Dual citizens/ETA enforcement from 24 February 2026

[syvictoria]

Just a quick heads up that the following gov.uk page was updated yesterday to state that dual citizens will require a valid British or Irish passport (or a ridiculously overpriced certificate of entitlement!) when reentering the UK from 24 Feb 2026. Currently an expired passport is accepted I believe (or at least, that's what the page below previously stated):

Electronic travel authorisation (ETA): guide for dual citizens

The change has come about due to ETA enforcement coming into effect on the same date.

UK to enforce new ETA entry rules from February 2026

It seems that letting your British passport lapse is no longer an option for dual citizens who wish to return to or visit the UK.

I wonder if the proposed digital ID cards will be accepted in the future as well?

 

[lustyd]

Makes sense to me. If you enter with an EU passport (for example) then you get 6 months, if you’re British, then enter with a British passport.

We’d need to globally align dual citizenship on all databases to know it’s the same person and that would be a privacy nightmare and open to huge errors.

Personally I’d like to see dual citizenship abolished for various reasons.

 

[SimonX]

Personally I’d like to see dual citizenship abolished for various reasons.

Why?
That would flip the switch for us to move I think

 

[lustyd]

Why?
That would flip the switch for us to move I think

Plenty of reasons. Society would be better off if people were fully committed to a home country. Look at our politicians who have the option to run away (and royals, for that matter) and how they behave. Having multiple passports is a way around the rules for many people, and that is fundamentally unfair, especially since it's mostly the wealthy who end up with multiple passports and citizenship. The tight rules on visas such as Schengen would likely be fixed quickly if everyone had to choose just one passport and stick with it, handing it in before getting a different one.

I honestly can't think of many reasons in favour, from the perspective of a cohesive society. Plenty of selfish reasons, obviously, but that's part of the problem.

 

[SimonX]

Plenty of reasons. Society would be better off if people were fully committed to a home country. Look at our politicians who have the option to run away (and royals, for that matter) and how they behave. Having multiple passports is a way around the rules for many people, and that is fundamentally unfair, especially since it's mostly the wealthy who end up with multiple passports and citizenship. The tight rules on visas such as Schengen would likely be fixed quickly if everyone had to choose just one passport and stick with it, handing it in before getting a different one.

I honestly can't think of many reasons in favour, from the perspective of a cohesive society. Plenty of selfish reasons, obviously, but that's part of the problem.

No, I fundamentally disagree but we are geting into the realms of forbidden subjects so ill not go any further

 

[lustyd]

No, I fundamentally disagree but we are geting into the realms of forbidden subjects so ill not go any further

I'd be curious what sensible reasons there are for it, I may well just be unaware of them. I don't think visa and passport discussions are unreasonable on a cruising forum. Quite the opposite, they're fundamental to the hobby.

My original (and quite separate) point still stands that with electronic borders it makes sense to enforce home passports for entry if you're staying, otherwise there would be a foreign passport overstaying a visa that would take resources to hunt down. Fixing this may eventually be feasible, but realistically would cost billions as a cross borders government contract for zero gain. We already have a sensible solution in the form of UK passports which are available to all citizens for a fairly low fee, so the investment simply isn't sensible given everything else we need to pay for.

 

[The Q]

One of my nephews has triple passports.
British and Irish ( that's us) plus he lives and works in Canada and has earnt theirs.

 

[SimonX]

I'd be curious what sensible reasons there are for it, I may well just be unaware of them. I don't think visa and passport discussions are unreasonable on a cruising forum. Quite the opposite, they're fundamental to the hobby.

My original (and quite separate) point still stands that with electronic borders it makes sense to enforce home passports for entry if you're staying, otherwise there would be a foreign passport overstaying a visa that would take resources to hunt down. Fixing this may eventually be feasible, but realistically would cost billions as a cross borders government contract for zero gain. We already have a sensible solution in the form of UK passports which are available to all citizens for a fairly low fee, so the investment simply isn't sensible given everything else we need to pay for.

Why would a dual passport holder be overstaying a visa? A large part of the U.K.s immigration problem is due to lack of enforcement and this goes back to when we were in the EU - EU citizens had to be self supporting if they stayed in the country more than 90 days but this was never enforced. Thousands of people from commonwealth countries overstay visas but again, this is never enforced. I totally agree that if you are entering your home county it should be on your home passport and this is the case in many countries such as the US and Australia. My wife and I both have dual passports and we enter and leave the U.K. on U.K. passports and enter and leave the EU on EU passports.

