Concurrent Passports what, why and how.
 

Concurrent passports what are they, why I need one and how do I get them?

What is a concurrent passport?
A concurrent is passport is a second passport that many western countries can issue to their citizens on request, generally it is of lesser duration than your primary passport. Eg for US citizens it is only for 2 years and for Australian citizens it is 3 years.

Why would I need one?
The primary reason for having one is to allow you send a passport away for a visa, while still having a valid a travel document. (eg you are in Thailand and need to apply to the Pakistan embassy in Australia for a visa to go there). Other benefits would be avoiding showing a say a Israeli visa stamp to an Arab country and being able to apply for more than visa at a time.


How do I get one?
Generally speaking countries that issue concurrent passports require a travel itinerary with a covering letter of some sorts and where applicable a employer letter also.

So the purpose of thread is provide information on what various countries require and how to go about it, the experience of others doing this would beneficial also.

So to kick this off
For US citizens see http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/94669.pdf

For Australian citizens see Passport Manual

Below is a copy of the letter that I used for DFAT in Australia


Craig Iedema
Address

Date

Australian Government
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

To Whom It May Concern:

My wife and I will be overseas on an extended holiday that begins in from and will extend to to or longer.

Due to the requirements of a number of countries we intend to visit to apply for a Visa from the applicant’s home country, we will at times need to send our passports back to Australia.

To enable us to continue to travel we are requesting that we are provided with a concurrent passport so that when we apply for the required Visas we are still in possession of a valid Australian Passport.

We are applying for both a new passport and the concurrent passport simultaneously and as such do not have a passport number to provide for the attached form.


Our approximate itinerary is as follows:-

Itinerary

The countries that we need to apply for a Visa from Australia are:-
• Countries and application dates

Visa’s for the remaining countries are either not needed, can be obtained at entry points or the respective consulate in a bordering country.

The dates above are approximate and may vary depending on the local conditions at the time of each of the countries we plan to visit.

I can be contacted on phone or via email on email. Thank you for you consideration of this request.


Yours Faithfully,



Craig Iedema

We applied for 2nd passport from UK Passport office about a month ago and got them through after only 10 days.
We sent a covering letter similar to the one above (but based upon traveling for work reasons, stating that we were freelance and needed to be in a number of countries over the next 2 years that would not look favourably on certain stamps in the passport eg USA / Iran, Israel / N Africa, etc).
We spoke to the passport office and they couldnt have been more helpful - even talked us through how to fill out the application form (in UK you have to apply on the standard form via the Post Office as if applying for a first passport and enclose your current passport with the application).

I got 2nd passport from Finland just by saying that I will visit so many countries that my passport will get full too fast.
Also used this Israel comment in same application.
No problems at all.

I sent off an application for a second UK passport last Saturday and received it today the following friday, I now look forward to crossing many more borders without let or hindrance.
Funnily enough I also seem to be a freelance travel writer, there is a lot of it about. :mchappy:

Reply from NZ Passports
 

Thank you for your enquiry.

In some exceptional circumstances, you may be issued with an additional passport. For our office to consider this, you will need to:

· Complete an adult passport application (Do not use the Adult Renewal form).
· Complete the Statutory Declaration page stating why you need an additional passport
· Enclose any proof to support this (e.g. a letter from your employer, your travel itinerary etc.)

You will be advised within one week whether you are entitled to hold an additional passport.

Additional passports have limited validity (usually only two years).

We advise discretion if you are travelling with an additional passport.

For information on the fees for a New Zealand Passport, please visit our website: <http://www.passports.govt.nz/Fees-and-charges---adult-passports>

An application form can be downloaded from our website: <http://www.passports.govt.nz/Apply-for-or-renew-a-New-Zealand-passport>

Our Contact Centre is open Monday - Thursday 8.00am - 7.00pm; Friday 9.00am - 7.00pm and Saturday 9.00am - 2.00pm.

If you have any further enquiries, please contact us again by email or phone Call Free (NZ) 0800 22 50 50, or if overseas (+64 4) 463 9360 or visit our website: <http://www.passports.govt.nz/>.

