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I have double citizenship, Italian + UK. I've applied for US ESTA with my Italian passport as primary and added my UK passport as 2nd citizenship. They are both valid and not expired. My request has been denied and I don't understand why. In theory there should be no problem but I can't find why it was rejected. In the past I've used a DS156 visa as a student and it has been issued without problems. Any idea if there are problems for my situation that I can't see?

EDIT: I've been at the consulate and it turns out that there was a note on my profile about the fact that I used two different passports in the past. The lady I talked to edited my file and I got the tourist visa without problems. This is the reason the ESTA was rejected.
I went to the States 2 weeks ago without any problem at the customs check.

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    Call the US embassy, they can find out why your ESTA was refused and may be able to sort it, they often give you a number to ring to speak to a CBP officer to see why your application might of been rejected, maybe it will be a mistake. – BritishSam Mar 4 at 12:38
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    The denial probably hasn't got anything to do with your double citizenship. It could be because you entered incorrect information, or because they feel you are not eligible for some reason or another. One of the most common reasons is a previous overstay, though there are many other possibilities. – jcaron Mar 4 at 12:51
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    We have no idea why your application was denied. Maybe you have no more information than this, but we only know what you've told us about your application, which is basically nothing. – David Richerby Mar 4 at 13:10
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    That's really interesting, Marco. I'd be interested to hear how it turns out! As others have said it's unlikely to be the two passports as such. – Fattie Mar 4 at 16:46
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    @GeorgeM the ESTA application specifically asks about other citizenship and about passports and ID cards issued by other countries than the one that issued the passport being used for the application. To omit mention of the UK citizenship would be misrepresentation and would therefore risk making the applicant inadmissible to the US. – phoog Mar 5 at 5:21
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The OP updated the information in the question. There was a note on the file because they were using two different passports and that was the reason the ESTA was rejected.

They got a visa without problems, as traveling with two different passports is allowed.

What we can learn from this is that if you have two different nationalities and so far only used one to travel to the USA, it might be best to stick to using that nationality so you avoid the note and possibly future problems.
On the other hand, if you get a new nationality which can get you an ESTA or a visa with easier, it might be worth it to use that passport. You can clear up the confusion by contacting the consulate and applying for a tourist visa, or maybe even already get the note on your file taken off by just explaining and asking for it.

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