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My wife is from Ukraine and fled, after the war started, to Austria for nearly 2 years until I met her. She is now here in Australia where we got married.

When she gets her Australian passport with my last name, would my wife's Australian passport show Ukraine border control that she was a nurse?

My wife would like to see her elderly parents and now with the new Ukrainian 18th May law that all medical people must return to Ukraine, she doesn't want to be trapped in Ukraine and not be allowed to return to Australia.

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    Have you read Ukrainian nationality law - Acquisition and loss of citizenship - Wikipedia? You should insure that the relinquished citizenship has been done properly.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Jun 1 at 10:44
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    As far as I understand it, your marriage does not grant her Australian citizenship (or an Australian passport), she needs to reside in Australia for 4 years before she can apply for it (she of course needs the appropriate visas or permits to reside in Australia legally until then). Once she has received Australian citizenship, she can apply to relinquish her citizenship from the Ukraine. Until then she is is a Ukrainian citizen and needs to abide by the laws of her country, I'm sorry to say. Hopefully in 4 years the war will be over.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jun 1 at 12:06
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    My wife is on a bridging visa and awaiting the permanent residency visa/ partner visa result. I understand how long it is till my wife can apply for Australian citizenship. When my wife applies for a Australian passport it will be in her married name
    – Jason
    Commented Jun 2 at 3:49
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    I notice that you mention both Austria and Australia in your question. Is that just a typo, or is Austria part of the picture here as well?
    – ruakh
    Commented Jun 2 at 8:12
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    @ruakh: She fled to Austria. She is now in Australia.
    – TonyK
    Commented Jun 2 at 12:58

4 Answers 4

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When she gets her Australian passport with my last name, would my wife's Australian passport show the Ukraine border control that she was a nurse?

The passport wouldn't show anything. Passports only contain the information you can read on them and some additional biometrics stored on the chip (portrait picture, fingerprints). There is some data exchange (Interpol notices or regional databases of visas, bans, and stolen documents) but no worldwide population registry or database of passports and obviously no global access to any country's intelligence data.

What border guards can typically do is look up information in national and international databases based on a person's name and date of birth. Some databases will also include aliases. I have no idea what those might be in Ukraine but it's reasonable to assume that your wife's first name, place of birth, and linguistic abilities will make it obvious that she might be or used to be a Ukrainian citizen.

If the border guards want to treat her as such or seek additional information on her status and profession, they will be able to do so irrespective of the passport she chooses to use. At that point, denying her (previous) citizenship or refusing to let them know about her birth name (if it's not already on the Australian passport) would be very risky. In this context, it doesn't really matter that the passports are not explicitly linked anywhere.

So the passport is a red herring, the real question is whether she can renounce her Ukrainian citizenship (if she is prepared to do that to escape the law) or how the law is actually enforced (if she chooses to remain a Ukrainian citizen). Using an Australian passport is unlikely to make a difference, legally or practically.

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    (+1) 'The passport wouldn't show anything.' A passport shows the place of birth and therfore would be a giveaway when checking for those who they [the border guards] consider to be their citizen. Remember that no country is is required to reconize a second citizenship. Either you insure that that country accepts that you have relinquished their citizenship or do not go to that country. The last 2 paragraphs of this answer should be heeded.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Jun 1 at 15:27
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    It's also worth pointing out that Australia does not require people to give up their previous citizenship(s) to become an Australian citizen.
    – nick012000
    Commented Jun 2 at 9:19
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@Relaxed has already mentioned biometrics. I don't know what's the current practice in Ukraine, but assuming your wife has had a Ukrainian passport or other identity documents in the past, Ukrainian authorities may already have her fingerprints or facial images on file. Even if the raw fingerprints are not available, they may be stored in the form of a computer hash, which can confirm a match against future samples.

This is hypothetical, but if the entry point has equipment to check the biometrics of visitors, it is plausible that an alert would pop out. Remember, border guards have access to a database of Ukrainian citizens, so they can make searches. The "match" can be further confirmed by the fact that birth date, place of birth and surname are still the same in the "foreign" passport.

