It’s just another day at the office, this time on the U.S.
citizen/Permanent Resident side of The Line.
I look at each person standing behind the yellow line of carpet, and I
know why they’re here. “How was the trip?” I ask, just being pleasant.
“Long,” they reply with a snort, as if it’s the wittiest thing they’ve
said in days. It’s usually an American businessman returning from 24 hours
in the air and six on the ground. Bang. “Welcome home, sir. Next!”
Yaddie-Yaddie-Bang-Bang.
Homegirl walks up with her carry-on, I tag her as returning from a family
visit in Hong Kong or Taiwan – probably a LPR [Lawfully (Admitted)
Permanent Resident, pronounced “La-Per”] because the passport isn’t an
American green. She hands over her customs declaration and a brand new
Taiwan passport. I don’t have everything I need yet, so I don’t swipe the
passport through the scanner; if I need to send her away it will be one
more step to take her out of the computer.
 
I flip the passport open to the Bio Page (with the photo, etc) and see
it’s brand new, like from September. It’s not counterfeit, but it was
issued in San Francisco. “May I have your Green Card?” She blinks at
me.
I flip through the pages and find two stamps: one into Taiwan, one out.
But no visa. “Where’s your visa?” I ask? She cocks her head to the
side.
“Do you have another passport?” I ask. She reacts and I know she
understands and has one. “Give me your other passport,” I say in a tone
more annoyed than necessary. There’s 500 people waiting behind her. She
reaches in her bag and pulls out a while envelope, the kind travelers
frequently use to hold their tickets and other forms. I gesture for her to
give it to me, “give me your other passport.” She shrinks away, protecting
the envelope. She doesn’t want me to see something inside. “You don’t have
a visa in this passport, so I’m not going to let you in unless you give me
more. Give me your other passport!” She reaches in and pulls out…
A blue American passport.
I’m dumbfounded. “What are you doing?!” I demand. “Why are you giving me
this?” I shake her green book at her. Holding up her blue book I state “If
you’d given me this you’d already be getting your bags!”
I swipe her passport through the scanner while she goes into a sad story
about her sick mother and how long she was gone and sob, sob, sob.It’s
amazing how many people travel for sad reasons. She’s got a clear American
accent – she understood every word I’ve said which means she was
pretending not to understand in the beginning. She got caught trying to
play “No English”.
The computer cleared I look back at her with the This Is How It Is look.
“This country doesn’t recognize dual citizenships. In fact, you know what?
I want you to tell me if you want to come into the U.S. as an American, or
someone from Taiwan.” It looks like she knows this game but doesn’t know
the answer, Taiwan must not like dual citizenship either.
“Great! So don’t give me this,” I say, handing her back the green book
with enough velocity to make the point. “I don’t even want to see it.”
Bang. Customs Dec.
“Will you stamp it for me?”
What? “No, I won’t stamp that passport for you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not entering the U.S. on that passport.”
“Then how will I go to Taiwan?” Huh?
“Look: if you enter on this passport,” I hold up the passport from Taiwan,
“you don’t have a visa and I’ll send you right back on the next flight.” I
point to the corridor from the planes. “If you enter on this passport,” I
hold up her blue one, “you can walk away right now.” I hand her the
remaining documents.
“But will you stamp this one?”
“No way. A stamp says I let you in on that passport – not your American
one – and I can’t do that. You don’t have a visa and I’m not going to say
you do. There’s no way I’m going to stamp that passport. Forget it.”
“Ok.” She puts her documents away.
“Have a nice day ma’am. Next.”
I didn’t know what she was doing, but in retrospect I understand. She used
her Taiwan passport to visit her mother because she wouldn’t be restricted
in how long she stayed (which was several months). But Taiwan isn’t one of
those countries that ignores dual-nationality – they prosecute. They’ll
take your citizenship away in a flash if they discover you have another
(and they won’t let you in if you don’t have a valid passport, even if
it’s from Taiwan). She wanted the stamp so she could show she’d entered
the U.S. Knowing you don’t get in legally without the stamp a Taiwan
immigration official could right rightly suspect she had another passport,
and thus was a dual-national.
Basically, she’ll have to be creative if she wants to play the same game
again. I’ve given it some thought and I have a few answers, but I think
I’ll keep them to myself. There’s no point spreading that stuff around.
I had another one today: 20-something with both passports together in the
same wallet. Swipe. Bang. I tapped his Taiwan passport:
“I don’t want to see this. Don’t give it to me next time, ‘k?”
“’k.”
“Thanks, welcome home. Next.”