Dual citizens with expired passports

[Disturbedisanunderstatement]

Don’t know if there is a thread on this already so happy to join an existing one if that is the case.
Posting in Aibu for traffic. Don’t care if iabu or not. I just need to fly to the UK next week and UK passport is expired.
I could fly almost anywhere in the world on my eu passport so it is ironic I am technically locked out of my country of origin but that’s where I have a work meeting spontaneously scheduled for next week. I would literally fly in the morning and out on the evening.

Anyone else in a similar position?

Apparently these airlines are accepting expired passports:

British Airways
easyJet
Lufthansa
Singapore Airlines
United
Virgin Atlantic

Anyone actually had success with this yet? Or works with the airlines and can confirm passengers will be allowed to travel?

Here’s a story I saw on the tv news here in the UK. Talk about heavy handed application of the change. She is stranded in Spain while she waits for her UK passport to be issued because she was unaware of the change and has only ever had a Spanish passport despite being a dual citizen.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-entry-denied-new-border-rules-impact-british-citizens-1791183

It was badly advertised and on top of that, actually applying makes Mr Bean look like a model of efficiency.

What is the problem with a Dutch or Australian child going to visit their home on a different passport anyway? why does it have to be the one of the country they are using? A valid passport is a valid passport.

And I'd still love to know why the UK can't just check its own birth records for an applicant. To have to send off for a birth certificate and then send it right back is ridiculous. I suppose it's a way of extracting money from us - especially when they don't bother to process the order along with taking the money.

And oh, the website feature when I tried to chase this up online refused to operate with the COL code. Which I don't have, because the order didn't process despite the money being taken. So I pressed the Feedback option ... which refused to upload.

It might be being administrated inefficiently and over burdensome, but there are reasons for it and it is common for most Countries and no way unique to UK duel citizens. If you are a UK citizen with a right of abode in UK then your passport is the most effective proof of this. If you travel on your non UK passport then you either have to have a visa or an exemption. As a dual national you can't be administrated as needing a visa because technically you don't. So you enter without a visa or exemption with dual Nationality. But that doesn't mean you definitely have the right to do that or abode in UK. The most effective way (not only way but almost) of ensuring you can enter without a visa or an exemption is to ensure your right to a UK passport, by having one. Most Countries do it to ensure you don't enter on a non National passport with a right to abode in the Country you are entering. It's been a technical requirement for years but is now being enforced.

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"Inefficiently" is certainly an understatement.

If the UK is enforcing this - and it was not well advertised - and demanding money for it, is there not equally a requirement to provide the correct information (ie, that an Embassy birth certificate is not acceptable) and a reasonable service in a reasonable time limit?

The projected time from the first application for the passport (6 March) to the birth certificate being received by the passport office is currently near the end of May. When we actually receive the passport will be even later. It could be end of June or July before we actually get it. This is due to poor information provision by the passport office and by them actually losing the dual-nationality passport.

I'm also a native speaker, well educated and able to navigate the system (admittedly emotionally). For someone who is poorly educated and non-native, these barriers are insurmountable.

This is a Mr Bean level of efficiency and effectiveness.

There are some real horror stories here - it's awful!

My story is that last year we lived in a country with civil unrest. So when I discovered the new rules, I didn't want to send my DS' expired British passports back by post as there was a huge possibility of them getting lost or burnt along the way.... I "spoke" to someone on the chat function of the ETA website and he said to get an ETA for my DC on their French passports and to lie about their nationality. July 2025 we entered the UK with me on my British passport and them on their French + ETA.

They have since tightened up the rules so this year I renewed their passports (we have moved country now). It was a faff as PP have said, especially not knowing which documents are required before uploading a photo. The photo was the biggest headache. I took photos of a physical passport photo. This was accepted by the computer but rejected by the passport office when they received the applications. I took photos with my phone of the DC and 12 hours later the applications were accepted.

The timeline went:
I sent all the documents
2 weeks later: docs received, photo rejected (same day)
Next day: new photos accepted, application accepted and passports printed
7 days later I received the passports!

So eventually it was ok but the stress and worry were so bad.

Has anyone travelled to the UK from an EU country since EES was implemented?

I've contacted my airline who say that dual nationals can't check in online. I know airlines need proof that I have the right to go to the UK, but I also know that I shouldn't be fingerprinted for EES because I have an EU nationality...

So I'm thinking:
Check in to fly to UK = British passport
Passport control in French airport = French Passport to avoid EES
Passport control when I arrive in UK = British passport

On the way back from UK to France, I just show my French passport at all times.

Is this right?

Try getting an ETA. We did for a family member who was clearly ineligible due to same dual passport situation as you (because my DH booked it, and hadn't read the link I'd sent him about dual national requirements). We still got it and whats more travelled with no issue. Definitely worth a try.

Requoting myself from earlier in the thread. There is apparently no comprehensive list of British citizens that immigration can refer to to prove you are a British citizen and should not be travelling on a foreign passport plus ETA. If you are foreign born and the ETA system grants you an ETA, the ETA and the foreign passport would pass airline checks and allow you to board.

The ETA questions - which I haven’t seen - do probably require you to lie to get the ETA as there is probably a ‘Are you a British citizen?’ question. But in an emergency it is a potential way of being able to travel.

I did have to give my Dses nationality for the ETA (French). I didn't have to click to say they don't have British nationality. So it's lying by omission.

As PP said, it can work but when they are minors travelling with a parent with a British passport, it would be normal for immigration to query if they are British by descent.

Of course, if my DC have kids in France, their kids won't be British so my DC will travel with British passports but not their kids.

I agree that for most people there is absolutely no way of the government knowing they are British. Unless their birthplace is listed as being in the UK on their foreign passport… however that is also not a guarantee that someone is British. And in a lot of cases people will be using the e-gates, so won’t even have contact with a human. I think there’s a lot of unnecessary stress about this rule which is basically unenforceable.

Thing is, would you want to take the risk of booking expensive flights and a holiday on a 'maybe we can get in, maybe we can't'?

Yes, because I don’t think there is any possible way that anything can be proven or not at Heathrow immigration. They don’t have a database that they are consulting. If you have an esta and your foreign passport, you’ll be fine.

Also this rule is enforced at check in / boarding, not at the border from what I understand. The airline just wants to know that you have either a British passport or an esta. They won’t be interested or able to interrogate someone’s citizenship.

The ETA form asks if you're a citizen of another country.

So yes, you have to lie, sort of...

Because if you tick yes, it asks which country, but the UK isn't an option to choose on the list.

So also no!