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?

I clearly didn't reference children, did I.

Yes but what I'm trying to say is that renouncing British Citizenship is not an option for everyone and getting a British passport that you may not even want is also not at all simple for many Dual Citizens abroad who are being forced into it by the government

The counter signatory rule might be a problem for some. Imagine you are an automatic citizen by descent because your father immigrated from Britain over 50 years ago. Finding a British person who has known you for at least 2 years and has the correct type of job might be quite cumbersome.

This is not right - the whole point is that they are not going to let people do this anymore. I have been a British citizen for 4 years but never bothered getting a passport because I just used the visa in my American passport to get in and out. From 25 February I am no longer allowed to do that and must enter the UK on a British passport. Like OP, I don't mind the rule change but the communication of it and the fact there was very little time to act has caused me a lot of stress - I couldn't send in my passports (required to get a first British passport) because I was travelling on pre-booked flights, including to the US for half term. They should have given us AT LEAST six months notice, if not longer. For many of us it's now harder to get into the UK than it was when we weren't citizens.

I was referring to ONE specific example, as you would know if you'd actually bothered to read what I said. Do YOU get it?

Me too, the example of the Polish people who are also British Citizens by descent and are now faced with the 4 above options when previously they could just travel to the UK for a short holiday on their Polish passports

But this problem applies to children too, which many of us dual citizens have, so renouncing our citizenship doesn't fix anything.

Can anyone explain the rationale behind this crazy new rule? 🤔

You are supposed to tell them of any other nationality when you apply for your British passport.

It caused a huge headache for my sister as her name was slightly different on her other nationality passport so there was lots of back and forth with the UK passport office (whose error it was in the first place). I actually previously worked for them but a long time ago and agree that many people don't realise they may be British by descent, and also many children are born abroad to British citizens who are themselves British by descent and they may end up ineligible for a British passport and struggle to get one in the country where they were born.

yes but he has no relevant paperwork for being British and no British passport. He’s 9 months old. So can’t visit the UK next month now?

Yep he cant

Nope, the child needs a British passport now.

I think a lot of people are commenting with things like “just travel on your European passport” or “don’t be a British citizen if you don’t want to” just show how little this has been communicated, even within the UK. If you don’t live in the UK, you typically read the local news. If it wasn’t for instagram I still wouldn’t know about it.
On the one hand the government wants to treat us like British citizens and get a passport. Because even if we moved abroad, we are still British if we like it or not.
On the other hand, it has made zero effort to fulfill its duty to citizens overseas by ensuring we get relevant information pertaining to us and implementing computer says no style rules that exclude us from travel to our own country. And we cannot even use our own embassy to get a passport or advice.

Many people don’t get it that none of us are trying to sneak into Britain. We are not trying to use the nhs or spy on the government or sneakily get our hands on a passport. We are being forced to get passports we don’t want in order to make a simple trip. Or to spend hours of admin money and resources to prove we are not actually British after all.

I don’t think this has been particularly well publicised until the last couple of weeks. I have 2 passports but mainly use my British/Eu one (still got a burgundy one!). I only use my other one for going back to where I was born, which I’ve only done once! It was annoying and expensive to get a passport for one trip, but it was the only option. I do think they should have thought more carefully about under 18s, especially literal babies!

Op not sure if someone said but the government have made a u turn to say that if you have an expired British passport you can enter the country but maybe check with the airlines to make sure they are aware of this

https://www.thenationalnews.com/travel/2026/02/20/uk-introduces-11th-hour-passport-rule-change-in-eta-visa-scheme/

Personally, I am actually really livid about the fact you can enter using an expired passport. I think the whole thing is completely unreasonable and this last minute change to allow expired passports proves it is just another thing to placate reform sympathisers.

I have dual citizenship but live in the UK. I don't have a British passport yet and normally just travel with my EU passport. We were given less than a month's notice of this new rule. I'd like to apply for a British passport but the waiting time is long and I'm worried about not having my passport in case my elderly parents who live abroad suddenly need me. I used to be able to enter using my EU settled status or my naturalisation certificate but that is not going to work now. I actually don't mind any of this because I guess the UK government can decide if they want their citizens to enter using a British passport. But I'm really mad that you are allowed to use an expired passport. So my current and perfectly valid naturalisation certificate means nothing but anbexpired passport is ok? Where in the world is an expired passport valid for any purpose whatsoever? This is just completely stupid.

It just shows that I am British but not as British as someone who was born here (and also had dual citizenship). My citizenship is a second class citizenship.

Ok rant over. None of this your fault op and I hope you won't have any problems and have a good trip.

If it's any consolation us dual citizenship holders living in the UK also didn't get any notification.

I am not sure airport officials have been notified either. When I travelled into the UK last week, 2 days before the rule change, the airport officials at the immigration counter had no idea what I was thinking about when I asked her about it.

