srvince

Sorry for such a basic question, but I have seen conflicting information in other posts...can somebody clarify:

I have a USA and UK passport. I am going to travel from the US to the UK this January (and then return in March). How do I go about presenting passports to airports?

Thanks!

lansbury

If you are only going for three months just take your US passport. That is all I take for short trips back to the UK.

Wintersong

If you want to use both, the only time you will present your UK passport is at immigration entering the UK. At all other times, use your US passport.

Pulaski

What 'e said.
What she said is also true.

srvince

I did this last time and the line at immigration was very long with a US passport. I am hoping to sail through with the UK one.

Pulaski

Which you can do, as noted by Wintersong. Use your US passport everywhere else.

durham_lad

This is what we do. Often means avoiding long lines entering the UK, or any EU country.

This year we took a re-positioning cruise from Houston to Southampton, stopping at Liverpool where we met up with my wife's brother and wife for the day. The night before we arrived everyone that did not have a UK passport was given an appointment card to see UK border control officials who set up shop onboard ship in the morning. The rest of us were given a pass to leave the ship without standing in a huge long line to get a pass.

srvince

Thanks. So when I check-in to the airport in San Francisco, I show my USA passport to the agent? Then when I arrive in Heathrow I show the UK passport?

And leaving Heathrow on the way back to the states I go with the USA passport?

Wintersong

Ummmm... yes. Show your UK passport at immigration in the UK. At all other times, use your US passport.

durham_lad

Exactly.

I used to travel to Europe on business a lot and also used my UK passport to enter those countries as well, mostly Brussels as that was my business group's HQ.

ETA
I was traveling with my boss once from Amsterdam to Basel and when we changed planes at Frankfurt I sailed through the EU Passport only line but he was so long getting through the Other Passports line with his US passport that we missed our connection.

robin1234

Arriving at Heathrow the last two or three times, I've just walked right through using the automated passport reader thingy with my British passport. If I'd relied on my US passport, I'd be waiting in a massive line, looked like twenty minutes or more to wait .... and since my checked bag arrived on the carousel almost immediately, I was through customs and having my coffee and croissant at Caffe Nero fifteen minutes after deplaning. I can't see the point of relying on a foreign passport when I'm a British citizen.

md95065

Would those be the automated passport readers with the facial recognition system where the instructions say that you don't need to take of your glasses to use them, but which do not in fact work unless you do remove your glasses and possibly not even then? Lots of people were having trouble with them last time I went through LHR - I was very definitely not impressed.

durham_lad

I renewed my British Passport this year and even though the instructions say that you can wear clear reading glasses I decided not to wear my glasses as I've had trouble in the past with automated passport readers in the USA. (Never been through the ones at LHR or LGW as we always avoid London when we fly in, and usually arrive into Manchester or Durham Tees Valley)

MarylandNed

Yes, but be aware that if you're going to do this, make sure you always have both passports handy in case you are ever asked to produce the other one. A couple of times when exiting the UK on my foreign passport, I was asked why it didn't have a UK entry stamp. I explained that I had used my UK passport to enter the UK. I was then asked to show it.

I usually just use my US passport for the entire trip but I normally go through Dublin or Manchester where I have not encountered long non-EU lines.