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I sent off my UK passport to be renewed whilst I was in the UK and returned home to France on my German passport. My UK passport has been delayed due to the photo not meeting standards (that photobooth that said it was fine was obviously having a bad day) and I don't have my expired passport as it's currently with the passport office.
So, I've got trip to the UK booked for 9 July. Do I need a visa to get in with my German passport? I have a British birth certificate but I guess that's not really going to get me through passport control.
Yes, you need an ETA - Google that. It's really easy for dual nationals - not. The website was such a pain I ended up renewing my decades lapsed UK passport because that website worked. Hopefully they've fixed the glitches and it works for you. Don't be discouraged if it crashes/fails keep trying. Google it I found lots of other " victims" on expat forums.
Er … thank you …
cries into a glass of rosé
Hope they've fixed it:
You need your British Passport. IIRC all other routes involve entering under false pretences. You could look into the cert of entitlement, but I think that’s only for joint nationals that don’t have a British Passport at all (because they only needed one EU passport in the past). I dunno, ask ‘em.
Had a quick look, and it says allow 8 weeks for a cert of entitlement… so of no use.
Emergency Travel Document seems your only quick route:
https://www.gov.uk/travel-urgently-from-abroad-without-uk-passport
Thanks for the update, Kelvin, at least it's clearer now. The French gouvernement site needs updating to match. It's always said I don't need an ETA but doesn't mention needing the certificate of entitlement.
There's always the via Ireland option. There's no problem getting to Ireland with EU ID and once there you're in the CTA and don't need a British passport.
OMG - I didn't find that bit of the UK gvt website Kelvin (I did look but I guess I used the wrong search terms). I'm now having ninety seven nervous breakdowns.
Fly to Ireland and walk into NI then onwards?
Don't accidentally immigrate though.
Apologies for faceyB link but youtube failed me.
Yeah, you still can't add your uk nationality to the ETA form. But i've still got my expired UK passport and applied for the ETA anyway, Will travel on Swedish passport with swedish kids and swedish partner.
We will see.
Weirdly, last trip to the UK my passport had expired (I knew it was expiring soon but had misread the date and was planning to leave it in UK to renew anyway) but the lady in the passport booth said she would have been ok with it even if I hadn't had a German passport as well. There's not enough time to do anything except get an ETA (I live half way up a mountain about as far as you can get from consular assistance). I had no idea it was this complicated.
Fly to Ireland and walk into NI then onwards?
I mean, you could probably drive or get a train, but if you want the real authentic experience I guess walking is an option...
Well. My passport is in the post. Will it get here before I catch the night train in Monday? Tune in for exciting courier updates…
🤞🏼
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I had no idea it was this complicated.
One for the Brexit benefits thread! 🤬
I know a lot of the 'out' Brexit supporters were hounded out of here after the vote and subsequent threads on the subject, and frankly **** 'em. I hope their balls turn square and faster at the corners.
I'm a dual Australian / UK citizen, living in Australia. My UK passport expired a few years ago and since the ETA came in I've travelled to the UK twice on my Australian passport after obtaining an ETA through the online system. ETA was approved very quickly. Most recent trip was March and didn't have any problems or have to answer any questions arriving in the UK either time. Flew into Heathrow one time and Newcastle the other. So I think don't worry, you'll be fine.
So you need to appreciate that my second passport is German. It is acutely emotionally distressing to know that there is a correct procedure for doing something and then not observe it.
So you need to appreciate that my second passport is German. It is acutely emotionally distressing to know that there is a correct procedure for doing something and then not observe it.
🤣 🤣 🤣
Amazingly, we trekked down to dusty Perpignan and retrieved my new passport from the DHL warehouse. So all is ok. I can go back to worrying about the fundemental tensions of being a dual UK/German national: am I attracted or repelled by socks with sandals?
So you need to appreciate that my second passport is German. It is acutely emotionally distressing to know that there is a correct procedure for doing something and then not observe it.
Thoughts and prayers for Clover… 🙏🏼
No need to worry - getting an ETA as a UK citizen is the correct procedure if your UK passport has expired. Having a valid UK passport is the only acceptable means of proving citizenship for immigration purposes, therefore if you don't have an in date passport you need an ETA. Interestingly I don't think there's a legal requirement as a UK citizen to use your UK passport for entering or leaving the UK, unlike Australia where the law says dual citizens must use their Australian passport for leaving and entering the country.
Now you have two passports which one to present is the next can of worms. As another sandal and socks wearer (60km of rocky, stoney terrain in them over the last few days) I dutifully presented my French passport in and out at the machines and just gave French details to Eurostar. Junior shows a British passport on the way in and French on the way out because the queues are shorter and there's less chance of missing the train according to him - no problems yet.
getting an ETA as a UK citizen is the correct procedure if your UK passport has expired
If your passport has recently expired, you should be able to still use it to return to the UK, if you have it with you.
If you don't have it, as was Clover's situation, you fall into a weird gap.
You specifically can't (legitimately) obtain an ETA if you a have a UK passport (even if expired or lost in the system).
Well, i managed to get in and out of the UK with no problems... the whole trip was another story. First time i've been without staying with family. Was an eye opener.
How long are you going to be in the UK for?
Could you just visit as a 'German tourist' with your German passport?
I sympathise, Mert, a culture shock. First hurdle was people talking in abrevations and acronyms. Next was who, what, who, what's that, who ????? because I haven't lived in the place for 30 years and don't have Netflix and don't have cultural references in common. That was all assuming I understood which all too often I didn't. However most people were polite and patient when talking to the old fool.
