A new and different passport

[shiningcuckoo]

I am British but have lived outside of the uk for more than 20 years now. I've hung onto my UK citizenship though and I travel on a UK passport. All good. But recently I'm increasingly bothered by what seems to be happening in the Uk - I always thought that one day I'd come 'home'. But I'm not sure the uk is the place for me anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to need to renew my passport pretty soon. I could just apply for citizenship of the country in which I live. Should I?

I have dual nationality. I have two passports. Will you need to relinquish your UK citizenship to gain your current country's citizenship? Unless it's an EU country, think carefully if that is the case. You need to do a rights comparison, it's not just about travel.

No, I don’t think I need to relinquish my UK citizenship. My children have dual citizenship- they have British parents but were born here. I am looking at getting NZ citizenship.

I think looking at what is happening in the US it makes sense, for anyone who can, to have citizenship of the country in which they and their family live. You can have dual citizenship.

Keep it dual. You never know when an island might be the safest place.

Definitely apply for the new passport. It’s win win. Why wouldn’t you??

I have dual nationality but I’d give up my UK passport if I’d had to choose.

I’m in the UK and am pretty English. But I also have an Irish passport that I travel on. My UK passport recently expired and I will renew it. Doesn’t make a lot of difference, but peace of mind. A few countries have less stringent visa rules for British passports. Mind you, as I mostly travel in Europe, it’s pretty academic.

You should have citizenship of the country where you live if that’s where you intend to stay. I have dual nationality - born in the US and naturalised to the UK as an adult. You never know how visa and immigration rules may change over time. You may be happily resident in NZ now, but one day, that may not be so secure without citizenship. I’d get it sorted. It’s very worth the hassle and expense.

What you do with your other citizenship and passport is up to you after that. My dc are all dual nationals as well (US/UK), but all our US passports have expired. I don’t maintain any aspect of my US citizenship (don’t file/pay taxes, no passport) because I certainly don’t have any wish to travel there. If we want to go one day, I’ll just re-apply for our passports. Otherwise, we all travel on British passports because that’s where we live (me for 20 years, dc their whole lives).