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?

This has become something of a passport diary! latest entry: the Complaints dept at the Passport office suggested ordering another birth certificate from the General Records Office and getting it sent straight to them. Good idea actually.

So far this passport has cost, in pounds and euros:
66 for the passport application
22 for the track-and-trace postage for the passport paperwork
41 for the non-arriving birth certificates (ordered 3 or 4 copies, just in case)
50 for the 2nd (hopefully arriving) birth certificates, on express order
67 for the replacement Dutch passport that we had to order because the UK passport office lost his for 6 weeks.

Rough total so far: 246 euros/pounds.

Not a cheap proposition, getting a UK passport for a child.

Damn that's a lot!

I was glad to see my payment for track and trace going to good use when one of the letters they sent me contained one empty envelope and nothing else. Bit of a waste of money!

Jesus fucking christ. what a FUCKING farce

Dear XXXX

Thank you for your reply.

We are unable to accept the birth certificate received on 27 May 2026. This is because the birth certificate you have sent us is a consular birth certificate which we do not accept.

We require you to send us the full local birth certificate that shows the parent's details on.

To replace documents issued abroad, get advice from the relevant embassy or consulate of that country.

Yours sincerely,

His Majesty’s Passport Office

I give up. It's ridiculous.

I guess my son just can't come to the UK.

Last time it wasn't good enough because it was a Form A consular birth certificate.

I assumed that a birth certificate from the central UK government would be acceptable. Nope, turns out that that that's considered a consular one too.

What a fucking shitshow. 6 months, 250 euros, a lost passport, endless pettiness and lack of clarity.

No wonder the UK's gone down the fucking drain.

My brother who grew up in UK but now only has a foreign passport got an ETA a couple of weeks ago and then used it to travel back to the UK to visit our mum who was end of life. He had no issues travelling but obviously I can’t say that would be the case for everyone.

In future don’t send your Dutch passport - you can send a colour photocopy of every page of it instead of the actual one.

You need to send the Dutch birth certificate. Up until a couple of years ago they seemed to accept the international one in English but I understand now that they often only accept the Dutch one translated by an official translator

So they advised you to order a birth certificate from the central people in the uk, you did that and now they say it's not good enough??! Definitely time to contact the ombudsman or something, perhaps the press too.

We're on our way to the airport now, with a ridiculous collection of passports. Hate this system.

Thank you for trying to help @LiquoriceAllsorts2 I do appreciate the kindness.

I'm furious atm though. At this point, I have to ask why during the 8 or so emails to the Complaints office and return emails, no one in the Passport office thought to say this.

I looked into if my younger son could renounce his UK citizenship. He can't. So he's now in the situation where he cannot go to the UK, despite being a UK citizen, because the UK won't accept a UK birth certificate that's consular, and he can't renounce his citizenship so he could travel on his Dutch passport.

I know a lot of international people and it seems that many countries accept the international Dutch birth certificate, with exception of the UK, which insists on the full Dutch one with a certified translation... It's like they want to be difficult on purpose.

Yeah.

What I'd like to know is why a proper English birth certificate for an English child isn't accepted when it's consular - what the hell's the problem?

When I applied for my kids' first British passports (kids were aged 5 and 3) they accepted DD's application and rejected DS' even though the applications were essentially identical. They said that his birth certificate issued when he was 3 (since Iceland doesn't do paper birth certificates at birth but will do you one whenever you like for an admin fee) wasn't OK because it had to be within a year of his birth. Yet DD's issued when she was 5 was fine apparently.

I had to write them a letter explaining the bureaucratic system and why there was no birth certificate that was somehow more original than what I'd already given them. So it clearly depends which employee you get at the PO how silly they are going to be.

Oh and I didn't bother with most of the documents they asked for as it was clearly unnecessary. Didn't give them any marriage certificates or anything to do with their Icelandic grandparents. Just their birth certificates, my birth certificate, my British passport details and my mother's birth certificate. Strictly speaking I still believe the last shouldn't have been required as you can't be a British citizen by descent if you were born in the UK but I thought fine, you can have my mum's BC. Zero reason to get my dad's or their marriage certificate, what the hell would that have added?

I am delighted to say that the passport application has been approved.

Thank you to the people who were kind enough to be helpful or sympathise!

Of course, it actually has to ~get~ here ...

So glad its finally been approved!! Hope it arrives quickly and safely.

Actually, it has - really fast, and some of the paperwork too. Hope the rest comes as fast.

This ridiculous, and very expensive, saga might finally be at an end, once the rest of the paperwork is back.

I hope you had a good holiday Natsku!

I'm hoping the certificate of entitlement might lower to a more reasonable price before I need to get the kids next passports, then I might just get them that instead.

We're still on holiday for one more week, it is lovely.

Everything is returned. It all arrived very fast, once the application had been approved - 3 days for three deliveries for various sets of documents. With my older son it took 3 weeks between delivery of the passport and the return of the supporting documents so I'm not sure what the difference was, but I'm very glad it's all sorted.

Total time: just under 6 months.
total cost: 360 euros (by the time the official translation was done)
Holidays missed: 1
General stress: High!

That's not crazy.
They are not British until the ceremony which is the point at which the certificate is dated.

If you have been told that you will be granted citizenship though and you need to leave the country but can't get back in (which @sashh implied; I'm not sure of the details) it is harsh, since you couldn't attend your citizenship ceremony. There could be leave granted to come and go for the period between officially being informed that your application to become British is accepted, and the ceremony.

I have a dual passport (British/EU) and just sent off for our renewal last week. Funnily enough my husbands (British and never left the country) is already printed and back, mine is still waiting. As is my children’s (both dual nationality) funny that….

Got back from our holiday, no issue yet with booking with the uk passport to return to eu, just showed uk to Ryanair desk and eu ones when we arrived (to a border guard that was entirely uninterested, didn't even look at the kids to see if they matched their photos or say even a word to us - quite different to arriving in the uk!). Was nice not to be stuck in the all other passports queue though.

If you can prove to Border Control that you are a UK citizen they must by law allow you to enter the country. An expired UK passport is proof of citizenship (can also be used to prove right to work). It just can’t be used for travel outside the UK. The stumbling block would be whether or not the airline accepts it for allowing boarding as they all make their own rules. If the airline confirms they will accept it, you should be fine. Looks like the airlines are starting to see what a growing problem this new rule is and are taking a sensible approach.

it's a lot of money to spend though if you've no guarentee of being let in - and the sheer amount of paperwork and arguing over it would be appalling. The Border Control could argue that you could have given up your UK citizenship in the time since the passport expired.

I wouldn't want to try it, given just how difficult getting a PP has been.

Well, the UK Passport Office sent me a customer satisfaction survey.

Sarcasm may have been employed.

I am honestly grateful that someone went to the trouble of finding the Dutch passport they lost, and I've a suspicion that the kindly lady who posted advice upthread may work for them, but ... it's not been a pleasant or cheap experience.

I hope you were very forthcoming in your survey responses!!