5 hours ago
4
The new border controls being introduced for dual nationals create anomalies that will surprise no one who has followed recent Home Office policy changes (Dual nationals to be denied entry to UK from 25 February unless they have British passport, 13 February). At worst they are cruel; at best they are exploitative money-making exercises, unthought out, or the bureaucratic consequence of the introduction of digitisation.
I, a Belgian citizen, have worked in the UK for 32 years. My “settled status” now allows me to travel freely between the UK and Belgium using my EU passport. A few years ago, I applied for British citizenship because I was uncertain whether my “entitlement” to live and work in the UK would be maintained after Brexit, and because I wanted to vote in the UK. I have not yet applied for a British passport because I would have to submit my Belgian one for an unknown length of time, which might prevent me from visiting my ailing 96-year-old father in Brussels.
Now, since I am a British citizen, I am required to apply for a newly created “certificate of entitlement”, costing £589, in order to be able to return to the UK whenever I visit my dad in Brussels, or indeed leave the country at all. Had I not become a British citizen, I would not have required this certificate.
Who would have thought that obtaining British citizenship would prevent me from travelling freely between the UK and Belgium or elsewhere? This seems redolent of an increasingly unthinking, mean-minded Home Office policy/society at a time of widespread and dangerous dissatisfaction.
Prof Carine Ronsmans
London
The requirement that dual nationals travelling to the UK will have to pay £589 for a “certificate of entitlement”, if they haven’t got a British passport, doesn’t make sense. If, for example, you are French only and have a French passport, you can travel to the UK having obtained an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) for £16.
If you have Franco-British dual nationality and try to obtain an ETA online, and answer “British” when asked if you have some nationality in addition to French, you are told you do not need an ETA and the procedure stops. You are not told what would be valid if you don’t have a British passport.
This is crazy, as someone who is Franco-British is just as legally French as someone with only French nationality. Living in France, I have taken the precaution of having a British passport as well as my French one, but I don’t think I should have had to.
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
I have lived and worked in the UK since the early 1970s. After the Brexit debacle, I obtained full citizenship. Since I value my cultural heritage, I kept my German passport and saw no need to apply for a UK passport. However, as I am now a UK citizen, I cannot apply for the £16 ETA. Instead, I’d have to fork out £589 for a certificate of entitlement, which is only valid for the duration of my current German passport.
It seems ironic that if I had not bothered with citizenship I would have saved not only the citizenship fee of £1,300, but also £589 for the certificate. My cheapest option now is to get a UK passport as well as keeping my German passport.
Reini Schühle
Pontefract, West Yorkshire
Why does it cost £94.50 to process a paper passport, but £589 for a digital document to prove I am British? It sounds like profiteering.
Dr Michael Paraskos
London
I write regarding the appalling UK entry rules for dual nationals, to be introduced within the next 10 days. It is completely disingenuous of the UK Home office to claim that this “requirement ... is the same approach taken by other countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.” The cost of the equivalent Canadian special authorization to allow dual citizens to board their flight with a valid non-Canadian passport is C$7. This translates to just under £4. This is hardly comparable with or “the same” as the UK equivalent cost of £589, which is manifestly nothing less than an unjustifiable money grab.
Dr Peter R King
Calgary, Canada
