Source: Radio New Zealand
Dual citizens face having to get both passports and keep them up to date – and to get a UK passport soon if they want to travel from the end of February. Gill Bonnett
UK lobby groups are calling on the British government to urgently delay the deadline for dual nationals to get UK passports.
It comes as reports that the British Home Office is allowing airlines to decide whether they accept expired British passports when the border changes start on Wednesday.
Advocates have accused the government of failing to communicate the impending requirement for overseas dual citizens to use a UK passport, or certificate of entitlement, saying many only found out last month.
An opposition MP, Liberal Democrat Will Forster, has also asked for a grace period to allow travellers to catch up with the change.
Campaign groups British in Europe and ‘the3million’ wrote to the government this week along with immigration lawyers asking for the deadline to be postponed. They also want the cost of a certificate of entitlement, now a £589 (NZ$1330) digital addition to a foreign passport, to be significantly reduced.
“Please hit the pause button,” the3million’s head of advocacy Monique Hawkins told RNZ. “Think again, do more comms. Canada paused it twice before they began their enforcement. But from what we’ve heard, I think they’re digging in and they’re not prepared to move on this at all.”
Getting a certificate of entitlement could be a very complex, expensive process, she said, but for people with a recently expired passport it could be made a lot more straightforward.
“It should cost no more than the cost of a passport, I think, and they could just maintain one passport then,” she said. “We would like carriers to show flexibility for carriers to perhaps look at an expired British passport and think, yes, OK, we can accept that.
“If you look at what Canada did. Canada had exactly the same problem for its own dual nationals, but they came up with a pragmatic solution.”
Canada’s workaround, a special authorisation, was still open to its citizens 10 years after it required its nationals to use its passport, she said.
Using an expired UK passport
The UK Guardian is reporting that the Home Office said airline carriers could at their own discretion accept an expired British passport as alternative documentation, in addition to a valid foreign passport.
It would be a further frustration for dual nationals who had sent their expired UK passport away to get a new one to comply with the new rules, the newspaper noted.
Hawkins called on airlines who will implement the new regime to be sympathetic, but she feared many people would be turned away at international check-in desks. Carriers face a £2000 (NZ$4500) fine per passenger for allowing passengers with incorrect documentation to board.
A Carrier Support Hub was a 24/7 Home Office service airlines could contact to check that someone was British, she said.
The groups want the government to reconsider its overall position. “People are saying I’m just going to renounce my British citizenship. You know, it’s an expensive process to renounce it, but I’ve had it. Why should I still feel any loyalty towards the UK?
“And I think that’s tragic, really. I mean, that’s not how our country should treat its citizens. I really don’t understand what the mischief is that they’re trying to address. They want to know who’s coming to the country. It is just crazy that a New Zealand national coming as a tourist can get an ETA for £16 no problem and their dual British New Zealand partner is blocked from going to this country that they once belonged to. It doesn’t make sense.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand