Passport needed when you hold a green card?

[Jens79 64]

34 minutes ago, inloveVEN said:

theoretically any LPR are admitted only showing his Green Card and any ID like from your country. But i´d certainly never take this risk because internationally this is the only document in your hands do you have to show as a prove that you've entered to USA. There is an option called trusted traveller but Sweden citizen are not into the list of beneficiaries countries.

more information here

 https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/after-green-card-granted/international-travel-permanent-resident#reenter 

 

or

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1191/~/traveling-outside-of-the-u.s.---documents-needed-for-lawful-permanent-residents

5

This discussion took some interesting turns. My initial question was purely theoretical. I have no problem with actually bringing my passport with me, but it's interesting to understand the reason why you actually would need a passport if you can enter and exit any European country with your national ID-card, and (at least according to some members here) you can enter and exit the US with a green card only. Those two documents contains all the critical information that you would need to cross the two borders - your identity (ID and GC), your citizenship (ID) and your legal status in the US (GC). Your passport doesn't contain any other information. And that's why I rasied the question. The fact that the airlines and (possibly) CBP have other routines, is definitely in line with what I expected. 

(For those who are not familiar with this european ID-card, it's a government issued ID-card that replaces the passport and contains information about your citizenship, unlike a driver's license. In that sense, it's very similar to the US "passport card".) 

Of course Global Entry (which is avalible to Green Card-holders, even if you're a Swedish citizen) could be a good solution for practical matters, but even if you can actually enter through the kiosk and according to the CBP only need to insert your green card, I assume that you still need your passport to check-in to and board your flight, for reasons like "you always need a passport because that's how it is and has always been". Right?

[broppy 204]

12 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

For the curious ones, look up the IATA document requirements tool - many links but reliable here: https://www.emirates.com/english/plan_book/find_visa_requirements/find_visa_requirements.aspx  

Excellent resource. Thanks for the link.

[Mollie09 1,543]

56 minutes ago, Jens79 said:

This discussion took some interesting turns. My initial question was purely theoretical. I have no problem with actually bringing my passport with me, but it's interesting to understand the reason why you actually would need a passport if you can enter and exit any European country with your national ID-card, and (at least according to some members here) you can enter and exit the US with a green card only. Those two documents contains all the critical information that you would need to cross the two borders - your identity (ID and GC), your citizenship (ID) and your legal status in the US (GC). Your passport doesn't contain any other information. And that's why I rasied the question. The fact that the airlines and (possibly) CBP have other routines, is definitely in line with what I expected. 

(For those who are not familiar with this european ID-card, it's a government issued ID-card that replaces the passport and contains information about your citizenship, unlike a driver's license. In that sense, it's very similar to the US "passport card".) 

Of course Global Entry (which is avalible to Green Card-holders, even if you're a Swedish citizen) could be a good solution for practical matters, but even if you can actually enter through the kiosk and according to the CBP only need to insert your green card, I assume that you still need your passport to check-in to and board your flight, for reasons like "you always need a passport because that's how it is and has always been". Right?

 

Global Entry and GC holder here! Don't need my passport to enter the US, just scan my GC and show it at customs, but I've always had to enter passport info for flights. I've never flown anywhere international without my passport, but then again I don't have a European ID card.

 

When going to Canada I have to show GC and passport. Once I tried only my GC and the border person was not happy.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Mollie09

[Jens79 64]

1 minute ago, Mollie09 said:

 

Global Entry and GC holder here! Don't need my passport to enter the US, just scan my GC and show it at customs, but I've always had to enter passport info for flights. I've never flown anywhere international without my passport, but then again I don't have a European ID card.

 

When going to Canada I have to show GC and passport. Once I tried only my GC and the border person was not happy.

 

Interesting! 

