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Traveling in Vietnam, I met a woman with three passports. She sounded English, considered herself Dutch, but traveled on her US passport. Why? Because when you

by vacri 10y ago

Traveling in Vietnam, I met a woman with three passports. She sounded English, considered herself Dutch, but traveled on her US passport. Why? Because when you get into trouble in a foreign country, the US consulates like to flex their muscle, whereas most others, UK included, tend to just say "well, that was stupid of you". They don't seem to have taken that kind of thing into account in their rankings.

owenversteeg 10y ago
I travel a lot and 'only' have two passports (Dutch/American.) I usually travel on my Dutch one because of visa restrictions, and I doubt using my Dutch one would at all prevent the US consulates from helping me. That said, I get your point - it can be nice to know "if I get into serious trouble, the US will probably work hard to get me home safe". That's not to say the Netherlands won't, and I admire the foreign policy positions of the Netherlands, but ultimately "annoy the US" is a lot scarier than "annoy the Netherlands", and it's something valuable to keep in mind.
FabHK 10y ago
Does she (or you) have any evidence for that? The US has a well-known policy of not paying ransom for kidnapped citizens abroad, and apparently doesn't even allow families to pay ransom [1]. Other governments huff and puff about it (nobody wants to encourage terrorist kidnappings), but by and large tend to bail out their citizens. Furthermore, if you get in trouble with terrorists, I think the US passport is probably among the worst to have. With law enforcement, I'm not sure. But, if you get in trouble with law enforcement in Iran or China or Vietnam, you think they'd be more inclined to be helpful to US citizens? Either way, one would have to look at statistics and detail to make an informed decision, but at first approximation I think she'd be better off traveling on her Dutch passport on that score. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-06-04/u-s-ransom-policy-is-a-mistake https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-06-04/u-s-ranso...

by vacri 10y ago

owenversteeg 10y ago

I travel a lot and 'only' have two passports (Dutch/American.) I usually travel on my Dutch one because of visa restrictions, and I doubt using my Dutch one would at all prevent the US consulates from helping me. That said, I get your point - it can be nice to know "if I get into serious trouble, the US will probably work hard to get me home safe". That's not to say the Netherlands won't, and I admire the foreign policy positions of the Netherlands, but ultimately "annoy the US" is a lot scarier than "annoy the Netherlands", and it's something valuable to keep in mind.

FabHK 10y ago

Does she (or you) have any evidence for that? The US has a well-known policy of not paying ransom for kidnapped citizens abroad, and apparently doesn't even allow families to pay ransom [1]. Other governments huff and puff about it (nobody wants to encourage terrorist kidnappings), but by and large tend to bail out their citizens. Furthermore, if you get in trouble with terrorists, I think the US passport is probably among the worst to have. With law enforcement, I'm not sure. But, if you get in trouble with law enforcement in Iran or China or Vietnam, you think they'd be more inclined to be helpful to US citizens? Either way, one would have to look at statistics and detail to make an informed decision, but at first approximation I think she'd be better off traveling on her Dutch passport on that score. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-06-04/u-s-ransom-policy-is-a-mistake https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-06-04/u-s-ranso...