Another Dual National discussion

Hi all,

I recently completed the beaurocratic walkabout of dual citizenship for my two young children. However, contrary to postings here I have been told by immigration that they will only stamp one passport when exiting Taiwan. This creates certain difficulties and I’m wondering if anyone knows for sure, the letter of the law, regulations or has had some experience.

many thks

Hi Viba,

You are correct. It used to be that R.O.C. immigration would stamp as many passports as necessary when LEAVING the country.

Those laws changed at the end of 2000 (I believe, around that time, but don’t hold me to it) and now you may only have ONE passport stamped upon exit as you stated, though I’m curious to know why this would pose a problem for your two children.

I have dual citizenship and enter and leave the R.O.C. with my R.O.C. passport. Though my U.S. passport shows that I’ve been NOWHERE and looks rather ridiculous to U.S. immigration when I re-enter the U.S. – U.S. immigration doesn’t really question my whereabouts and in particular how I EXITED a foreign country, because if I was able to enter it (in this case R.O.C.) with or without a visa, the entity that would care how I got in and back out would be the R.O.C., not the U.S. – though please note that this is my own rationale and not the official word.

Given that your children most likely do not look suspect and that the R.O.C. is not one of the 7 (? I forget how many) nations considered “hostile” (at least from the U.S. perspective), having no EXIT stamp from a foreign country when re-entering your home country shouldn’t be a problem?

I just left last month and it was explained that if you stay for 4 months or less, they can stamp your passport. They said something about everything has to be in compliance with what your visa in your USA passport might say. Anyways, when I entered the USA, I had no problems, they don’t even pay attention to it and they really don’t seem to care as long as you are an American citizen.

Hi again,

Thanks for your previous feedback.

I believe a problem would arise with dual passports when you leave Taiwan on the ROC passport and enter a third country (eg Thailand) on the other passport. Immigration would question where we came from and would insist on entering with the passport that has the exit stamp.

This is just what I’ve been told. Has anyone had any direct experience yet?
regards.

I don’t know if this will help you but…
I have two passports Australian and American. I have been a citizen of both and traveling on both my whole life. I have traveled to Europe and Singapore and have had no problems. I also go between Australia and the US often.
When entering a foreign country I have used either passport, it doesn’t really matter. The only rule is that you must exit on the passport you enter on.

Also, you are considered a citizen of the country of the passport you use to enter. For example if I enter France on my Australian passport then I am considered Australian by France, Australia and the US. The US would not help if say a disaster happened and I needed evacuation. This is something to consider when traveling to high risk areas.

Moderator note: I am not sure that the details in this second paragraph are wholly correct. According to my knowledge, a male ROC citizen who enters Taiwan on a Canadian passport can still run into “conscription problems” with the ROC authorities if he has not completed his military service. Additionally, if a nuclear power plant exploded and the Belgian authorities sent an airplane to Taiwan to evacuate all Belgians, it seems likely that one would only need to present a Belgian passport or permanent residency document to get on the airplane. I cannot imagine anyone asking for proof that the person in question actually entered Taiwan on a Belgian passport (which might not be the case in regard to dual nationals.)