Caribbean Citizenship

Member since 26 October 2024

NickDBXMember26 October 2024 14:48:03

Dear All,

I am considering acquiring Caribbean citizenship and would like to ask a few specific questions only from those who have firsthand experience with this process.

Background Information:

Imagine a family holding Caribbean passports while living in Dubai with Emirates IDs linked to their Pakistan passports. Suppose they plan to travel to the UK or a European country. When approaching immigration at Dubai Airport:

Departure from Dubai: As they won’t have a UK visa on their Pakistan passports, they plan to show the Caribbean passports to prove eligibility for an on-arrival visa. However, the Dubai immigration officer would likely stamp the exit on their Pakistan passports, as the Caribbean passports are new and not linked to their Emirates IDs.

2.What issues have others encountered at this step, and how were they resolved?

Arrival in the UK: Upon landing in the UK, the family would present their Caribbean passports. However, there will be no Dubai exit stamp on these passports.

3.How do UK immigration officers typically address this, and what questions can they expect? If anyone has navigated this situation, could you share how it was handled?

UK Entry Stamp: If the family is successful in entering the UK, their Caribbean passports would receive entry stamps, not their Pakistan passports.

4.Does anyone have experience with how UK immigration addresses this situation?

Return to Dubai: Upon return, Dubai immigration would likely check their Pakistan passports, which would have no UK exit stamp.

Have people encountered any issues here, and what solutions have worked?

Final Thoughts: I have additional questions but would appreciate insights on the above for now.

Thank you in advance for your valuable responses.

XTang Bahrain/UAE/KSA Expert

Member since 22 April 2014

XTangBahrain/UAE/KSA Expert27 October 2024 08:20:27

11957

You are overcomplicating this.

To keep it very simple, you exit on the basis of the passport which has the UAE residency or one which you entered UAE on. That is what UAE immigration is concerned about - they will never ask to see the Carribean passport nor stamp it (until you move your UAE residency to it). They don't care about your eligibility to enter the UK or stamps. Only the airline will verify eligibility to enter UK by seeing the other passports.

In the UK, they don't care about exit stamps from UAE. They don't care where you are coming from as long you are eligible to enter the UK. Show Carribean passports. On the way back, airline will want to see the Pakistan passports to prove eligibility to enter UAE - BUT tell them to scan Carribean passports so that APIS marks you as exiting UK (as you entered on those and UK does not have exit immigration) otherwise you will be shown as not having left. This is ONLY for the UK. For Europe, there is exit immigration.

The only issue is that e-gates in UAE might not work because they are linked to passenger name and passport (Airline scans Carribean whereas your residence is on the Pakistan passport). So you will have to go through manual immigration.

Just remember the simple rule: ANY immigration ANYWHERE will ONLY stamp passports which you enter the country on (i.e. the ones on which you have the right to enter the country). An add on is that GCC countries where you have legal residence will NEVER accept any other passport for entering their country and will only use the one which is linked to the residency. If you give the other one, they will tell you to give the one which the residency is linked to - A friend with British and an EU nationality tried this (key point being that both passports were eligible for visa on arrival in the UAE on their own merit. UAE residence was on the British passport).

I do this all the time and been doing it for years. Carry both passports. Pakistan passport has residence of Bahrain and Saudi. Exit Bahrain or Saudi on that. Show airline the other one. Use the other one to enter UK/Europe. And look, thousands of people do this all the time (many people have two nationalities), it is well understood and is not a big deal. Even immigration understands. For example, once at Frankfurt airport, I was going through immigration for a connecting flight and they had some sort of alert so they were being extra thorough. They asked me (As I was coming from Bahrain) if I was a Bahrain resident. I said yes and then he said can you show it to me. I took out my Pakistan passport and showed him the RP............he just verified that it was the same person, stamped the other passport (which is the one which was eligible for visa free entry to the EU) and handed both back. As I said in the beginning, you are overthinking and overcomplicating it.