These are the UK dual citizen passport rules you need to know

Dual citizen Britons faced new passport rules - here’s what you needed to know as of 25 February 2026.Source: The Independent

Transcript

00:00I'm at Borough Market in London, one of the top tourist attractions in the capital.

00:06A favourite for visitors from overseas.

00:09However, if you happen to be a dual national,

00:13which means that you're lucky enough to be a citizen of both the UK and another country,

00:19then there is a very significant change to passport rules that's happening on the 25th of February.

00:27Let me tell you what it is.

00:29At the moment, suppose you are a British citizen, but you choose to live abroad.

00:35You've got a foreign passport.

00:37You're perfectly entitled with that passport to come and go from the UK on short stays to see family,

00:44to be a tourist, to go on a business trip.

00:47But from the 25th of February, that will all change.

00:51From that date, everybody who is not British or Irish has to have an electronic travel authorisation to come to the UK.

01:02And you might think, well, that's all right.

01:04I've got a French or an American or an Australian passport.

01:08I'll just get my ETA through that, but not so fast.

01:14The British government says that if you have British citizenship,

01:20which might be because you were born here, but you then moved abroad,

01:23or because you've got it through descendancy, then you have to have one of two things in order to travel legally to the UK.

01:33Ideally, it will be a British passport.

01:37If you don't have one of those, well, I suggest you get one quickly.

01:42Or it could be a certificate of right to abode in the UK.

01:47But since that, it's going to cost you nearly £600, and it's going to run out whenever your foreign passport runs out,

01:55then I urge you to try to get a British passport if you're planning to travel to the UK any time soon.

02:03It then gets slightly complicated because, of course, if you're coming from an overseas country,

02:09then the airline, the shipping company will want to know that you are going to be admitted.

02:15And the best way to do that is to show them your British passport.

02:18But then when you're travelling back, in order that you don't have, for example,

02:22to get the ETAAS required soon for visits to the European Union and the rest of the Schengen area,

02:29then you need to go back on your passport from another country.

02:34And always a reminder that if you are lucky enough to have an Irish passport,

02:40then you are in the best possible situation,

02:43and you can come and go from Britain, anywhere in the European Union or the Schengen area,

02:49as often as you want, without any bureaucracy at all.

02:53Good luck, everybody.