Ok, so at least if you have applied for Global Entry, that would solve the "issue" of entering without your passport. And if I understood you correctly the airline will still ask for your passport, even if a European national ID-card would technically prove that you are eligible to enter your (European) destination country. It sounds like the airlines in most cases don't recognize the national ID-card and even if they did, there is no law requiring them to do so. (I guess the law actually specifies that you do need a passport). Inside Europe the law says that the ID-card is a valid travel document, and therefore the airlines accept it. It's most probably not more complicated than so. 

[NYCruiser 423]

14 hours ago, Lemonslice said:

That is not correct. Plenty of situations where you can fly and or travel without a passport.  Passport will save you time an questions when checking in, but still not an absolute requirements for all, all the time.  I have flown without a passport and this is a situation I have seen regularly. 

 

Green card holders can enter the USA with their green card. Can also fly to Jamaica and a few other places.  

 

For the curious ones, look up the IATA document requirements tool - many links but reliable here: https://www.emirates.com/english/plan_book/find_visa_requirements/find_visa_requirements.aspx  

 

Always confirm with your airline.  

I can pipe in here. When you enter on a Green Card AND Global Entry, you scan the Green Card, so technically, you don't need a passport to ENTER the US. However, airlines will not let you board with just a Green Card. 

[Jens79 64]

6 minutes ago, NYCruiser said:

I can pipe in here. When you enter on a Green Card AND Global Entry, you scan the Green Card, so technically, you don't need a passport to ENTER the US. However, airlines will not let you board with just a Green Card. 

And I guess the CBP can still request your passport, if you for some reason is subject to extra/random checks, right? 

[charmander 692]

CBP

15 minutes ago, Jens79 said:

And I guess the CBP can still request your passport, if you for some reason is subject to extra/random checks, right? 

Here's my thought, if they want to check your travel history (say if they wanna check whether you traveled to one of the risky regions recently), passport stamps is the only way they could check this (unless CIA/FBI has access to customs/border database in those countries).

 

Regardless, I think during the pre-9/11 era this was convenient for a lot of people when things were relaxed. I remember my friends in Western NY telling, they used to go Niagara/Toronto with only their Driver's Licenses during that time. Now everybody needs a passport. Even if USA does not require passport for LPRs, god knows how many different countries you could travel without a passport.

 

[Mollie09 1,543]

56 minutes ago, Jens79 said:

And I guess the CBP can still request your passport, if you for some reason is subject to extra/random checks, right? 

I'm assuming so. And they'd expect you to have one if traveling internationally.

[Jojo92122 1,924]

Can't believe this is still going.

 

Bring the passport along.  Why is it such a big deal to have to bring your passport with you on your travels?  Hundred of millions of travelers do it all the time.

[Jens79 64]

9 minutes ago, Jojo92122 said:

Can't believe this is still going.

 

Bring the passport along.  Why is it such a big deal to have to bring your passport with you on your travels?  Hundred of millions of travelers do it all the time.

 

 

1

Come on...! I've pointed out two times already that this is only a theoretical question. I have zero intention of not bringing my passport. I was thinking about whether it would work or not, and I threw the question out there. It's not a big deal, and we got a pretty good discussion. That was the only purpose. No need for you to be grumpy. If you don't appreciate the conversation, there are 10 000 conversations for you to dive into instead. 

Edited April 27, 2017 by Jens79

[zilchfox 296]

15 hours ago, USAMorocco said:

You need a passport when traveling internationally period.  You cannot get on a flight without one.  You can't even book an international flight without a passport #.  If you are traveling domestically within the USA you have to produce your government issued ID.....like a passport or drivers license.  But no you cannot enter the USA without a passport from another country.  You won't even make it on the plane. If they can't scan your passport you aren't coming here.  They aren't taking your ID card. 

Depends on the country. I have a USC friend who successfully drove to Ontario using only his drivers license, he doesn't even have a passport, and I'm sure I could do the same as I'm a Canadian citizen (I have a legal right to enter Canada), and I'm pretty sure driving back with just a green card shouldn't be an issue either, as you have a right to live and work in the U.S.

