UK Passport Rule Changes 2026: As new laws go into effect, dual nationals are rushing to get UK passports.
Jelena is going on a “holiday of a lifetime” to South America later this year. When she gets back home, she might be informed she can’t get back to the UK.
The British-Latvian dual citizen is one of several who believe they have been caught off guard by the new passport rules for dual nationals that will go into effect on February 25.
The government believes that big changes are coming to the immigration system that will make the UK border more contemporary and efficient. One of these changes is to the entry rules for dual nationals.
But for Jelena, who has lived in the UK for 16 years, the changes are a “betrayal.” Others in the same circumstances have told BBC News that they are angry and worried about the possibility of being sent away.
This is how the new rules will work and why Jelena and others like her are so angry about them.
What are the new rules for British dual nationals’ passports?
A British dual national who has another nationality from a country that doesn’t require a UK visa can go to the UK with their foreign passport.
But that won’t be true after February 25.
They will need to demonstrate either a British passport or a fresh digital version of the certificate of entitlement to attach to their second nationality passport. If they don’t have one of these, they may not be allowed to travel back to the UK.
People who become citizens don’t immediately get British passports or certificates of entitlement. This means that some dual nationals have never asked for them, even though they have resided in the UK for decades.
It takes a few weeks to get both documents, and they cost money too. For an adult, a British passport costs about £100, and a certificate of entitlement costs £589.
These new requirements for dual nationals are related to the launch of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system this month. This is a big change to immigration laws that will compel people who don’t have a visa to apply for a £16 entrance document before they arrive in the UK.
The government has announced that the ETA cost will go up to £20 in the future.
Dual citizens can’t ask for an ETA anymore. Instead, they have to follow the new documentation rules. Airlines now check this when they leave the UK.
Irish passport holders are not affected by the new laws, but other EU citizens will be.
The most recent census, which took place in 2021, found that 1.2% of UK-born people were also UK-other dual citizens (587,600) and 6.5% of non-UK-born residents were also UK-other dual citizens (648,700).
The government says that the changes make the UK’s immigration system more like those of the US and Australia.
But critics say that the deadline is coming up and there hasn’t been enough communication about the changes, so people are rushing to get new documents. Dual nationals who are on vacation or visiting family in another country could be stuck there until they get a passport or the certificate.
What effect do the new rules have on people?
Jelena, who was born in Latvia and moved to the UK to study, became a British citizen in November.
The 34-year-old chartered surveyor told BBC News that she put off getting a British passport when she became a citizen because she was going to see family for Christmas and couldn’t send out her Latvian passport as part of the application procedure.
Jelena just found out about the changes and can’t apply for new documents right away because she is going on a long-planned trip to South America in a few weeks and might not get her passport back in time to go. “As it stands, after South America, I won’t be able to return to my flat [in Glasgow], which me and my husband own, in the country I have lived in for nearly 16 years, studied in and paid taxes,” she told BBC Your Voice.
Jelena plans to adjust her vacation plans by going back to Latvia following her trip to apply for a British passport from there. It could take weeks or even months for it to arrive.She remarked, “I’m lucky that my boss is okay with me working from abroad. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have a job because of this.”She said, “If I hadn’t applied for citizenship and only had an EU passport, I would be better off than I am now.”The funny thing is that I decided to live in this nation, but it feels like I’m being kicked out. “It seems like a betrayal.
“I learned about it on Facebook.
Petra Gartzen, who has lived in the UK for 40 years and is a dual citizen of the UK and Germany, said she was angry that there had been no information about the changes that were coming. She is now trying to get a passport from Spain, where she is spending the winter.
“They changed the rules while I was already in Spain,” she told BBC News. There was no buildup or big announcement. I saw it on Facebook and thought, “What now?”
The administration argues that information about the changes that will happen in October 2024 has been available to the public since then, but critics believe that it hasn’t reached the people who would be affected.
Petra, a computer sector analyst, was told she would have to fly from southern Spain to Madrid for an appointment to apply for the “ridiculously expensive” certificate of entitlement while she was outside the UK, which would cost her more money.
Petra has now applied for a UK passport from Spain, but it was not easy either. “They agreed to take a notarised copy of my German passport, so I didn’t have to send that, but they also wanted my original citizenship certificate, which I don’t have because it’s in the UK,” she said.
Petra is now “nervously waiting” to see if the paperwork she was able to send in is accepted and processed in time for early March, when she has to go back to the UK before going to the US for work.
She stated she was disappointed with how the changes were made, saying, “I’ve been a British citizen since 2019.” I’ve lived in the UK for 40 years, own a home, work, and pay taxes there. “There is my whole life.”
Shaun West, a dual citizen of Switzerland and the UK, said he was thinking about not getting a new British passport and giving up his citizenship because of the new rules.The university lecturer, who became a Swiss citizen following Brexit, stated, “There’s no worth in it for me.”
He stated he would rather pay the ETA cost to see his parents in the UK for a short time. He added, “[The government] said I’ll lose consular services. I don’t care. [They said] you can’t live here. “I won’t.”
West said he learned about the rule change “completely by accident” by reading about how it affected Canadians online. He also said he thought it was unfair to dual nationals.
Linn Kathenes, a Norwegian with dual citizenship who lives in the UK, stated that the Home Office only told her about the new requirements last week.
The instructor explained that because of the changes, she now had to hurry to make plans for a school trip abroad.
Kathenes said she is waiting for her Norwegian passport, which she has to renew. She has to send the papers before she can start the process of receiving the UK passport she needs to fly.”I don’t see any other way; I just have to take a chance,” she remarked.
People have called the Home Office regarding her case.
The campaign group the3million, which speaks for EU citizens in the UK, has also spoken out against how the government has talked about the changes.Monique Hawkins, the group’s head of policy and advocacy, said, “The Home Office hasn’t done enough to warn dual nationals about how bad this will be for them.”
She has asked the government to “urgently hit the pause button” and give dual nationals who have had their vacation plans messed up a “low-cost, one-off travel authorisation.”
A representative from the Home Office said, “Since October 2024, there has been public information telling dual nationals to carry the right paperwork. Since 2023, there has also been a major communications campaign about the introduction of ETA.”This rule applies to all British citizens, no matter what other nationality they have. Other countries, such the US, Canada, and Australia, use the same method.