Australian Dual Citizens Entering UK after February

[Rebus]

Has anyone who holds/has held UK citizenship tried to enter the UK on an ETA since the new rules came into place? In this case you would have answered 'no' to the question regarding holding another citizenship in the ETA application.

 

[Bugs]

Has anyone who holds/has held UK citizenship tried to enter the UK on an ETA since the new rules came into place? In this case you would have answered 'no' to the question regarding holding another citizenship in the ETA application.

I travelled on Aussie passport with ETA in February 2026.
While in UK I applied for British passport and have since received a 10 year British passport a few weeks after my arrival back in W.A.
I cannot remember what answers I gave for ETA but I have taken out Australian Citizenship many years ago.
Applying for British passport was cheaper than renouncing British citizenship.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Has anyone who holds/has held UK citizenship tried to enter the UK on an ETA since the new rules came into place? In this case you would have answered 'no' to the question regarding holding another citizenship in the ETA application.

I did a bit of digging to see if there were any reports on the web.

There’s the usual bunch of people reporting ‘no issue’ (travelled on an ETA).

Then there’s a few people stating the official line that you need your UK passport, and claiming people have been turned back after reaching the UK border.

But there are no links to the cases where people have been turned back, and when challenged, these people don’t respond to the fact that as a british citizen - if you have made it to the border - you can’t be refused entry. The same nay-sayers also say that providing false information on an ETA application could lead to a 10-year exclusion from the UK. But of course as a citizen that simply isn’t true.

There was an interesting snippet I read some time ago that the ‘offence’ is actually for the UK government to issue an ETA to a UK citizen… not the UK citizen applying for one! Didn’t dig any further.

The potential snag is that somehow, possibly, the UK govt puts 2 and 2 together and works out that you are british, and you shouldn’t have applied for an ETA, They could, in theory, cancel your ETA, So at check-in you wouldn’t have a valid document to enter the UK.

But that seems fairly remote.

 

[Rebus]

I did a bit of digging to see if there were any reports on the web.

There’s the usual bunch of people reporting ‘no issue’ (travelled on an ETA).

Then there’s a few people stating the official line that you need your UK passport, and claiming people have been turned back after reaching the UK border.

But there are no links to the cases where people have been turned back, and when challenged, these people don’t respond to the fact that as a british citizen - if you have made it to the border - you can’t be refused entry. The same nay-sayers also say that providing false information on an ETA application could lead to a 10-year exclusion from the UK. But of course as a citizen that simply isn’t true.

There was an interesting snippet I read some time ago that the ‘offence’ is actually for the UK government to issue an ETA to a UK citizen… not the UK citizen applying for one! Didn’t dig any further.

The potential snag is that somehow, possibly, the UK govt puts 2 and 2 together and works out that you are british, and you shouldn’t have applied for an ETA, They could, in theory, cancel your ETA, So at check-in you wouldn’t have a valid document to enter the UK.

But that seems fairly remote.

Thanks for doing that research. We have a family trip in December for:

Me - UK and Aus passports
Spouse - UK and Aus passports
Child 1 - Aus passport and expired UK passport
Child 2 - Aus passport

I have applied for an Irish passport for Child 2. They are entitled to that as I was born in Northern Ireland. Child 1 can supposedly enter the UK on the expired UK passport. But I have concerns about proffering that at check-in at MEL. If we have time before the trip I may well submit an Irish passport application for her also as as fall-back.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for doing that research. We have a family trip in December for:

Me - UK and Aus passports
Spouse - UK and Aus passports
Child 1 - Aus passport and expired UK passport
Child 2 - Aus passport

I have applied for an Irish passport for Child 2. They are entitled to that as I was born in Northern Ireland. Child 1 can supposedly enter the UK on the expired UK passport. But I have concerns about proffering that at check-in at MEL. If we have time before the trip I may well submit an Irish passport application for her also as as fall-back.

Check TIMATIC. That’s what they use at check-in.

I believe TIMATIC currently includes the expired passport.