[Lemonslice 4,836]

1 hour ago, charmander said:

CBP

Here's my thought, if they want to check your travel history (say if they wanna check whether you traveled to one of the risky regions recently), passport stamps is the only way they could check this (unless CIA/FBI has access to customs/border database in those countries).

 

Regardless, I think during the pre-9/11 era this was convenient for a lot of people when things were relaxed. I remember my friends in Western NY telling, they used to go Niagara/Toronto with only their Driver's Licenses during that time. Now everybody needs a passport. Even if USA does not require passport for LPRs, god knows how many different countries you could travel without a passport.

 

Information is shared electronically by many border agencies. Too easy to "lose" a passport to hide a trip...

 

Also, I have fewer stamps than the number of trips I took. EU countries do not stamp my EU passport, Canada does not stamp my Canadian passport.  

 

Since moving to the USA 7 years ago, I have had to reenter the country over 150 times... Plenty of occasions to test different documents.  

 

Jens79, I haven't tried entry in Europe with my National ID card. I have an older/non machine readable card so just went with automated kiosk and EU passport.

[Mollie09 1,543]

1 hour ago, Jens79 said:

Come on...! I've pointed out two times already that this is only a theoretical question. I have zero intention of not bringing my passport. I was thinking about whether it would work or not, and I threw the question out there. It's not a big deal, and we got a pretty good discussion. That was the only purpose. No need for you to be grumpy. If you don't appreciate the conversation, there are 10 000 conversations for you to dive into instead. 

 

I'll flip it around: try it!

Try not to use your passport as much as possible and see what happens. It's what I was trying to do in Canada.

[broppy 204]

28 minutes ago, Jens79 said:

Come on...! I've pointed out two times already that this is only a theoretical question. I have zero intention of not bringing my passport. I was thinking about whether it would work or not, and I threw the question out there. It's not a big deal, and we got a pretty good discussion. That was the only purpose. No need for you to be grumpy. If you don't appreciate the conversation, there are 10 000 conversations for you to dive into instead. 

It should work. You can enter EU with EU national ID card only. You can enter US with green card only. IATA has systems in place to verify that you have sufficient documentation (try http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/passport-visa-health-travel-document-requirements.htm for something a little more advanced than the Emirates link posted earlier - you can specifically select that you're a Swedish US resident travelling from US to anywhere in EU with Swedish national ID card plus US green card and back again and it reports all should be cool).

And it's not too hard to test it out. Next time you fly back to EU, see what the options are when checking in online - if it insists on a passport number, you can go ahead and fill that in (it's just asking for the number - not insisting that you carry the passport with you - any more than they insist you carry the credit card used to make the booking). Do take the passport just in case, but see how far you can get just waving only your green card and Swedish ID at machines, TSA and gate agents. Rinse and repeat for the return journey. If at any point someone along the way really wants to deny boarding or entry, pull out the passport.

But I suspect there's a problem with US exit requirements (or lack of them). When leaving the US, the airlines are supposed to collect travel documentation and report it to US authorities who want passport or green card information (or a handful of other docs) for permanent residents. I believe the airlines are also expected to report travel documentation to the destination border authorities who will want to see passport or EU ID card. From the airlines' perspective it's a lot easier to insist everyone flies with a passport as they can then report the same information to both US and EU authorities. It would be a lot easier to do it in the other direction as EU border authorities perform their own exit checks - you can show them your EU ID when leaving. The airlines then only need to collect and report travel documentation to the US - at which point just using the green card should be enough.

[Hypnos 6,576]

3 hours ago, Jens79 said:

And I guess the CBP can still request your passport, if you for some reason is subject to extra/random checks, right? 

They can request it, but can't deny an LPR entry on the basis that they haven't showed their passport. 

 

As stated multiple times on this thread, LPRs aren't required to show a passport in order to enter the US; your green card is a valid entry document all by itself.