Agree with this. My kids were born in the US and are dual citizens because I’m British. I applied for British birth certificates (British born abroad) when they were born so it would be easier for them if/when they wanted to get British passports as adults.
Until now, they’ve traveled on their American passports. Now I need to get them British passports so we can transit Heathrow this summer (not even visit, just change planes) Why can’t I use their British birth certificates if people can use expired passports?

Getting a passport is expensive and the application times are long.

You cannot renounce citizenship until you are 18 and it costs almost £500.

I wouldn’t even mind the rule if they introduced something simple like an ‘ETA for Brits with a second passport’, or made the Certificate of Entitlement far cheaper than nearly 600quid, but this way they are literally locking Brits out of Britain and it’s a total mess because half the population seem to not understand what the issue is or to not be remotely aware of it.

Wow, so if you dont want all of this cr*p then you have to pay 500quid for the priviledge to be able to visit Britain as a tourist with an ETA again, like any random EU people can.

I don’t think this has been particularly well publicised until the last couple of weeks

That's the main problem.

As far as I can work out HMG announced, somehow, somewhere, the rules would be tightened up around the back end of '24.

A Uk resident Dual I know was certainly aware of it last summer from something they had read/heard in the UK.

If like us you lived abroad and weren't glued to UK news you wouldn't know, and the FCO and Embassies are generally not great when it comes to communicating with Brits on their patch, though TBF our Embassy has made more of an effort recently on SM and newsletters, though I suspect they are an outliet.

Another crazy aspect to this I don’t think anyone has mentioned is for female dual citizens of UK and Spain where Spain uses different surname to UK, but they’re supposed to match!

I have zero understanding as to why people are getting their knickers in a twist regarding this let alone the woe is me news articles.

Firstly this has been talked about for months so it shouldn’t be a surprise to dual nationals.

Secondly as a temporary measure you can travel with an expired UK passport as long as it is from 1989 or later. Says this on the Gov.uk site.

Thirdly you can either get a passport or certificate of entitlement or renounce your UK citizenship.

Also this is not an uncommon situation: other countries have the exact same thing for dual citizens and have for years (eg Australia).

Finally if people cannot find birth certificates etc from parents or grandparents they can flipping well buy a new one for £21 via the GPO. Hardly onerous.

I am a dual citizen and my kids have three citizenships and we have always ensured passports are updated as necessary. It’s not rocket science . As usual people cannot accept they are disorganised and blame another (Uk government) for messing them up.

It is always burdensome dealing with official stuff but needs must.

For those worrying about a sinister motive behind the new rules, it's really not, it's just the typical bureaucratic 'cock up rather than conspiracy'.

The issue is:

A British citizen should ALWAYS have entered the UK on a British passport, but these rules were never enforced strictly at the border (and potentially still aren't - a British citizen cannot be refused entry to the UK);

Until recently it would never be picked up, because a non-visa national (which is 85 countries) just had to get on a plane with their passport, and no further visa paperwork would be needed, because their entry as a Visitor would be determined at the border. It would be an eagle-eyed immigration officer who may spot that someone is a British citizen, and then if they are, they are going to enter them into the UK anyway.

But now an ETA is required, which the airlines will demand to see is in place before they allow boarding - because otherwise, under UK law, they are liable for paying for the removal of the person if they are refused entry to the UK.

BUT - if a dual national applies for an ETA they will be asked questions about their family history and any other nationalities - and if the ETA questions flag up the person is a British citizen, the ETA is not issued - because under UK law it is prohibited to put a condition/restriction on the right of residence of a British citizen.

If the ETA is not issued, the airline is not going to allow a person to board the plane - and any airline official is not going to be an expert in British nationality law, which is incredibly complex (hell, I've been a UK immigration lawyer for 15 years and I always pass on nationality tracing enquiries because it's just too specialist).

So if a dual national rocks up at Calais/Eurostar with all of their paperwork showing that they are a British citizen, albeit without a passport, it is very likely they will be able to board their ferry/train because the British immigration officer granted them entry before they get on the transport.

BUT, as many on this thread have pointed out - so many people are British citizens without even realising they are, or have no interest in having it - but it's not as simple as saying 'no thanks' - you have to go through a proper procedure to renounce it. I've had to just stop my next door neighbour spending £1,200 on a 'registration of a British citizen' application for her granddaughter who was born and lives in the US - because I could tell her that her granddaughter was a British citizen by descent at birth and no registration is application is required. She assumed, because the child was born in the US, she was not a British citizen.

I don't know what the solution is for this. I think it's ridiculous that they are insisting on having a passport or certificate of right of abode (which costs £500) for someone coming on a holiday, but as a solicitor I can understand the legal basis for the request. I think the only thing they could do is make a mechanism to obtain a notation on the ETA which satisfies the airline but indicates to the immigration officer that the person is a British citizen and should be entered into the UK with no restrictions.. but then the Home Office answer to that would be 'well that's what the passport or right of abode certificate process does'.