 

[lustyd]

Why would a dual passport holder be overstaying a visa?

If you enter on a foreign passport then you enter on a visa rather than being a citizen (as far as the system can see). The system then starts timing your stay. There isn’t some magic database matching passports up on your behalf so the system wouldn’t know you also had another passport. As I said that wouldn’t even be desirable. If you live here you’d probably overstay the 6 months which would trigger enforcement action.
The above change just reflects this as we are switching to electronic borders and therefore more stringent enforcement (along with withdrawing pensions and benefits payments for Brits abroad!). Seems a sensible move all around to me as any citizen can and should use their home passport.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Plenty of reasons. Society would be better off if people were fully committed to a home country. Look at our politicians who have the option to run away (and royals, for that matter) and how they behave. Having multiple passports is a way around the rules for many people, and that is fundamentally unfair, especially since it's mostly the wealthy who end up with multiple passports and citizenship. The tight rules on visas such as Schengen would likely be fixed quickly if everyone had to choose just one passport and stick with it, handing it in before getting a different one.

I honestly can't think of many reasons in favour, from the perspective of a cohesive society. Plenty of selfish reasons, obviously, but that's part of the problem.

What of people who genuinely have connections to two nations? My late wife (dual Hong Kong and British citizen) and many of her friends and relatives was/are in that position. Her Hong Kong citizenship was important to maintain some of her rights when in HK; she was resident here and so took out British citizenship. It is actually very difficult to renounce citizenship; because of some problems with gaining British citizenship, she looked into renouncing her HK citizenship.

Basically, if you are resident in the UK and become a British citizen, you will almost inevitably end up with dual (or more, in cases I know) citizenship. It's simply the way the system works.

 

[lustyd]

What of people who genuinely have connections to two nations?

Connections isn’t the same as choosing a home. I did specify non-selfish reasons (not picking a fight there I couldn’t think of another way to word it). There’s no benefit for the UK that I could see.

I quite like the US system, you want to be a citizen then you pay full tax on everything to keep it. Where they fail is they also have an exit fee which is madness.

I’ll admit I could see HK and Ireland as edge cases for a given period following separations. Perhaps 5 years to choose a permanent home nation would be reasonable.

 

[SimonX]

If you enter on a foreign passport then you enter on a visa rather than being a citizen (as far as the system can see). The system then starts timing your stay. There isn’t some magic database matching passports up on your behalf so the system wouldn’t know you also had another passport. As I said that wouldn’t even be desirable. If you live here you’d probably overstay the 6 months which would trigger enforcement action.
The above change just reflects this as we are switching to electronic borders and therefore more stringent enforcement (along with withdrawing pensions and benefits payments for Brits abroad!). Seems a sensible move all around to me as any citizen can and should use their home passport.

No, iif you are a dual citizen, you dont need a visa...

 

[lustyd]

No, iif you are a dual citizen, you dont need a visa...

Technically no, but I didn’t say that. The new electronic border system doesn't know you're a dual citizen. If you check in with a foregn passport then it assumes you are travelling on a visa. As such if you overstay that visa then you will be subject to the same measures as anyone overstaying, costing the taxpayer (me!!!) money. If you arrive on a domestic passport then the system knows you don’t need a visa.

Not sure I can be more clear than that. The new system makes 100% sense and there’s zero reason to spend money to allow people to do as they please.

 

[SimonX]

Technically no, but I didn’t say that. The new electronic border system doesn't know you're a dual citizen. If you check in with a foregn passport then it assumes you are travelling on a visa. As such if you overstay that visa then you will be subject to the same measures as anyone overstaying, costing the taxpayer (me!!!) money. If you arrive on a domestic passport then the system knows you don’t need a visa.

Not sure I can be more clear than that. The new system makes 100% sense and there’s zero reason to spend money to allow people to do as they please.

Whya would a dual passort holder travel on a visa? You seem to be trying to create a problem that doesn't exist

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Makes sense to me. If you enter with an EU passport (for example) then you get 6 months, if you’re British, then enter with a British passport.

