Dual Citizenship

First off, a little bit on the two passports I use.

I was born in the United States of America and am thus a natural-born citizen of this great country. By operation of law, I was also born a Filipino citizen since my parents held Philippine passports at the time of my birth.

RA9225 ratified by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo in 2003 is the reason why I have two passports. The law affords Philippine citizenship to those who have abandoned their Filipino citizenship through naturalization in other countries as well as to those who are born in a foreign country to at least one Filipino parent.

So actually all I needed to do was file my birth at the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles and then after about a week, voila, I have a second passport!

Holding two passports has its pros and cons.

First off, if I were to ever get into trouble in the Philippines, I cannot count on US Consular protection to help me, but, then again, it's not like good, old-fashioned dinero can't get you out of any situation you might find yourself in throughout your course of stay in the Philippines.

Second, as I hold two passports, there is a higher chance that I might lose one of my citizenships due to some technicality. But, then again, all I really need to do is act like a good citizen and I'm sure I won't find myself in too much trouble.

The pros somewhat outweigh the cons. Why? For example, if I ever want to visit China, I won't have to pay the exorbitant visa fee of USD 100 that I would have to pay if I used my US passport. I could use my Philippine passport and pay about USD 25. I've done it four times, so if you think about it, those four visas equal just one visa one a US passport! Catch is, if ever something goes wrong while I'm in China, it will be difficult to ask for help or protection from the US government.

Also, if I want to go to Europe, I can go visa-free. With my US passport, I don't need visas to go to most of the countries in the world or at least visa restrictions and application procedures are lighter on US citizens. And, since I like to collect visas, my Philippine passport affords me the chance to apply for visas that I would never get on my US passport! Actually, on my recent trip to Cambodia, I actually decided to use my US passport since that way I could get one of them neat visa stickers. If I used my Philippine passport, I would just get the entry and exit stamps.

So, you see, having the two passports affords me the mobility to move around the world more freely than if I had only one of them!



Here is my American e-Passport. I prefer the older ones. This is my fourth passport and of all the four designs I have, this is my least favorite. This one is too modern and techie for me. I also do not like all the pictures printed on each page of the passport because they make the passport look so gawdy and messy, and sometimes you can no longer see the visa stamps in your passport anymore!

I get the feeling that these drawings make the new US passport look less presentable and respectable than the older ones that just had official seals printed on them. However, it seems that the US just joined the bandwagon of countries with different designs on each page. I have learned that other countries governments such as Hong Kong, Korea, and, quite recently, Australia have also begun printing different designs on each page in an effort to curb passport fraud and make page replacement a bit harder than it once was.


This is my first Philippine passport. As you can see from the blank space at the bottom of the data page, it is not machine readable (MRP), a fact that many immigration authorities protested. In response to the complaints brought up by the international community, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration decided to upgrade its passports to machine readability and, very recently, to e-Passport RFID technology. The change happened so quickly since I believe the Philippines is one of the last countries to switch to the MRP system and now it has escalated to the level of e-Passports. Also, from what I understand, the Philippines offers the cheapest e-Passport in the world since the e-Passport costs a little more than USD 20 while most other passport costs much, much more. The US e-Passport, for example, cost me USD 100!

The last non-MRP passports was apparently issued in 2007 and should be valid until expiration in 2012, but I heard that this policy has changed and the non-MRP will no longer be honored for travel starting sometime this year (2010).

The non-MRP Philippine passport had a green motif and the cover was green. The new ones are maroon-covered and have a blue-red motif, which I do not like in the same way I do not like the new US e-Passport.

It's funny how I do not like the new passports. I guess it means I either don't like change or I don't like modernity. Or it could just mean that I am old-fashioned.