Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Hi,

Well, we finally became citizens last month :) We are hoping to have a holiday overseas but only have UK passports. There's 4 of us and I don't really want the expense of applying for new passports just now. The immi site says that if leaving or entering Australia on another passport we may face difficulty and delays, but does not go as far as to say that you can't do it??

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Leaving Australia you probably won't get any problems but checking in for your flight back to Australia you will. Your British passports won't have valid visas attached to them (because they've been cancelled) so the airline might refuse to carry you. Of course, you can tell them you're Australian citizens but they'll have to confirm you're telling the truth by calling Canberra which could take hours and cause you unnecessary grief.

It's much easier to get the Aussie passports..

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Do you always have to have a Visa to fly to a country??? I thought that was checked when you ENTER that country, not fly to it.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

The airlines have access to VEVO which will show whether you have a valid visa. They can (and probably will) deny boarding to anyone without a valid visa.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Oh right, thanks. Wish the Immi site gave clearer info.

Looks like I'm saving up for new passports then!

Thanks for the help.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

I have both passports, which means I leave Oz on my Australian one and enter Europe on my UK one - makes life so much simpler! And as NickyC and Dorothy said, I show the Oz one when leaving Europe so the airline knows I'm entitled to enter the country and they won't get stuck with the cost of flying me back because I'm refused entry - that's the reason they check for valid visas!

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

I have entered Australia as an Australian Citizen on a British passport. I took with me my Australian citizenship certificate and there was a short delay at Melbourne immigration while the supervisor was consulted. I did also produce the death certificate for the funeral I had attended overseas by way of explanation as to why I had to travel without the right passport.....

Much easier to have the right passport to enter with!

BB

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

You really should get the passports as they will make your life much easier

Passport prices are a con and now a major cash cow for governments. When we became citizens, our UK passports were expiring so it was 3x Aussie and 3x UK passports to pay for. It cost a fortune

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

From what I've heard, the airline gets stuck with the bill to fly you out if you get refused when you enter, which is why some airlines check and double-check before letting you board.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

You can enter without an Australian passport (as a citizen) but can/will cause delays. There is a requirement that you do enter with one though. Secondly the point about visas is a moot point as once you become a citizen your visa is cancelled. Get passports. It makes life a lot easier!

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

If a country requires you to have a visa before boarding -as Australia does - then it has to be verified by check in staff.
If they alliw you to board without the right documents to enter the country, and you are refused entry, then the airline is fined AND has to pay for your return flight.
Your visa and entry rights are then reviewed by Immigration when you reach your destination (esp in the case of the USA) and they may still refuse you but that won't be charged to the airline.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Yeah, that is expensive. TBH, I don't see much point in continuing to renew both UK and Australian passports. The UK ones aren't compulsory for travel to the UK so rather let those expire and save the money. My UK passport expired a few months back and my boys' passports expire next month. We've decided not to renew so will be "winging it" on our SA ones until we get Australian citizenship next year.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Once we go Citizens, got test next Friday, our intention is to just use the Australian passports and not renew the UK ones. We rarely go back to UK so it seems hardly worthy to do so, if I did more travelling back then I would consider having both.

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Hmmm. I guess it depends on whether you trust the Australian government to render assistance if you get into bother overseas. I'm not sure I do, so I'll keep both going for the time being. But then it is only me, so the costs could be prohibitive for a family...


S

Re: Aussie Citizen now, do I have to travel on Aussie Passport?
 

Do you trust the UK government to give you assistance?

I reckon they would be no different