Page 3 | What's best dual passport or Irish

feckingknackered · 2022-10-01T18:26:23+00:00

My family are Irish and live in Ireland, I was born in England and live in UK. I want to change my passport, what are the differences, advantages or disadvantages of either a dual nationality passport or an Irish one?

TheLadyofShalott1 · 01/10/2022 22:28

WorriedMutha · 01/10/2022 21:15

I've got both but won't be arsed to renew my British one when it expires. I've had no problems travelling on an Irish passport. My daughter's British one has already expired and she's been fine with Irish only. I also recently renewed her Irish passport for her first adult one online and it arrived in 6 days.
Those who say keep the British one as well haven't given a single reason as to why. Why? An extra expense for nothing.

Okay this might be a bit far fetched @WorriedMutha but you asked for a reason:

Say the UK fell out with Eire big time, it could be quite useful to still have a British passport.

JPWG2450 · 01/10/2022 22:37

Personally, if you can afford it, I’d get both.
the Irish one is definitely the better option in terms of EU travel, and last time I checked it’s cheaper although that very much depends on the euro exchange rate

but it never hurts to have a second form of ID, or spare passport. If you lose or misplace one, then at least you have a backup.

My husband holds both for this reason also

Snugglemonkey · 01/10/2022 22:47

I am Irish living in Scotland and only have an Irish passport as does DC. I don't see any advantage in holding both.

Have you registered your DC as Irish born abroad?

WorriedMutha · 02/10/2022 21:29

@TheLadyofShalott1
I take your point and indeed it is rather far fetched as the agreements between the UK and Ireland have been in place for a century. I think the point you are missing is that allowing my British passport to expire doesn't impact on my British citizenship.
I can get a new one any time I like. Millions of British citizens don't hold a passport. Many people let them expire during the pandemic. It doesn't mean they aren't British. I just don't see a single reason why I should waste circa £80 renewing a passport I don't need.
Someone made the point that you would always have an in date passport in case one expires. I just renewed my daughter's Irish passport from child to adult online and it arrived (from Ireland) in 6 days.
I also bought her the handy passport card which is like a credit card passport that you can use going to the EU instead. It basically acts like a spare passport and only costs an extra Euro25.
My husband is applying for Irish citizenship by FBR but there is unfortunately a 2 year delay due to the pandemic. I am hopeful it will arrive before his British passport expires so we can ditch his as well. There's just no point having a British passport if you have an Irish one IMHO (unless you've got an irrational fetish about blue passports which I haven't)

TheLadyofShalott1 · 02/10/2022 22:13

WorriedMutha · 02/10/2022 21:29

@TheLadyofShalott1
I take your point and indeed it is rather far fetched as the agreements between the UK and Ireland have been in place for a century. I think the point you are missing is that allowing my British passport to expire doesn't impact on my British citizenship.
I can get a new one any time I like. Millions of British citizens don't hold a passport. Many people let them expire during the pandemic. It doesn't mean they aren't British. I just don't see a single reason why I should waste circa £80 renewing a passport I don't need.
Someone made the point that you would always have an in date passport in case one expires. I just renewed my daughter's Irish passport from child to adult online and it arrived (from Ireland) in 6 days.
I also bought her the handy passport card which is like a credit card passport that you can use going to the EU instead. It basically acts like a spare passport and only costs an extra Euro25.
My husband is applying for Irish citizenship by FBR but there is unfortunately a 2 year delay due to the pandemic. I am hopeful it will arrive before his British passport expires so we can ditch his as well. There's just no point having a British passport if you have an Irish one IMHO (unless you've got an irrational fetish about blue passports which I haven't)

@WorriedMutha you asked for a single reason why, so I gave you one, which I admitted was far fetched at the time, but I was trying to help you out by thinking of a single reason!

I certainly wasn't trying to say that either you or the OP should have one, as it doesn't make one jot of difference to me whether you or the OP or indeed anyone else in the world has or has not got one or more passports, from their own land of birth, some other country, or even if they had been born in a supersonic aircraft that was going so fast around the world that it would be impossible yo say what country's airspace they were in at the time!

By the way I am only eligible to have a British passport, but mine expired circa 2012, and I haven't renewed it as I never go abroad anymore. You tell me that the passports are blue, I neither know nor care. Also, I really wasn't missing any point, I just used a couple of lines to give you the asked for 'single' reason why another passport could be useful. I certainly hadn't even considered whether or not it changed someone's citizenship because I actually have enough knowledge to know that it doesn't. If you had said:

"please will someone give me a single reason why I might want a British passport so that I can give a whole tirade about why I don't want or need one"

then I wouldn't have bothered.

RichardMarxisinnocent · 02/10/2022 22:25

VroomVrooom · 01/10/2022 20:37

Why wouldn’t you also have a UK passport?

If you holiday in Europe, or indeed the rest of the world, wouldn’t it be easier and faster to come through customs of the country you live in with the right passport?

If you come into the UK from France with an EU passport, you’ll have to queue.

If you mean queuing at passport control/border control, when I arrived at Gatwick recently holders of UK passports, EU passports and a few others (possibly including Australia and New Zealand but not sure) were all eligible to use the same e-gates, so no need for waiting in a different queue.

WorriedMutha · 03/10/2022 00:42

Oh Shallot I'm sorry if you've interpreted my response as a rant against you as this was genuinely unintentional. I followed this thread in case I was missing a trick and really should keep my British passport. I am not persuaded that I need to and reiterated this but wasn't picking a fight. I'm not a goody mumsneter. The blue passport debacle stems from the Brexit debate when getting back the blue passport was wrongly claimed as a patriotic Brexit benefit. Passport colour has nothing to do with the EU but it got headlines for Farage.

TheLadyofShalott1 · 03/10/2022 03:46

WorriedMutha · 03/10/2022 00:42

Oh Shallot I'm sorry if you've interpreted my response as a rant against you as this was genuinely unintentional. I followed this thread in case I was missing a trick and really should keep my British passport. I am not persuaded that I need to and reiterated this but wasn't picking a fight. I'm not a goody mumsneter. The blue passport debacle stems from the Brexit debate when getting back the blue passport was wrongly claimed as a patriotic Brexit benefit. Passport colour has nothing to do with the EU but it got headlines for Farage.

No worries, but thanks for the apology, I do appreciate it. I think with how life has been for the last couple of years, and how it seems like it is getting even worse, many of us - including me - are getting annoyed by things that we would normally take in our stride, so please accept my apology to you too for not just letting it go 🌻

alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 03/10/2022 04:02

Get the Irish one. I've had both at varying times but I've let my UK one lapse as I now also have an Aussie passport. I'll probably let my Irish one lapse too, its a shame I can't sell my spares really! You can always reapply if your circumstances change at a later date, as you will still have your citizenship. Passports and holding citizenship aren't related, not in the UK and Ireland anyway.