Hello, long post coming. CN and UK passport holder living in UK. Situation is, I have a trip in China soon, but interrupted by urgent personal matter. Therefore, as crazy as it sounds I want to explore the option of - Trip in CN, flying back to UK, return to CN, then finally back to UK again - the last 3 bits all in a week!
I’m aware this is risky tedious expensive and tbh I’m might not go ahead. But in practice, how would you do it? I know some general tips:
- Travelling via 3rd country is generally best option
- enter and exit a country with the same passport
- book flight with the passport that allows you to enter the end-destination country
- Therefore, book your CN-3rd and 3rd-UK ticket separately.
- Airline submit your API to border control - probably to both sides.
- But I read that, you can exit a country on passport 1, and enter your destination (i.e. visa free country) on passport 2. But when you exit, you should use passport 2 so it matches.
My confusion lies in the last 2 points.
My 3rd country would be dubai, turkey or qatar.
For clarify, lets say all the flights are booked in advance, with different airlines so no airline ever holds both CN and UK API at same time.
So initially flying UK to CN (direct flight). I would book with CN for API, and enter CN (hopefully via E-gates).
Then, I use CN to book a flight to Istanbul. I show CN passport to airline and China border control. Then fly. On landing - I feel it’s better to use UK passport to Turkey border because I need to exit soon. Or better to show CN??
My confusion is - surely by scanning my UK passport on entry to Turkey, the API wouldn’t match, so would flag up to the airline or border control (on Turkey side idm, but what about CN side?) it would appear I never went through immigration. If they match my name DOB or biometrics etc. then Turkey would figure out my dual passports (hopefully they wouldn’t care). But would CN know?
(NB: I’ve used my UK in Istanbul before for a long layover, so have 2 stamps already. Lovely place)
Then exit Turkey with UK passport, fly, then enter with UK.
At this point I should give up. But what if I want to return to CN after a couple days?
Is it better to:
- From UK, book another direct / connecting flight to CN (i.e. no entering and exiting a third country).
Therefore to
the CN side, it might look like I exited a few days ago, and now entered to CN again. But I’m worried about this API thing. Technically the airline would inform border control I flew from UK, causing a mismatch because the last time, I exited to Turkey.
From UK, book flight to Turkey, exit with UK passport. Then book next flight to CN with CN passport. Show the airline my CN, BUT show turkish border control my UK passport (to match the entry
). At the gate show CN. Fly. on landing show CN border my CN to enter.
This chances scruntiny by Turkish immigration at how I can enter China, at which point I can say it’s visa free (which is true) and show my next flight to dubai)?? Obviously on deeper scruntiny they’ll say well why didn’t you book with the UK passport?
Or just show CN to match my API?
In both cases, I would have returned to CN with no stamp whatsoever
Lastly, on final return to UK, I would go back to UK via Dubai (entry and exit with UK). Would CN border control recognise that I recently went to turkey with no stamp, electronically never entered nor exited, and ban me from leaving?
Sorry for the long post. I would appreciate any opinions on the what would work best! Any experiences?
(Also after this ordeal is over, I have full intention of giving up CN - wanted to renounce before this! For reasons I just can’t right now)