We’d need to globally align dual citizenship on all databases to know it’s the same person and that would be a privacy nightmare and open to huge errors.

Personally I’d like to see dual citizenship abolished for various reasons.

No it wouldn't, and they don't need to align anything. The data which goes onto a passport is enough to identify you as an individual even if the two issuing authorities know nothing about each other.

Ask yourself what the probability is of 2 different national passports showing the same sex, birth date, place of birth, forenames, and surnames actually not being the same person - essentially the same as a hospital having two births on the same day, with same sex, and the same forenames and surnames - and it gets worse, because in this day and age they have the same biometric data too.

On top of that, when issuing a passport there is always a question about holding other passports, and if you answer yes, then they want a copy of your other passports to make sure all the data matches, if you say no, then the penalty is relatively clear Identity Documents Act 2010

When I come to the UK with my German passport, when it gets scanned, I would fall of my chair if the UK system didn't say "hang on a minute, we have on our UK records, a UK passport issued to a Brit with the same sex, birth date, birth town, and even the same names and a biometric match to this German passport" ... and it is left ot the border guard or the scanning machine to decide what to do, and if you ticked "No" on your UK application to the question about dual citizenship, what happens next?

PS: I love dual nationality because if gets me out of the B-Word screw up that would have put an end to my freedom to roam Europe without time limits.

 

[lustyd]

Whya would a dual passort holder travel on a visa? You seem to be trying to create a problem that doesn't exist

I just explained. Did you even read my post?

 

[lustyd]

PS: I love dual nationality because if gets me out of the B-Word screw up that would have put an end to my freedom to roam Europe without time limits.

Yes, i acknowledged that there are selfish benefits. None of which help the UK was my point.

Would you prefer we have a very simple system of entering with a UK passport, or burn several billion making the IT work? I worked in IT with these kinds of systems, it’s not gonna be cheap to enable people to use arbitrary documents but it is very cheap and feasible to ask people to use the document we issue. I don’t see the problem with that

 

[Baggywrinkle]

Yes, i acknowledged that there are selfish benefits. None of which help the UK was my point.

Would you prefer we have a very simple system of entering with a UK passport, or burn several billion making the IT work? I worked in IT with these kinds of systems, it’s not gonna be cheap to enable people to use arbitrary documents but it is very cheap and feasible to ask people to use the document we issue. I don’t see the problem with that

What makes it selfish? How does it disadvantage the UK? ... If nothing else I pay a few hundred pounds every 10 years for an ID document, and I'm buggered if I'm going to lose my UK vote, might want to come back there one day so got to have a voice.

When travelling to the UK my passports get looked at 3 times.

Once at check-in with the airline, there I use the passport I used for the booking, if they ask about visas etc, I pull out the other one.

Next at passport control exiting Germany, I just hand over both, I have handed over my UK one in the past and got queried about missing entry stamps, the guard lost interest when I produced my German passport.

At passport control in the UK I go with the UK passport.

I do the opposite at passport control on the return leg, entering Germany on my German passport or ID card.

 

[lustyd]

At passport control in the UK I go with the UK passport.

Well there you go, you won’t have any problem with the new system.

What makes it selfish? How does it disadvantage the UK?

What doesn’t? I Googled and everything that came back was selfish reasons about avoiding obligations.
Loss of taxes for a start. Bad actors doing things they wouldn’t do if they had no other citizenship for another. Loads of reasons it’s better to get commitment in return for the many and varied benefits of being a citizen of this country. People who want to live elsewhere are free to leave, but lose those benefits. As I said, we’ve just changed it so pensions and benefits can’t be claimed by non-residents whether citizens or not, and HMRC now has full access to bank accounts to enforce this.

 

[SimonX]

Well there you go, you won’t have any problem with the new system.

What doesn’t? I Googled and everything that came back was selfish reasons about avoiding obligations.
Loss of taxes for a start. Bad actors doing things they wouldn’t do if they had no other citizenship for another. Loads of reasons it’s better to get commitment in return for the many and varied benefits of being a citizen of this country. People who want to live elsewhere are free to leave, but lose those benefits. As I said, we’ve just changed it so pensions and benefits can’t be claimed by non-residents whether citizens or not, and HMRC now has full access to bank accounts to enforce this.

What a heapp of nonsense. You are trying to create problems where they dont exist