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One of my Iranian friends has also obtained German citizenship. Now, she has two passports: an Iranian and a German. However, she wants to just use her Iranian passport to apply for student visa from the Netherlands in order to start a PhD program there.

She is currently in Iran and does not want to use her german passport at all.

(1) Can the embassy understand that she has also a German passport? Can she be given the student visa of the Netherlands on her Iranian passport?

(2) Will she be able to enter the Netherlands with the visa on her Iranian passport, or will she have some problems upon entering the Netherlands?

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    Why? Is she aware of the rights which come with any EU citizenship within the EU?
    – o.m.
    Commented May 17 at 16:33
  • I'm guessing in order to prevent the Iranian government from knowing about it.
    – littleadv
    Commented May 17 at 17:15
  • Entering the Netherlands should be the easy part, at this point she can just ignore the visa and present her German passport, her other citizenship and any visa she may or may not have are completely irrelevant. Or does she also hope to obtain entry and exit stamps as Iranian citizens ordinarily would?
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 17 at 18:05
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    If the goal is to hide her German citizenship to Iranian authorities, a more common and perhaps easier tactic is to transit through a third country. There aren't many options for Iranian citizens but Turkey is an obvious one (and a major transit hub on the way to Europe). After reaching Turkey, everything else becomes irrelevant and she can just shows up at her Dutch university without any prior formality.
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 17 at 18:08
  • @Relaxed, if deceiving Iran is the goal, that would not provide Dutch stamps in her Iranian passport. She could claim to have been in Turkey the whole time, of course.
    – o.m.
    Commented May 17 at 21:29

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This plan sounds strange to me, and probably also to any visa or immigration official. Getting a residence permit is expensive, it requires documentation, it may not be granted, etc. The German citizenship, on the other hand, gives freedom of movement within the EU.

  • The Dutch student visa form asks about the nationality of the applicant. Omitting a second citizenship would be a lie on the official form.
  • A visa cannot be given if the German citizenship becomes known.

So any official who learns of the dual citizenship would be suspicious that something is wrong with some or all of the documents. If she convinces the official that both documents are genuine, she would be allowed in without an entry stamp on the Iranian passport.

I cannot answer about the risk of detection.

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  • Why couldn't a visa be offered? It's completely unnecessary, would indeed look strange, and also seems unlikely to me but this answer seems to beg the question with absolutely no source or reasoning to back up its conclusion. It's also doubtful that a residence permit would be necessary and unclear to me whether the OP's plans to obtain one as well (although in the Netherlands, you would at least apply for it together with the visa).
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 17 at 18:11
  • @Relaxed, visa are issued to people, not to passports. The cases where EU citizens need to register are extremely limited, ind.nl/en/residence-permits/eu-eea-or-swiss-citizens/…
    – o.m.
    Commented May 17 at 21:26
  • Sure, I never said anything about visa being issued to passport and like I said, it also seems doubtful to me that the embassy would be willing to go along with the deception. On the other hand, you're just treating “not needed” and “impossible to get” as the same thing. I am sure the OP knows that a visa is not needed and he is not asking about that. Does it follow that it's impossible to get one? I suspect it might but just stating it without any justification isn't a very useful answer.
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 17 at 22:26
  • Incidentally, the thing about the registration is something completely different, just like a residence permit this is something you arrange after entering the country, why bring it up? Even EU citizens who need to register with the IND if they want to reside should not need a visa to enter the Netherlands.
    – Relaxed
    Commented May 17 at 22:29
  • @Relaxed, if you go to the Dutch immigration site, and look for the particulars of the case ("I am an EU citizen and want to stay in the Netherlands"), that is where it directs you. Nothing needed unless one is in the situation where a registration with the IND is required.
    – o.m.
    Commented May 18 at 4:23

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