My mother is a dual citizen (Australian/USA), and was traveling to America 2 weeks ago. She had to show her passport in Sydney, got on the plane, then had to show her US passport to get into LA (nothing bizzare).
When she left the US however, she did not have to show her passport to get onto the plane, only to get out of customs AFTER the plane flight to Sydney.
This seems very bizarre, why is this?
US doesnt make you show your passport to leave? The only time I’ve had to show mine when leaving was to confirm my electronic tickets at the check-in counter.
Maybe Australia doesn’t have a carrier-liability law, as the US does, which imposes fines on airlines if they allow passengers to board who later turn out not to have the required entry documentation.
If Australia does have such a law, the airline was breaking it. It wouldn’t be the first time.
It more surprises me that anyone can get onto an international flight without having to show your passport, on US soil.
It just seems odd with all this anti terror stuff.
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe there are several forms of ID that are acceptable for boarding a US airplane, a passport being just one of them. So if she showed an acceptable form of ID otherwise that might have worked. It’s not the particular document that’s important, but that you’re identified as a particular person.
But if I’m wrong I’m sure someone will be along shortly to correct me.
Typically once past security, there’s no more need to show identification of any type. Just your boarding pass. Now to ensure that you’re allowed to enter Australia, you’ll have to show your passport to the boarding pass agent, or slide it through the passport reader on the self-service kiosk to get your boarding pass.
To get through security, then, just your boarding pass and some type of acceptable ID. In my case, it’s usually passport since it’s handy anyway.
That is bizarre. My son is a dual US/Australian citizen, also. He’s only a baby, though, and only has his Australian passport at this time. When we left the US, they almost wouldn’t let him on the plane because he only had the Australian passport. We basically had to just convince them (plus show them his birth certificate - he was born in South Carolina - and Australian citizenship documentation) and they finally acquiesced. Their argument was that if he only had an Australian passport, he should have a visa saying he’s in the US legally. If he’s in the US as an American citizen, he should have a US passport. We went around and around and around with them, but they finally let us fly.
Are you sure she didn’t show it at the ticket counter? Every flight I have taken abroad, they ask to see my passport before I can check in, but i no longer need to show it before boarding the plane itself.
I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone take a good look at my passport, even when I flew to the US, but that was at least fifteen years ago so probably America is more scrutinising these days… at the time though, most people just saw it from a distance and waved me through along with the rest of the herd, it could have been a really lousy copy unless they had special hologram-detecting glasses on or something.
Just to add: iirc.