malJohann Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 (edited) Hi all, my wife and I are going back to SA on holiday in two months, but travelling on our AU passports since we became AU citizens early last year. My concern is, when we did AU citizenship we didn't ask to retain SA citizenship. Would it be okay for us to travel to SA on our AU passports? We also have two children, both born in AU as citizens, one when were both on PR, and one when we had AU citizenship already. Any concerns? Do we HAVE to do the BI-529 and/or BI-829 before we go? They state on SAHC that it takes 6 to 12 months to do that. Please advise ASAP. Thanks. Edited October 1, 2018 by malJohann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nev Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 You are in a grey area , If you haven't filled in the forms and declined your citizenship you should be traveling on your RSA passports as you are still RSA citizens and need to by law, it is your responsibility to let them know, you are also correct that you have lost your citizenship so by law shouldnt be traveling on your RSA passports It does take months to do the renounce No matter what you travel on it will be illegal, lots of people get away with traveling on the wrong passport, but some dont so i cant recommend anything that will keep you from being illegal unfortunately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ietermagog Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 I agree with Nev that it is an offense to use your AU passport if you are still a South African citizen, but I disagree with him saying you are still citizens in South Africa. From what I have read, if you do not notify South Africa that you want to keep your citizenship here BEFORE obtaining a new citizenship, then it will automatically be renounced. https://www.sahc.org.au/citizenship/Dual_Citizenship.htm However, laws do change and you may be able to clarify this with the embassy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new2forum Posted October 1, 2018 Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 morning you automatically lose your SA citizrnship when obtaining the citizenship of another country. Use your AU passport you will be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malJohann Posted October 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2018 I also saw the SAHC link last night and thought “no problem then”, since we didn’t apply to retain SA citizenship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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