You can access various versions of TIMATIC through airline websites. I used United’s, under their visa and travel documents section.

 

[burneracc]

I’ve seen articles of people being refused boarding so it’s worth just playing it safe

 

[VPS]

This one of the stories

Dual-national baby refused entry to UK after passport rule change

The eleven-month-old was born in Scotland but has an Austrian passport.

www.bbc.com

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This one of the stories

Dual-national baby refused entry to UK after passport rule change

The eleven-month-old was born in Scotland but has an Austrian passport.

www.bbc.com

I’ve seen articles of people being refused boarding so it’s worth just playing it safe

In this case they didn’t have an ETA for the child to enter the UK, so boarding was correctly denied.

Had they applied for the ETA likely this wouldn’t have happened.

Had they got to the border they couldn’t have been refused entry.

The title of the article is misleading… they weren’t refused entry to the UK, they were refused boarding.

 

[Zero]

There have been plenty of stories on various UK media about people denying themselves entry to the UK. Generally they are UK residents who took what they thought would be a short trip abroad, then discovered they needed an ETA to return but were not meant to apply for one.

I suspect most of them would have been granted an ETA had they attempted to apply. However it is difficult to chastise someone for not wanting to go against what official government rules say.

These stories won't have made it to Australian media because affected Australians won't be left stranded on holiday for months, they will either have got an ETA and experience no problems or have to reschedule their flights and go home.


On the related Flyertalk thread, there was a post from a UK/US citizen who claimed to have successfully obtained an ETA on his US passport after 25 Feb, even though he also has a current British passport.

The rationale was that he had a short connection onto AA from somewhere with no AA check in desk, and his US passport details were stuck in his AA profile, so the only way to check in on time was to try getting an ETA. He claimed that online check in was successful 10 minutes after the ETA was issued.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There have been plenty of stories on various UK media about people denying themselves entry to the UK. Generally they are UK residents who took what they thought would be a short trip abroad, then discovered they needed an ETA to return but were not meant to apply for one.

I suspect most of them would have been granted an ETA had they attempted to apply. However it is difficult to chastise someone for not wanting to go against what official government rules say.

These stories won't have made it to Australian media because affected Australians won't be left stranded on holiday for months, they will either have got an ETA and experience no problems or have to reschedule their flights and go home.


On the related Flyertalk thread, there was a post from a UK/US citizen who claimed to have successfully obtained an ETA on his US passport after 25 Feb, even though he also has a current British passport.

The rationale was that he had a short connection onto AA from somewhere with no AA check in desk, and his US passport details were stuck in his AA profile, so the only way to check in on time was to try getting an ETA. He claimed that online check in was successful 10 minutes after the ETA was issued.

Indeed! ‘Self denying’ is spot on!!

Was just reading another site were a dual citizen got to the airport, found out they needed an ETA, and instead of just applying for one, decided to cancel their flight and apply for an emergency passport. Crazy!

 

[stu961]

Indeed! ‘Self denying’ is spot on!!

Was just reading another site were a dual citizen got to the airport, found out they needed an ETA, and instead of just applying for one, decided to cancel their flight and apply for an emergency passport. Crazy!

I've given up trying to understand some people's logic or more to the point lack of! Last year I simply forget my wife and I needed an ETA. Half way on the drive to Alicante airport the "oh f" light went off in my brain. Jumped on our lap tops when we got to the airport and 5 minutes latter we had ETA's. The only hassle for us is "managing" our ETA's. Got to the stage and age I need to start spread sheeting them!!!

 

[Rebus]

I've given up trying to understand some people's logic or more to the point lack of! Last year I simply forget my wife and I needed an ETA. Half way on the drive to Alicante airport the "oh f" light went off in my brain. Jumped on our lap tops when we got to the airport and 5 minutes latter we had ETA's. The only hassle for us is "managing" our ETA's. Got to the stage and age I need to start spread sheeting them!!!

Which nationalities / passports do you and your wife hold?

 

[stu961]

Which nationalities / passports do you and your wife hold?

We both hold Australian passports and my wife was born in the UK