I'm not sure why everything is in quotes and litalic but it is. A bit like my trip - that's the way it is now, place is confusing but I can survive.
Edit: fixed it.
In the Creuse now, campsite at 5e60, drivers giving me time and space, not heard an abreviation or acronym all day, loads of bikes, the neighbours talk to me about things other than the boundary line.
if by culture shock you mean whole chunks of the country seem to have completely gone to shit... Yeah. That.I sympathise, Mert, a culture shock.
I couldn't decide if it was my references that had changed or the places. One new addition that was properly shit was ASDA. I couldn't help myself speaking forin in the queue just for the looks on the brummies faces. 😇
If I am honest, I actively put off going back to the UK now, despite being pestered to do so by my parents and family. The travel aspect sucks, mainly the driving or train at the other end (usually driving because hiring a car is perversely cheaper than taking a train), but also because the place feels just so run down now. My mother talking about how the UK is too full now (she reads the Daily Mailygraph) does not help.
Looks like my next visit to siblings will be in Tallinn or Helsinki.
When my parents were younger we had meet ups on neutral territory - one in Maastricht 😉 With the Brexit thing I didn't go for seven years but now my mother is on her own and has cancelled the newspapers I'll probably head back once a year. This year was a 23 hour train journey to the UK and a 35 hour Flixbus journey home. South Brum was still very active when I last lived there in 1979. I worked in Tyseley which was a hive of activity with Rover, Girling, Lucas, Permoglase, Dawes... . Most went and it was really run down for years. New buildings have sprung up and it feels a little more prosperous now. I love shopping on Sparkhill high street and the baths are open again.
"UK is too full" I've heard word for word and much more racist variants. 🙁 The real problem in Brum is that everyone has a car and uses it to go post a letter in the box 120m away or pick up the fish and chips 600m away - and complains about having to wait to park (while double parked) at the chip shop. It's a mind set and a gallic shrug is my answer.
Have just been looking at options for getting to Oslo (third option for a meetup) and realised that it would take me about six hours door to door on my motorbike. Seriously tempted. Train would be about 8 (including getting in to Stockholm) with flying being about 6 including getting to Arlanda and the assorted faffing at both ends.
Still feel Tallinn would be a better option though. Especially with the Schengen travel I have now.
England is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe with high rates of inequality, hardly surprising it has problems.
Once family are gone and friendships drifted apart are there many compelling reasons to visit your home town/region/country? You become a tourist then, so you are going to pick the nice bits to visit. I lived in my home town in Northern England until I was nearly 40, a nice area that had many plus sides but I only visit for family now. One of the reasons we moved away (now in Scotland) was due to how busy England is and it is very noticable when you return.
I've never visited Birmingham other than driving past on the motorway and probably never will, why would I without any connections to the city. For sure, visiting ASDA in a densely populated city, with high rates of deprivation, in a densely populated country is going to be a shit experience - what did you expect, an artisan farmers market?
The ASDA anecdote was a reflection on how the UK is changing. In the 60s in Finefare in Rubery the exclusively female shoppers used to leave there kids in the pram outside while they shopped and spent time chatting. By the 70s it was Tescos and a big car park with a petrol station with not a pram in sight, and people didn't talk to each other. The 80s brought Aldi with 29p, 39p, 49p pricing the cashiers could memorise and shopping became faster. Now in ASDA they can scan faster than I can pack and there's a sort of passive aggressive attitude, in fact just an attitude where even looking absent mindedly at someone is taken as an act of agression, and talking is just not done. When there is conversation it's to a script where the cashier is programmed to ask certain questions or wish you a good day. Nothing natural or spontaneous and a fear of looking in the wrong place.
I suppose the point I was making is that those of us with enough money, career options or sheer determination to choose where we live are not going to pick a crap bit. And if we were partly motivated to leave an area because it had crap things about it, it is never going to compare favourably.
My dad moved to Italy 20 years ago, they chose a nice house near some mountains. They are isolated and almost completely ignorant to the social ills of Italy. They get all of their news from UK sources that often paint a picture of a completely dysfunctional country. Italy = completely perfect in every way, UK = completely shit in every way, there is no nuance at all. If I mention in passing that we used such and such a service like the Drs or dentist they will say something like 'Wow, how on earth did you manage that'.
That may be the difference. I only moved here 8 years ago, but chose to make myself a part of society by first working for the equivalent of the BBC and subsequently working for my local council. I know Sweden is not without its flaws (gang violence is a problem, even where I am, and explosions between rival drug dealers is pretty common), but I still prefer life here to what I had in the UK.
Again, maybe that is because I live outside town, but services here are not so far along the track towards privatisation and there is a stronger focus on workers' rights and unions. Yes, there is a rise in the [far] right and a lot of inequality, but it feels like people are pushign back against it more than the UK. It's difficult to put across, but I've heard people use the UK as an example of what not to do and Brexit is still something I get teased about.
I suppose the point I was making is that those of us with enough money, career options or sheer determination to choose where we live are not going to pick a crap bit. And if we were partly motivated to leave an area because it had crap things about it, it is never going to compare favourably.I was back where i was brought up, visiting family, but not staying with them this time, had lots of other things to to do.
It's a moderately wealthy city (top 10 GDP/capita in the UK IIRC). I couldn't afford to live there when i graduated, didn't actually much want to either, but that's another tale.
Everything is run down, supermarkets, station, buses, city centre (empty units everywhere), roads, the village i was brought up in certainly has changed for the worse.
It's (supposedly) a really nice bit of the country.