Should I use my British or Irish passport when travelling?

[TinselMakeover]

I have dual nationality.

Both passports are up for renewal. The Irish one expired about 20 years ago.

Do you think one, rather than the other, is easier or more welcome for travel? A friend told me Irish passport more welcome but that could be just the craic 😂

Should I renew just one or both? Obviously extra expense.

I live in England 😘

Aren’t people referring to the EU and non EU customs checks?

I have noticed the non-eu lines are often quite a bit longer than the EU ones…

If you travel with two passports, make sure you list on your outbound flight details the one you plan to enter your destination on, then switch the details for the return trip. For U.K./Irish it's not a big deal due to the common travel area but is absolutely essential for other dual citizenship situations. The USA is particularly tricky if you don't do this, or as my friend discovered you try to get an esta if you were born in the USA (was refused, she was trying to avoid paying £££ for a new American passport)

Irish, because then you can get the credit card sized mini passport as an extra.

I think it depends where you are travelling. When my uncle was seriously injured in Morocco, the British Embassy were amazing until it turned out that he had travelled on his Irish passport so they had to hand over to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. They were great too but, in their words, they didn’t have the same resources available as the British Embassy. The UK has more embassies and consulates than Ireland, something you might want to bear in mind if you travel to more far flung destinations.

Although as an EU citizen you can use any EU country consulate if your own country (Ireland in this case) does not have its own consulate.

https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/eu-citizenship-and-democracy/consular-protection_en#:~:text=As%20an%20EU%20citizen%2C%20you,you%20are%20'unrepresented').

Honestly this is why I always bring both my EU passport and British passport with me. There's benefits to having both. The EU one is useful as it's much more inconspicuous, especially when travelling to countries where a British passport can make you a target. The British is amazing for consulate access and support in those areas.

You get what??!

Based on this thread I've encouraged Dh to use his on his trip booked for June.

A passport card. It's the size of a credit card and you can use it as ID and for EU travel. I don't have a driving licence, so mine is very useful.

https://www.independent.ie/life/travel/travel-news/have-selfie-will-travel-new-irish-passport-card-launched/31582937.html

Always use Irish. It wint be stamped and fill up like your British onw

It’s sweet when something accidentally helps someone.

But my god life is complicated. Say, compared to a serf in n the Middle Ages (with lots of Holydays thrown in).

Wow, so it's like the EU ID cards? I wish they had that in the UK!

@Foxesandsquirrels But you wouldn't be able to travel on it! Or do you mean it would be useful to have as ID?

You have to pay extra for that small card with the irish passport.
I am a duel Irish and British citizen, haven’t bothered renewing British passport, might at some point, but really it’s just an extra form of tax, I have no issue with travel with my Irish one.

Get the Irish one. It's really handy for travel in Europe and to the US.

Get the process started asap. The Irish Embassy in London website has details of docs, photos, etc, that you'll need

You may need to apply as a first-time applicant since your old passport expired more than ten years ago.

Yh a national ID. Providing 2 photo IDs is quite difficult for a lot of the population tbh esp if they don't have a licence.

It's what happens when exiting the German airport we regularly travel to. There are lots of small passport controls for EU citizens / citizens of most other developed countries dotted after security but before the gates. As a UK passport holder after security you now have to trek to the single exit point for non developed countries / UK citizens and then stand in a long queue only to then have to walk all the way back across the airport to your original gate. It's a right pain. Pre Brexit we didn't have to do this.

For entering, there are only 2 queues, EU and non EU. The airport signs don't say why they split the queues for exit differently, I'd assumed it was a general thing across the EU but based on comments here maybe not.

I live in France but still have to use the non EU queue with my British passport. Meanwhile my df sails through as a visitor on his Irish passport.

I've tracked the reason down, it's that the UK isn't signed up to the automatic passport checkers, but used to be as part of the EU. We travel with the DC who can't go through the automatic ones because of their age. However, they have a few manned booths next to the automatic gates for anyone like kids of the eligible nationalities not able to use the auto booths. That meant that pre Brexit we were able to use those much more convenient exit passport checks.

I do wish the UK would dedicate a few manned desks to UK / other eligible kids at immigration, rather than sending them into one single queue with everyone else not eligible for the automatic gates. The queues getting into the UK with British kids can be truly awful!