It worked the same for us, but they wanted a letter from an employer.
Kind of a tricky situation when you are actually not a freelance but we just called into the office of our local Rag, making sure the paper had just come out so no deadline to meet. Talked to the Editor and asked for a letter to say that we were supplying copy as requested. He said fine if we would give him a story to bank for future use. The passport office were happy and we got our 2nd passports. Very helpful people at the PP office, shame all Gov offices aren't the same !!

Paul

Good Info
 

Very helpful .. thanks guys ..
tschuess

Thanks so much for the information.

I will answer soon, the process for Spain citizens. What i heard so far, must be the same.

I am UK citizen in France and have to send my passport back to UK soon to get it renewed. This leaves me in a foreign country for several weeks without a passport. I haven't been able to find a way out of this. Problem is I have family in UK and if whilst I am waiting I couldn't travel back.

Official UK position (response to email to Passport Office, April 2015)

"Dear Mr ...........

Thank you for your enquiry.

Her Majesty's Passport Office will only issue second passports for extensive business travel or extensive business travel to incompatible countries.

Your application will be reviewed by the Passport Office for eligibility.

To obtain a second passport your application must be supported by a letter from a Senior Manager by whom you are employed detailing the necessity for this passport. This letter must be on company headed notepaper.

If you are self employed a letter from a client, on company headed paper, explaining why a second passport is required should accompany the application.

If you have already been issued with a second passport and wish to renew either your original or second passport you must support your application with a letter from your employer/client detailing the necessity for two passports.

In order to apply you can complete the form online at http://www.gov.uk/apply-first-adult-...for-a-passport or you can pick up a form from selected Post office Limited branches, or request a form from the website www.gov.uk/get-passport-application-form. The forms will be posted out for you to sign and submit with the supporting documentation.

You will need the following documents:

1. Passport Application form completed in black ink, capital letters (if completing a paper application form).
2. Sections 1,2,3,4,5,9 and 10 need to be completed. Section 1 needs to be completed as a first adult unless you are applying to renew your second passport.
3. Section 10 must be completed.
4. Two recent identical passport sized photographs (only ONE certified at the back as a true likeness of applicant) these must comply with our photo standards. Information can be found on-line at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/photos-for-passports or detailed in the application guidance booklet (enclosed with the application pack)..
5. Name change document if name has changed.
6. Fee of £72.50
7. Current passport* or your Birth Certificate (Full Birth Certificate if born on or after 01/01/1983) if your current passport is not available.
8. Letter from employer stating the need for a second passport.

We would advise you not make any travel arrangements until you receive your passport.

*If you are required to use your current passport for travel whilst you are applying for a second passport, you need not submit the same with your application. Please enter your current passport number in section 3 of the form and give details in section 8 as to why your passport is not available.

Alternatively, you may enclose a separate letter detailing your current passport number and why you are unable to submit the same.

Thank you"

My 2nd US passport was not difficult to get, I just wrote a letter listing my rough travel plans including most countries in Africa and including Israel. There was no proof at all required.

However I had to mail off for it, the local government passport office had never heard of such a thing.

Do you happen to have any links (gov website) to the directions or process you used to do so? I'll be needing to get my original renewed - maybe its possible to get both at the same time??

I used http://www.visahq.com/ for my second US passport. You have to submit your current US passport with your second passport application so I don't think it's possible to do both at once.

Thank you!:thumbup1:

When in the shipping business 15 years ago, I applied for a second passport without much fuss.
Since then I have carried on with the two, renewing each as they became due.
Very useful ... but a word of warning... 2 years ago I travelled from Thailand to Laos, then back again.
On the way back, I thought I could simply switch passports while crossing the border (in this case, the Mekong ferry). It was merely to use up the pages on the older of the two.
On entering Thailand, they looked for the Laos exit stamps .... after a few seconds, I realised the problem and produced the other passport.
They went ballistic ! Cancelled my visitors visa and gave me 14 days !

