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AUS Resident with European Passport - Eurail ID for Activation?

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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.

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Best answer by Claudi. 23 August 2022, 09:27

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6 replies

R
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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.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.
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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.

E

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 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

 

C
Userlevel 4
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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. 

A
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

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. 

 

Please note that I don't work for Interrail/Eurail and that I don't reply to personal messages.
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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.

Please ask questions in the community and not via a private message. That's the quickest way to get a response. I don't work for Eurail/Interrail.

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