Which Passport?
 

Setting off on a four month trip from the UK to South Africa departing September 2000. Planned route is probably through the Middle East and then ferry to Djibouti.

Trying to decide which passport would give me the easiest time. I have an Irish passport which will have expired before my departure, although I am also entitled to a British passport. Any recommendations about which to take?

Who said patriotism is dead.....?

Hi,
I'd take the Irish one given a choice between Irish and British.

Not that a British passport is bad, just that you are exceedingly unlikely to run into anyone that the Irish have offended!

We find a Canadian passport is great for the same reason.

Another factor to check is visa requirements - does one or the other require more expensive visas?

For instance Australian passport is a problem because just about everyone requres visas for Aussies, and it can get very expensive and time consuming, so we don't use our Aussie passports for travelling.

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Grant Johnson

Share the Dream!
at: www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

take them both. You need to go in and out of a country on the same passport, but that is a country by country thing. You can save money on visas depending on the passport you arrive with

enjoy
Harvey

charlie
definitely take a new irish one. i had the pleasure of having to fly me and my bike over sudan (cairo-addis), because the pommies are so much loved (not) in that part of the world.
enjoy
chris

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About BMW Arabia's comment "take them both..." - be very careful about crossing certain borders (lesser developed countries) while carrying two passports. In some places, that can get you into very hot water, you can be accused of spying, fraud, all sorts of grief, and wind up in jail before you know it.

This would not apply to Europe and North America, but certainly would apply to many of the countries along the route you mentioned (UK to ZA).

I traveled openly on two passports (US and Irish) in Southern Africa in 1998. My traveling partner had three (US, UK and Australia). Border officials were generally insistent that we use only one of our passports for the whole trip to ensure an unbroken series of entry and exit stamps.

On that trip I entered South Africa on my US passport and then learned that many of the counties I would be visiting had high visa fees for US passports but no fees for Irish ones. From then on, at each border, I tried to switch over from my US to the Irish one. On departure from each country I presented the Irish passport and invariably the official would refuse to stamp that passport because it lacked a valid entry stamp into his country. I then presented the US one and received the correct stamp. In the next county on the other side of the border their official wanted to see the stamp from the country I just left, etc, etc. I eventually found a very sleepy Zimbabwean immigration officer on the Botswana border who didn’t look for the old stamp in my Irish passport, allowing me to use it for the rest of my trip.

Only one border official gave us any grief about having two passports. I called his supervisor who agreed with me. The concept is fairly easy to explain to border officials but has to be done gently: Legally, citizenship is a matter for the passport issuing country. For example, if the US and Ireland both issue a passport to an individual that is a matter for the US and Ireland. A country such as South Africa has no legal jurisdiction over the issuance of these passports because it happens overseas to a foreigner. As always though the most powerful tool for crossing a third world border is a big smile and a friendly approach.
Good luck. Have a great trip.
Brian.