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Hi guys,

Please help!

I’m a German living in Australia for four years now. My husband (Aussie) and I will be visiting Germany (we fly out tomorrow actually!!) and we have booked Eurail tickets. 

Country of residence - Australia 

Country of passport - German

I do not have an Australian Passport yet and I am unsure whether or not I should use my Australian Driver Licence or Australian Photo Card or Australian visa OR my European passport to activate my pass?

I was hoping I could use my Aus Driver Licence - being German (and knowing German bureaucracy) I can see myself getting into trouble if I use my German Passport for Eurail in Germany (Address also hasn’t been updated yet on my passport yet, whops) or if I print out my Aus Visa as a “legal ID doc”, I am concerned that this will be strange for the ticket inspector as well (it is in English also and may cause confusion)

Can I use my Driver Licence and produce Aus Visa etc when asked for as proof of residence?

Any advice please highly appreciated!

Thanks
Emmi

 

EDIT: I did see Lila’s related post from 2 month ago, however I just think it is risky to activate the pass with European passport if it is possible otherwise.

Passports usually don't have an address. ID cards have. But more important is: you should make sure to have something issued by a government that shows you Australian address. It might happen in Germany that you'll need to show something.

You should not use a driver's licence to activate your pass, since that's not a valid ID (not in Europe anyway). Use your German passport as long as that's your only one.

Use your passport to activate your pass but bring along an official document (Aus Driver licence would do) to prove your residency if anyone asks.

Thanks guys. I’ve used my German passport to activate and done three travels so far, no one’s checked my ID and it seems to work!

 

FYI I just got the official reply from Eurail to this inquiry which I sent one month ago (lol) saying I could not use my German passport to activate the Eurail pass 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

 

Technically, you cannot use a German passport when traveling with a Eurail pass, but our system has no way of distinguishing which ID/passport number is issued by which government. You might get into trouble should a conductor ask to inspect your documentation, but thankfully it seems that this has not happened. All information regarding residency is available on this Interrail page and this Eurail page. 

Technically, you cannot use a German passport when traveling with a Eurail pass, but our system has no way of distinguishing which ID/passport number is issued by which government. You might get into trouble should a conductor ask to inspect your documentation, but thankfully it seems that this has not happened. All information regarding residency is available on this Interrail page and this Eurail page. 

@Claudi. 

As the citizenship is separated from a persons country of residence and the distinction between Interrail and Eurail is based on country of residence and not on citizenship, then it must be possible to travel with a European passport and a Eurail pass if you are a resident of a country outside of Europe.

A passport doesn't say anything about where a person is a resident, even if most people are citizens in the country where they live. 

 

I agree with @AnnaB. If you're (say) Dutch and live outside of Europe, then it is quite possible that the only ID document you have is a Dutch passport. You'll also have a residency card but that's not a valid ID, certainly not outside the country where it is issued.

That means any passport can be used to travel with a Eurail pass, provided that, if you have a European passport, you also have a residency card to show you live outside of Europe.

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