doing quite a bit of travelling and am wondering if anybody has had any luck in getting a second UK Passport. This would be useful if my passport got stolen, etc.

I phoned up the passport office and explained that I needed to apply for a visa (and send off my passport), but wanted to go abroad while the passport was away. I was told that I needed a letter from my manager saying that the trip to France was for "Important Business".

Any ideas?

Tom MC

You can legitimately have two or even three UK passports if you are visiting countries which do not allow entry with certain visa stamps, eg Israel, or if you are constantly travelling and need visas to be inserted ready for the next trip.

You don't fall into these categories.

Physically carrying two passports is not a good idea - especially in third world countries. Any official discovering that you have two passports is going to chuck you in jail while they figure out what mischief you are up to.

Take a list of British consular addresses and phone numbers for the countries you are visiting (in some countries this will be one of our European partners), some passport photos, and two photocopies of the important pages of your passport instead.

I don´t know about getting a second UK passport, but I agree 100% with Terry Davies that carrying a second passport can be dangerous. I´ve two passports for the last six years and more than once have been up shit creek with the things. Depending on the situation/country/official you could be in for trouble or a hefty fine/bribe. Virtually no country in Africa allows a normal citizen to carry two passports.

Txs for pointing this out to me, I have been travelling for years now on 2 passports without any hassles, but have never thought much about it either. I have 2 passports from 2 different countries, does that make it even more risky or more acceptable ?

2 passports, 2 nationalities aswell. I can confirm that they dont like it in Africa, but have only had a problem once. Foolishly carrying the 2 passports in the same place at the time. However I have never been (properly) searched at a border so the problem is easy to solve by keeping the second passport in a safe place. If you do get searched I would excpect the s**t to hit the fan.
andy

The deal is this: To a customs official or policeman, military, etc. in a third world country, if you have two passports (from the same country, different countries, does not matter) you are probably a spy or up to no good of some kind, for example, trying to play games with import or exchange restrictions. Therefore, they toss you in jail until they figure out what is going on.

Don't go anywhere outside of Western Europe or North America with more than one passport in your possession. It's asking for trouble.