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Which passport do I present to the (Canadian) airline? Canada now insists that Canadian citizens fly with a Canadian passport. Presumably I need to show my UK passport to work legally in the UK. Can I travel on the Canadian passport and show the UK one to the UK Immigration agent, or will that cause confusion and delays?

marked as duplicate by Greg Hewgill, phoog, Ali Awan, Michael, reirab Sep 22 '17 at 15:10



What you suggest will work just fine.

The airline only cares that you present them a passport that allows you to enter the country you are flying to. UK immigration wants to see a passport that allows you to work in the UK (if that's what you are going to do - if you were going as a tourist your Canadian passport would be fine). Coming back the airline wants to see a passport that allows entry to Canada, and Canadian immigration wants a passport that proves you can live there. Neither of the immigrations care what passport you showed to the airline.

You could also use your UK passport for everything on the outward journey and the Canadian one on the return, although that would involve providing two passport numbers to the airline, which would be unnecessarily complicated.

  • Actually the airline going back to Canada will want the Canadian passport too. The UK passport won't have an eTA. – Dennis Sep 22 '17 at 0:22
  • That's a good point. – DJClayworth Sep 22 '17 at 0:30
  • That is correct, and it really compels the traveller to use the Canadian passport both ways, as airlines don't like it when you switch passports for the return leg of a round trip. I discovered that a few years ago, the hard way. So I guess I'll use the Canadian passport throughout, except at UK immigration. – Ian Robb Sep 22 '17 at 0:41
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    @IanRobb some airlines might not like that, but I've been doing it for years and have never had anyone even comment on it, let alone have a problem with it. So it presumably depends on the airline and perhaps the destinations. – phoog Sep 22 '17 at 3:49