So a word of warning ... I guess be open if you have two passports, and only switch back in your home country. It may not be an issue at some border crossings .. but, on that day, with that officer, it was.

Also an option for a small number of people:

If you have parents or grandparents who were UK citizens, you can apply for a UK passport even if you have never lived there. If you can jump through the hoops then you've got a valid 10 year passport that can be renewed for life. The process is slow and they require your 'home' passport (you get it back), so you have to apply a long time in advance.

Disclaimer: I learned this week that wiithout 'proof of residence' in the UK you cannot apply apply by mail in the UK for the difficult Nigerian or Democratic Congo visas. I guess they're onto how 'easy' it is to get a UK passport.


Also, yes do be careful with the second passport. When I crossed into Gambia the border guard caught it and couldn't believe it was possible to have two passports. Luckily there was a local sitting in a chair nearby who assured him it was possible. I am going to type up a "Letter of Permission" or some nonsense and carry it with me when I start passport juggling.

Got my second UK passport in the post today. Followed the process listed in my earlier post on this thread, with a supporting letter from a charity i am working with in Ethiopia. Turned round in about a week without issue.


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The only time you have a very good chance of swapping passports without causing problems is when you fly in to a country. Then they don't ever seem to look for the previous country, but at land borders they mostly keep flipping pages until they find the previous exit stamp.

Is that an issue Tony?

I am not trying to hide anything, i just need to get my Sudanese visa after leaving the UK, can only get it from the embassy in London (apparently) as i am heading South to North and need a passport to travel with whilst i am getting my Sudan visa by post.

At the border can i not just show both passports so there is a clear audit trail and explain why i legitimately have two passports?


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Having two passports issued by the same country may involve different issues to having two passports from two different countries and I talked to one traveller who decided to swap passports at one land border to avoid having to pay reciprocity fees and he said that didn't work even when he showed them the exit stamp from the previous border. He paid the fee. Fairly expensive mistake in S America where having a British passport gives you free entry to most countries while other passports may cost you over $500 in visa and reciprocity fees.

As always, what is OK depends entirely on the whims of that particular officer so your experience will vary.

I recall epicycles.com had similar issues with visas on the road and they had dual (nationality) passports and sent their australian one back home to get visas for a couple of countries. Don't recall them mentioning a problems but I don't think they left the country while their passport was in transit.

Thanks for the clarification - realistically i think it is my most feasible option so will have to hope the whim is good that day!


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If the passport is new, no entry/exit stamps at all, even arriving at an airport may cause questions to be asked.

That may not work out in somewhere like Dubai which scans the computer to see when you were last there etc; I would not be sure of what databases they are accessing to check "your new passport" - it might throw up the fact that you have travelled on more than one, both "in date".

There again, an Iris scan can get you through their system, as it does when entering the UK.

For Swiss people it is possible to get a second passport as well. You have to apply at your canton office. Here is the form for Bern. They call it "Austauschpass":
http://www.pom.be.ch/pom/de/index/zi...tauschpass.pdf

Just one thing: It is actually illegal to carry two passports of the same country at the same time. As others already wrote it can become a big problem if someone finds out. Therefore everyone should be extra careful.

We will be travelling with two passports to be able to get visas and still have one valid passport with us while we wait for the other one to get back. It is not really possible though to swap passports between borders because most boarder controls check for the previous stamp.

Happy travelling everyone bier

Would be interested to find out where the law is written about it being illegal to carry two passports ... and whose law is it ? The country of the passport issuer, or the country you are in ?
When I entered Russia from Georgia, and switched passports, the officer wanted to see both, as he needed to see the exit stamp from Georgia.
Similar routine 6 days later when exiting Russia to Kazakhstan and switching passports back.
I would suggest the carrying of two passports might invite concern, without an explanation, but illegal ? I cant see that being the case until I stand corrected.

I have dual nationality.

Both of my passports have no stamps...
Leave county A on passport of county A - scanned, no physical stamp.
Arrive country B using passport of country B - scanned, no physical stamp.
Leave county B on passport of county B - scanned, no physical stamp.
Arrive country A using passport of country A - scanned, no physical stamp.

