{"id":154711,"date":"2026-02-13T17:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=154711"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T00:15:28","slug":"concern-regarding-immigration-procedure-for-dual-citizens-colombo-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/02\/13\/concern-regarding-immigration-procedure-for-dual-citizens-colombo-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern Regarding Immigration Procedure for Dual Citizens \u2013 Colombo Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

My wife and I recently arrived in Colombo from Singapore on a late-night flight. As dual citizens, I hold both a Sri Lankan passport and a British passport. As is my usual practice, I presented both passports to the immigration officer, since officers typically request to see them.

To my surprise, the officer stated that his system did not show that I was a dual citizen. He was holding my British passport and said, Your dual citizenship is not indicated, and you cannot enter.\u201d I immediately informed him that I had also handed over my Sri Lankan passport, where my dual citizenship status is clearly mentioned.

He appeared hesitant to proceed with stamping the passports. My wife and I were already very tired due to a delayed UL flight and it was well past midnight. Despite my natural frustration in such situations, I remained calm and asked him what needed to be done. He responded that this was a system problem.\u201d

I explained that I am a citizen of this country, holding a valid Sri Lankan passport, and that I have traveled in and out of Sri Lanka many times over the years without facing such an issue. This was the first time I encountered such difficulty.

Fortunately, the lady officer seated next to him, wearing a headscarf, intervened and advised him to allow us to enter. Eventually, he said he would enter into the system\u201d that I am a dual citizen. I remarked that if there was a system requirement, immigration authorities should have updated such records 10\u201315 years ago, given that my dual citizenship is long-standing.

After some further processing, he finally stamped both passports and allowed us to enter.

This experience raises some questions:
\u2022 Why was a valid Sri Lankan passport not sufficient proof of citizenship?
\u2022 Why was dual citizenship information apparently missing from the system?
\u2022 Are dual citizens at risk of unnecessary inconvenience due to database gaps?
\u2022 Was this simply inexperience, or something else?

As senior citizens arriving late at night, we did not expect to face uncertainty about entry into our own country.

I sincerely hope the relevant authorities review such procedures to ensure that dual citizens are treated with clarity, efficiency, and respect.

I repatriated back for to my own motherland and getting my foreign pension in Sri Lanka and contributing to our national coffers I expect better treatment

\u2014
Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera My wife and I recently arrived in Colombo from Singapore on a late-night flight. As dual citizens, I hold both a Sri Lankan passport and a British passport. As is my usual practice, I presented both passports to the immigration officer, since officers typically request to see them. To my surprise, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-154711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154712,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154711\/revisions\/154712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}