Dual British Citizens and the 2026 ETA Rules: What You Actually Need to Know | Migrant Law Partnership - Migrant Law Partnership Dual British Citizens and the 2026 ETA Rules: What You Actually Need to Know

No British passport, no entry? What dual citizens need to know for 2026

Last updated: February 2026

From 25 February 2026, many perfectly ordinary dual British citizens are going to discover – usually at check‑in, with children and hand luggage in tow – that the UK now cares very much which passport they use.

If you are a dual British citizen, the new ETA‑based system means that “no British passport, no entry” is now more than just a scary headline.

What has actually changed?

Until now, lots of dual British citizens have quietly travelled to the UK on their “other” passport – EU, US, Canadian, Australian, South African and so on – and, if anyone asked questions, produced a birth certificate, an old UK passport or a naturalisation certificate.

From 25 February 2026, that fudge stops working. Everyone coming to the UK will either need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or to be clearly recognised in the system as British or Irish.

Carriers have been told they must refuse boarding to dual British citizens who only present a non‑UK passport unless one of two things is true:

they show a valid British (or Irish) passport, or
they show their foreign passport with a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode stuck in it.

The certificate currently comes with a very substantial fee, whether you apply in the UK or abroad.

Legally, nothing fundamental has changed: dual British citizens still have the right of abode. What has changed is the way you are allowed to prove it to the airline’s computer.

Why this feels unfair if you’re a dual national

If you live in the UK, keep your British passport up to date and mainly use it for travel, this will feel like a non‑story. The problem is everyone else.

There are hundreds of thousands of British dual citizens who:

live long‑term in another country,
travel on that country’s passport day‑to‑day, and
either never got a British passport at all, or let it quietly expire years ago.

They have not “done anything wrong”. The Home Office hasn’t written to them. They’ve simply been told, via the media, that in a few months’ time their perfectly legal “right of abode” won’t get them past the check‑in desk unless it is wrapped in one of two quite specific and not‑very‑cheap bits of UK paperwork.

For families, this adds up quickly. Two British–EU parents and two children might now be looking at:

four UK passports every 5–10 years, or
four certificates at several hundred pounds each, which can easily run into the thousands just to keep the option of visiting grandparents without drama.

That is before you factor in courier fees, photos, time off work for appointments and the small matter of finding your original documents in a box in the loft.

“Why can’t I just get an ETA like everyone else?”

Because, in the eyes of the new system, you are not “everyone else”.

The whole point of the ETA scheme is that non‑British, non‑Irish visitors must ask permission before they travel. British and Irish citizens, and those with right of abode, are meant to be exempt. That sounds generous until you realise that the price of being exempt from an ETA is having to prove you are exempt in a way the airline’s system understands.

If the airline’s check‑in screen thinks you “should” be travelling as a British citizen, it will not happily sell you an ETA as a foreign visitor. Instead, it will tell the staff that you need to show a British passport or a certificate, and if you can’t, they should not board you.

This is why so many dual nationals are angry. They are being told:

you can’t use an ETA,
you must prove your Britishness,
but we haven’t exactly rushed to make that proof cheap or simple.

Your options if you’re a dual British citizen

Broadly, there are three ways to play this. None of them involve turning up after February 2026 with only your “other” passport and hoping for the best.

Option A: Get (or renew) a British passport

For most people, this will be the least annoying long‑term solution.

A standard 10‑year adult passport is significantly cheaper than a certificate and is accepted everywhere as proof of your status.
You can usually apply online, and you do not need to hand over your life for six months while someone thinks about it.

The catches:

If you live abroad and this is your first British passport, do not assume it will be quick. HM Passport Office may ask for more evidence of identity and nationality than you expect.
If your next UK trip is in March or April 2026, you are now in the “apply yesterday” category, not the “I’ll get round to it” category.

This is where a bit of planning – and sometimes a lawyer who has seen this play out before – helps. You want to get the first application right; fixing a refusal is slower and more expensive than doing it properly.

Option B: Apply for a Certificate of Entitlement

This is the expensive sticker that tells the airline “this person has right of abode; let them on”. It makes sense for a much smaller group of people, typically those who:

genuinely do not want a British passport (for political, professional or practical reasons), but
still want to be able to prove their right to live in the UK when they need to.

The downsides:

It costs more than, or about the same as, a passport, and lasts only as long as the passport it is stuck in.
You have to apply again – and pay again – when you renew that foreign passport.
Processing times can be several weeks, and longer if the case is at all unusual.

So while it is a useful tool in the right case, it is not a clever “cheap hack” around the new system. It is a premium‑priced label saying “I am British, honestly”.

Option C: Do nothing (and hope)

This is only a real option if you also don’t mind:

missing weddings, funerals or work trips at short notice,
arguing with airline staff who are simply doing what their screen tells them to do, and
discovering at 4:30am that “I’ve always done it this way” is not a recognised legal exception.

For people who never travel to the UK and have no realistic prospect of needing to, doing nothing might be a rational choice. For anyone who even might need to come back on short notice – ageing parents, property, business, children at UK universities – it probably isn’t.

Who really needs to sort this out now?

In practice, the most exposed groups are:

British–EU families who live in the EU, have used their EU passports for everything for years, and have children who have never had a UK passport.
Adult children of British citizens who were registered or naturalised as British, but never took the extra step of getting a UK passport.
Long‑term expatriates who last renewed their British passport sometime around the London Olympics and haven’t looked at it since.

If you recognise yourself in that list and you have UK travel in the next 12–18 months, you should assume that the “grace period” has effectively ended and start the paperwork now.

How we can help

You don’t need a lawyer to apply for a British passport. The forms are in English, the guidance exists, and on a quiet day HM Passport Office can be surprisingly reasonable.

Where we add value is in the messy cases:

complicated nationality histories (birth, descent, registration, adoption);
old immigration decisions or criminal records that might worry a caseworker;
families spread across several countries, all trying to synchronise documents and travel plans.

Our job is to:

work out quickly whether British citizenship/right of abode is actually clear in your case;
recommend the safest route (passport vs certificate vs something else);
help you assemble the right evidence the first time, so you are not still arguing about your nationality when you are meant to be on a plane.

If you are a dual British citizen abroad and this new rule has left you wondering whether you could get stuck outside your own country, we can review your position and give you a practical plan.

A short, focused conversation now is almost always cheaper than a last‑minute one‑way ticket and a very long argument at a foreign check‑in desk.

Travelling with two passports – How to avoid problems

Postscript: who is most likely to be caught by the ETA rules?
If you are visiting the UK for up to 6 months and you do not normally need a visa, you will usually need an ETA from 25 February 2026. This includes, for example, people travelling on passports from EU and EEA countries (except Ireland), Switzerland, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and many Gulf states such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is only a sample list – you should always check the official ETA national list, together with the visa‑nationals list, to see whether you fall into the “ETA, not visa” category.
In practice, the new rules are most likely to catch out British dual nationals who live long‑term in countries with large UK communities – for example Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South Africa and popular EU countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Portugal and Ireland – especially where children have never held a British passport and normally travel only on their “other” passport.