New dual nationality rule

[Poxette]

I am British, I grew up in Britain with my British family. I have a British passport.

I now live in Norway. DH is Norwegian, our DC were born here and have Norwegian passports.

Is it really true that DC need to get British passports for us to travel to the UK?!

Where did you hear that?

We wouldn't have any tourists if that was the rule.

Are your DC British citizens?

Oh I’ve heard something about that. That British citizens have to travel in on British passports. I hope it’s not active now though as I’ve only got a valid Irish one! I’m off to google.

Yes, unfortunately. My kids are in the same position. Don’t live in the UK but has citizenship through their dad.

Any help?

How are UK passport rules changing for British dual nationals? - BBC News

If your dc have never had a British passport then you haven’t claimed British citizenship for them so I think you’d be ok. This is more about people who have established British citizenship but who don’t have a current UK passport.

Yes British citizens need to enter the UK on their UK passport.

But are the OP’s dc British citizens? They were born overseas so would have to claim British citizenship by descent so if they’ve never established that by applying for a British passport then I don’t think they are British citizens.

Irish only is ok :)

If they’re British citizens, regardless of where they were born or live, they must use their British passport or get a very expensive document. Cheaper to get a passport.

And (just out of interest) some people have passports in different names due to the various laws in various countries. I imagine this was a reason for the new rule?

It's not unique to the UK either. My dual citizen children need to do the same to enter the country of their other nationality.

Such a pain to get appointments for the entire family (as necessary) at the far away embassy and expensive to boot!

If the OP is a British citizen who was born in the UK then the children were automatically British citizens at birth.

To enter the U.K. you need either a British (or Irish) passport or any other passport plus a visa, residency card or electronic visa waiver. What I don’t know is if those who qualify for citizenship but haven’t had a passport can just get the visa waiver for short trips. What I do know is this rule about must have a passport has existed for the USA for years, its costs thousands to make your citizenship go away too, annoying for accidental citizens (children of foreign nationals temporarily resident in the USA when they were born)

If DH travelled with DC to the UK, how on earth would border control know they are British by descent?

They‘ve never had any official UK documents.

This is wrong I’m afraid. That’s the real problem here - children of a British parent are automatically British whenever in the world they are born and can’t renounce that citizenship until age 18. So they are caught by the new rules and must have either a British passport or a cetificate (which cost more than a passport) to enter the U.K. after late Feb.

Not true. They’re the first generation born abroad so are automatically British. Having to claim nationality via descent only applies to subsequent generations.

So yes, OP, they are British because you are (regardless of if you’ve ever “declared” them as such or not), and they (and you) need current valid British passports in order to come to the U.K.

Yes I’ve been told something similar this week. As of next week UK will introduce an ETA where any non Brit have to apply and pay to enter U.K.
EU is then to initiate something similar at the end of this year, a system called ETIAS. If you have dual nationality you have to have passports for both EU and U.K.

My EU passport expired years ago so I now need to rush a trip to my homeland and hope they allow me entry on my UK passport. Once ETIAS has started, I cannot travel on UK passport and simply pay for ETIAS. This is due to them asking the question “do you have another nationality?” If I lie I could be fined and if I tell the truth I’m not eligible for ETIAS.

Apparently my children are also EU citizens and so they cannot apply for ETIAS either despite me never having registered them in my home country.

It SOUNDS ridiculous, yes. Can I risk it for myself? Not really.

How comfortable are you lying to immigration and on official documents? It can also have implications in the future when they do apply for a British passport.

Were you born in the UK/a British territory?

Do you really want to chance it?

Oh I‘m not going to do that, I just don’t understand how they will control this? I won’t lie but I‘m sure many other will

Unless you obtained your British citizenship by descent, your children are automatically British Citizens, even though they were born overseas. It's expected that you will obtain British passports for them and they will enter the UK on British passports. You may find that some airlines refuse to allow your children to board if they plan to fly to the UK but don't have British passports.

Quite possible they will ask your DH what relationship he is to the kids, he will say he is their father, they will say that the kids are British and therefore must have British passports. It’s pretty common to ask kids travelling with only one adult who they are with - I’ve heard kids ask to confirm that the person they are with is their mother (generally where the mother has a different surname). Hopefully if this conversation is happening at the U.K. border after they get off a flight from Norway they’ll let him off with a warning and let the kids in, but the risk is that either they won’t, or that the airline will ask and not let the kids board the flight at all due to the risk of this happening.

I have a Spanish colleague who has just taken out British citizenship but not yet gotten a passport. He did an emergency trip to Spain to see an ill relative and came home to the U.K. entering through the e-gates on his Spanish passport. He got an email the next day from the Home Office informing him of the new rules about to come into force and warning him he wouldn’t be able to come into the U.K. on his Spanish passport in the future.

If they are travelling with you, their British, British born mother it will be fairly obvious.

This has been the case for some other countries for years. I have a cousin born in the US (because her parents were working there, everyone else in her family was born in the UK). Her adult children were born and now live in the UK. As they were not born in the US and don't live there and their US born mother won't be travelling with them I expect they could go to the US without a US passport.

Also, do Norwegians need the new ESTA visa thing? Because I think the problem for most people is that you have to register for that in advance, and one of the questions is whether you hold British citizenship. If you say yes, you can’t get the ESTA (not sure that’s the right acronym but it’s something like that).

Yes, Norwegians do need the ETA:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visiting-the-uk-as-an-eu-eea-or-swiss-citizen