anyone else avoiding any plans related to the UK at the moment?

[Anothernotherone]

DD would like to go to the UK (state boarding school) for sixth form. We have time as we'd need to apply in August/ September but ideally would be visiting schools to get an initial impression etc atm. Not only does travel seem unwise, so does eventually leaving a 16 year old at school in England now tbh. It wouldn't have even a year ago, let alone in 2015.

My parents are elderly, though independent and fairly wealthy and not in need of support, but they are now effectively my children's only grandparents and I'd like to go and visit them.

The older children are of an age where I'd really like to take them to London for short trips, just a night or two, to see a play or a show in English, or visit a museum.

I'm putting booking any travel involving the UK off though because I don't want to get stuck in enormous travel delays due to Brexit stuff. School and work mean getting stuck for an extra few days would not be positive. Short trips especially seem unfeasible. Obviously we'd be bookin flights and accommodationg in advance and all the uncertainty makes this feel very unwise.

Is anyone else putting everything on hold, or is this paranoid?

We’re putting off deciding when (if?) to move home but not minutiae like visits back

Not putting off visits, in fact we ll be in the UK next week. Its our school holidays and a milestone birthday for my dad. Not going through London though.

I am taking British and French passports though and will use whichever is easiest to travel.

I have just booked tickets for February too. That is through London but I think it'll be ok.

Im in Paris. The gillet jaune demonstrations looked awful on TV. But there were huge amounts of the city that were untouched so it is possible to avoid problems like that.

I let my and dc1s UK passports expire and dc2 and 3 never had UK passports (though obviously they are entitled to them), we usually travel on our ID cards - we travel a lot within the EU but haven't left the EU since having children, so we all have ID cards but none of us have passports...

I suppose I'll have to get myself and the kids UK passports, which will be a hassle for the kids who've never had one.

I really, really don't want to get stuck... It's not really so much being in the UK that concerns me, it's travel - getting in and especially back out.

Perhaps I'm being silly.

Arranging anything long term, like plans for schooling, does seem pointless though and I think we might have to scrap DD's wish to do sixth form in England - she'll be better off staying where she is.

I think you're being over dramatic. Much as I don't want Brexit, the end of the world is not nigh.

Not dramatic - I wouldn't travel to the UK in the next month or so without a passport. There is no way of knowing if I'd cards will be accepted.

That would be the only thing that would stop me visiting though.

The end of the world no - obviously the British isles are tiny, the rest of the world will be fine

Frenchfancy I suppose I'll have to deal with the brurocracy - I don't know any British citizens to countersign for the kids who've never had passports as we live rurally and stopped playing at being expats many years ago... I really dont need the hassle and expense atm.

It's all really depressing.

Anothernotherone you can have a British citizen in the UK do it for you, do you have anyone back home who can help?

missyoumuch I didn't know that. Yes probably, although we usually only go over once a year so not that many non family members actually "know" the children well - they only need to state that the is a photograph of the named child though I believe... I didn't know that was an option though, it would probably be possible.
Thank you!

No problem - we've just done our DCs British passports as we've been living abroad and have another citizenship already. I did think it was odd that if I'm living abroad I can have a friend back in the UK "verify" the identity of a child they don't really know...but it is allowed!

You can also (at the moment) have an EU citizen such as teacher or Doctor sign, that's what we did.

Frenchfancy I now that would be even easier - I work with "pedagogs" of every description on a daily basis one of them should do... As long as they don't have to have a passport number...

I suppose I'd better do the brurocracy... I'll block off Friday morning...

I can confirm that EU citizens can sign the photos. That's what we did (our friend is a CEO so that counted - the list is quite long now as to who can sign).

I used to only have French passports for myself and the DC. With Brexit my mum insisted we get British passports. It's a pain and I'm not sure of the benefit (yet). Potentially in the future you'll be able to go through passport control quicker when entering the UK I suppose.

Read up ASAP the documents you need to provide. Because you'll need certified translations of birth certificates etc. and that can take time. Also photocopies of any other passports (not sure about ID cards)

This is all crap I don't need atm ... Translations of birth certificates etc. I'm currently a bit overwhelmed with other work/ study/ family stuff and extra expensive and time consuming brurocracy has a straw that breaks the camel's back feel...

Maybe full German passports are the way to go - we have no intention of ever travelling outside the EU with the children (plenty of holidays but to European countries) so it's incredibly frustrating and expensive to have to do this just to "visit" the UK

Can you apply for a state boarding school place without being resident in the UK?

I realise I'm procrastinating on MN instead - I'm in one of those crippled phases where you've got so much to do you can't do anything, urgent reports to write, exams to revise for, appointments to book, things to organise... Also need to be at work in an hour. Need to proritise and get off MN I guess, and not replace MN as a procrastinating activity with meal planning or tidying the 8 year old's room or decluttering the basement...

Edsie yes, if the child is a British citizen (or atm EU I think) in fact that's the primary reason they exist. I've already been in email contact with schools and have a shortlist. Child who wants to do it is the only one born in the UK - born in the UK to a British mother.

I'm in one of those crippled phases where you've got so much to do you can't do anything

I know the feeling well, but ... you know what you need to do, don’t you?

Honestly, having recently been through the horror of overseas applications for first-time British passports I would just get the German one done.

My mum was scared by windrush so despite me insisting that my DC have British nationality through me, she wanted them to have a passport to prove it.

To be fair, it's also because she was going to start traveling with them and wanted to be in the same passport queue...

DDs passport has expired but we are going to get a French one rather than renewing the British one. Much cheaper easier and less hassle if you loose it. If I were you I would just get the German passport sorted(assuming that you are in Germany)

Yep, were in Germany and I've gone through the faff of getting citizenship so we might as well get German passports. DH is German but I don't think ever plans to go to the UK again tbh, don't think he'll want get a passport when his ID card is good for every other country we visit or are likely to in the next decade... But I suppose German passports mean if he got one we'd be in the same queue. The children won't be travelling with my parents (I'm not sure how much longer my parents will be travelling themselves, which is another reason feeling inhibited about travelling to the UK is depressing!)

DC1 wants a British passport for its own sake but she has a British birth certificate so is the only one of the children who wouldn't need anything translated or grandparent birth certificates or anything ridiculous like that to get her one if she needed it, I think it isn't a priority.

Thanks everyone. It will be so much easier just to go to the town hall and apply for German passports there!

Good plan. Make you life easy. After all it is not as though a blue British passport is going to open any more doors than a European one.