Some countries do not even allow dual citizenship. I understand that Ukraine doesn't, although changes to the law have been discussed recently. But they are still entitled to treat your wife as a Ukrainian citizen regardless. Even countries like the US that allow dual citizenship still require their citizens to enter and leave the country with their US passport.

To sum up:

  • border control can make a reasonable assumption that your wife is, or used to be a Ukrainian citizen
  • your wife potentially has something to hide
  • border guards are used to asking questions
  • the first question they may ask is, why don't you use your Ukrainian passport in the first place? Why are you trying to pass as a foreign national? <--- THAT looks like a risky bet in my opinion.

If they suspect anything, they can pull her out of the line, search her belongings, ask more inconvenient questions until they are satisfied about her identity and history.

Lots of men are still evading military service in Ukraine, and the authorities are actively looking for those people. Now regarding women I have done a quick search:

There is no mobilisation of women in Ukraine, but women who have a medical or pharmaceutical education and are fit for military service for health reasons and age are required to register for military service. They can be called up for military service only with their consent.

Source To be confirmed with official sources of course.

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    From the given source: Mobilisation: other regulations There is no mobilisation of women in Ukraine, but women who have a medical or pharmaceutical education and are fit for military service for health reasons and age are required to register for military service. They can be called up for military service only with their consent.
    – Mark Johnson
    Commented Jun 1 at 18:14
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    @Relaxed: It's not that simple. Not "allowing" dual citizenship can also take the form of obstinately insisting that the second citizenship does not exist or is not "valid," regardless of what the second country may think. While that might sound ridiculous, there is no general obligation to recognize other citizenships in this situation (i.e. while you are physically present in any of your countries of citizenship, they can completely ignore all other citizenships if they so choose).
    – Kevin
    Commented Jun 1 at 22:15
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    @Kevin How is that not “allowing” dual citizenship? What would recognizing the other citizenship entail in your mind? There is indeed no obligation to allow another state to extend consular assistance to dual citizens. That's not ridiculous at all, beyond that treaty (which only has 23 parties), it's actually completely normal and not specific to states that try not to prevent or limit dual citizenship.
    – Relaxed
    Commented Jun 1 at 23:49
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    @Relaxed Everything is in a state's power, once a person steps foot on that state's territory. A state can execute, imprison, strip of papers, expel, etc people on its land, unless it has ratified a treaty that prevents it from doing so, and even then.
    – Therac
    Commented Jun 2 at 6:54
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    @Relaxed There have been some cases where the Chinese government has denied consular access to Chinese/Australian dual citizens that they've imprisoned for political crimes.
    – nick012000
    Commented Jun 2 at 9:23
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No, they aren't

But that doesn't mean that she doesn't have a legal liability in Ukraine. It just means that she could get away as a fugitive by using a passport not linked to her Ukrainian record, and even there, there is no guarantee that the border authorities could check for the local record through biometrics or other means. In some countries, like the US, local citizens have to enter using the local passport, even if they have a foreign passport with a valid visa or visa waiver, so she could be on even further legal trouble.

PS: If she is married to a foreign citizen, there is a good chance she is eligible to a waiver of the medical workers' law. IANAL, check with an attorney before doing dumb stuff and bear the consequences if something wrong is discovered.

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  1. The physical passport, itself, will not show anything or indicate in any way whatsoever the other passports

  2. I can tell you as a simple flat fact that nowadays every major country has total, complete, absolute, information on all your passports. End of story.

You can ask anyone who has spent a lifetime being "tricky" with multiple passports, and you will get the same answer. Those days are gone with the wind.

(IMO this has been the case since, I would say, early 2000s.)

I simply don't know if that is the case with Ukraine of today, and anyone who claims they know what is happening in such a fluid-state war zone is silly.

Also,

... but do note that in the new passport obviously her birthplace is there in big letters.

If I was a "border guard" in Ukraine and a superior told me to make quota on the "nurses thing" I'd just pull her in.

Just by the way,

A far, far better and much cheaper idea is just have the parents visit you.

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    Do you have any source, reference, or evidence of your allegations?
    – jcaron
    Commented Jun 2 at 20:53
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    Elderly parents + war-torn country likely = not able to travel.
    – FreeMan
    Commented Jun 3 at 16:49

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