If I were to use either passport at a country who looked for exit stamps .. they would find none. Times have changed, very boring looking at new passports, now old passports are very interesting ... I have one from 1946... no not one of mine doh

-------------------------
I know people who have travelled with two passports issued to them by the same country... nothing illegal about it. They were tour guides - many many stamps - passports got used up in no time, so they needed a replacement ready to go when the older one got full.

In Germany you can have two or more passports legally e.g. by using these arguments:
- you want to go to Israel and after that to some (muslim) country that will give you trouble because of the Israel stamp
Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaidschan and some other country-constellations might work, too.
- you have to apply for several visas upfront by sending in your passport to those embassies at the same time and it would not work in a timely manner if you would do them sequentially

In Germany it´s no argument that you might run out of blank pages. That can be solved by applying for a new passport with extra pages (48).

Regards

Frank

Yes Warin but that is only two countries. What about the other couple of hundred places in the world.

And further, I know people who have exited one country with one dual nationality passport and then tried to enter the next country with the other one to avoid visa fees and they were refused entry because there was no proof that they exited the adjacent country legally. They had to own up to the other passport and pay the visa fees.

Concurrent Passports what, why and how.
 

There are some countries where dual nationality is not recognised: Iran for one (but only if 1 of your nationalities is Iranian) and I thought there were some countries where 2 passports are not allowed. I thought it might be India, but I might be getting totally mixed up!

If you send one of your passports off, its best to send the one that you are not using in the country you are currently stamped into. If it ant be avoided, then, like Julian and Ali at epicycles, you won't be leaving the country until your passport is safely back in your hands.

Temporaryescapee: we're doing the same route as you.
The thing you'll need to be careful about, just to make it easier on yourself, is to get your Sudanese and Egyptian visas into the same passport. And hearing how difficult the Ethiopians can be, get that one in there as well. To get the Sudanese visa you need to have your Egyptian visa already in your passport.

These days I have 4 passports for 2 nationalities, which is overkill and bordering on the ridiculous, but it's just the way it happened.
I find it easier to switch between concurrent passport than between nationalities in no man's land, though I never had any issues doing that in Central Asia.

Hi Wickychicky

I actually did my trip in 2016 but skipped Sudan (for other reasons - i had a visa).

I travelled from RSA to Uganda on my first passport, collected the second one in Kampala, crossed into Kenya on the first passport (as i had an east african visa issued in by Rwanda) and then flew from Nairobi to Addis. I used the first passport to exit Kenya and the second to enter Ethiopia. This second passport also had my Sudan visa in it but not, i recall, my Egypt one.

I then flew from Addis to Cairo reversing the process. No issues anywhere.

(Actually not technically true. They kenyans argued with me for 10 mins about the scissors in my Nomad backpackers first aid kit. All the time i was swigging from my bottle of water. After 10 mins they relented on the scissors and started on the next bloke for having a water bottle which was not allowed. Realising my error I discretely put the top on my bottle, popped it in the rucksack, and moved on!!!!)


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Hahaha, nice one!

Reciprocity fee is one thing, but what about just plain requiring a visa? I have two passports, one is generally more accepted than the other, but the latter does not need a visa for Brazil, while the former does. I doubt Brazilian customs officers would refuse entry, would they?

Also, did anyone use passport swapping to successfully avoid reciprocity fees in SA? I get that it may depend on what the customs officer feels like that day, but are there any success stories?

In Netherlands you have to have a business trip reason (with paperwork of an existing company) that you need two passports. But this is doable, we used it on the last trip.
Then you get only a 2 year passport (where the regular is now 10 years).

It was useful with the Pakistan situation. But customs or embassy people look up strange when they realize you have two passports. It is not common for them, and you can get questions about it. I did not encounter real problems, but I would not switch around passports in no mans land if it is not necessary.
Or when entering Pakistan, I did not show the second passport, but the guy kept asking why the passport was only 2 years. I just kept saying "I don't know"