Dual national passport rules

[BendingSpoons]

I have tried to read up about this online but getting confused.

My brother is a British citizen who lives in Europe. He is married with children. His children hold passports for their European country. They are entitled to British passports, but don't have them.

Does this mean the children can get an ETA and travel to the UK? Or that the only way to come now is to get a UK passport for them? The Gov.uk website suggests the 2nd option is possibly right, but I'm a bit confused. DB would obviously use his British passport and SIL would use her European one, as she is not a British citizen.

I don't think they know, and want to tell them, but want to have the right information first.

This thread might help https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5496556-dual-citizens-with-expired-passports?page=1

It is clear on the government website. If you're eligible for dual nationality you must enter on your UK passport. Children cannot renounce citizenship so that's the only way.

Yes, unfortunately the children need to have British passports now if they want to travel to the UK. It's an expensive pain in the arse and I think it's been badly handled. It seemed for a while from the information available that this scenario hadn't even occurred to the government, though that's fixed now. A lot of people also apparently didn't know that a child born abroad to a British parent who has never 'claimed' British citizenship is a citizen nonetheless whether they like it or not.

I know some people in the same position who have made it through passport control with the kids on their European passports since the rule came in. They didn't have time to get the passports and decided to try it and it was fine. I think a lot of people will be getting away with it in the early days but once the confusion subsides it's likely to become impossible.

Thank you everyone for your responses and linking to the other thread. It's clear to me now that they are automatically British citizens and need a British passport. I don't know how they would know, particularly if they travelled with just their mum who is not British, but not worth the risk.

Good point they might get away with it in this case. But not worth the risk.

For example the electronic chip that gets scanned when you go through the border could flag that both parents have a British passport