Dual UK and US citizen - entering US on ESTA

Richard B

New Member
My daughter was born and lives here in the US. She's got both US and UK citizenship because I'm a British citizen.

Her US passport recently expired so on our recent trip to the UK, she entered back into the U.S. with her British passport and ESTA. I just applied to to renew her American passport.

My question is: Does she need to leave the country within 90 days because of the ESTA and enter back with her renewed American passport? We can fly to Mexico for a long weekend so there won't be an issue with the ESTA but I'd prefer not to incur that expense.

Cheers,

Richard
 
US citizens are required to enter and leave the US on a US passport. I'm surprised that they let her in on VWP at all since if her birthplace is the US it's obvious she's almost certainly a US citizen.

A US citizen cannot be deported from the US, so nothing will happen if she just ignores the VWP.
 
Thank you for the reply. Before they let us on the plane in London, they called the American Embassy to confirm because part of the ESTA is that you have a return ticket (which my daughter didn't because we live in Florida).

I had her expired US passport available which proved she was a US citizen. Once the guy at the American Embassy heard that both the UK and US passports had a birth place of Atlanta, GA, they let us on the plane immediately.

I think my concern is that if she ever had to travel to the US on her British passport again would she have any issues?
 
She is required to have a US passport to travel to the US, so she should never "travel to the US on her British passport again".
 
On the ESTA there is a section I filled in for other passports. I entered that it was a US passport and provided the number.

I just read on the US Customs and Border Protection web-site that a foreign passport is allowed with an ESTA if it is an emergency. I guess because my daughter is a minor and I applied late for the ESTA they let it slide.
 
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