Ms. Blogcutter Goes to London ... or not
Mar. 6th, 2026 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterI recently renewed my Canadian passport, which will not expire for another ten years, unless of course I do.
While I don't have any international travel planned for the next little while, my old passport would only have been good until June; if I'd suddenly wanted or needed to travel, it might not have been allowed as border agents generally insist that documentation be valid for at least 6 months beyond your departure date.
On the other hand, I've been tentatively planning to visit the U.K. some time in 2027. I'd heard a while back that U.K. border agents would soon be requiring Canadian citizens to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in order to enter (or even pass through) the U.K. A bit of a pain, I thought, but still manageable.
What I only recently learned is that dual citizens of Canada and the U.K. are ineligible for the ETA but must instead travel with a British passport or a Certificate of Entitlement. And even if I HAD known that, it never dawned on me that I might have unwittingly possessed British citizenship in addition to my Canadian citizenship for over seven decades! After all, I was born here and have lived here my entire life.
My dad was a British national. So, for that matter, was my mother, but apparently she didn't count. The rest of my family, i.e. my parents and three older siblings, came to Canada in 1950. They became naturalized Canadians and to the best of my knowledge, always traveled on Canadian passports after that. It does make sense to me that my two surviving siblings would have dual citizenship as a birthright, but I always assumed that I had Canadian citizenship and nothing else. It also seems to me that the U.K. government wants to make it HARDER for their own kith and kin to visit than they do for citizens of other random countries. Is that reverse xenophobia or what? It seems to me to defy common sense!
Anyway, I'm betting that a lot of people will be caught off guard by the new rules.
Rebecca Zandbergen, host of CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning, managed to arrange an interview with the British High Commissioner's office in an effort to clarify matters and let's just say he was the soul of discretion and diplomacy in deflecting her questions! You can listen to that interview here:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-100-ottawa-morning/clip/16201575-why-many-british-canadians-scrambling-u.k.-passports
So, it's the airline's responsibility to ensure every passenger has the requisite documentation before they board the plane. If they're not satisfied, they can turn them away. If they inadvertently let someone on without proper documentation, that someone may be turned away by U.K. Borderforce after the plane lands.
What specifically could be the consequences for the hapless passenger or would-be passenger, or for the airport officials at either end of the journey? Mr. High-Commissioner-Chap couldn't or wouldn't say.
Ottawa Morning apparently then tried to get a statement from Global Affairs Canada which, in time-honoured bureaucratic tradition, passed the buck or the loony or the pound squarely back to the U.K. Government.
Does anyone in this forum have any experience with the new travel rules? Any horror stories? Or success stories? Or practical advice or tips?
While I don't have any international travel planned for the next little while, my old passport would only have been good until June; if I'd suddenly wanted or needed to travel, it might not have been allowed as border agents generally insist that documentation be valid for at least 6 months beyond your departure date.
On the other hand, I've been tentatively planning to visit the U.K. some time in 2027. I'd heard a while back that U.K. border agents would soon be requiring Canadian citizens to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) in order to enter (or even pass through) the U.K. A bit of a pain, I thought, but still manageable.
What I only recently learned is that dual citizens of Canada and the U.K. are ineligible for the ETA but must instead travel with a British passport or a Certificate of Entitlement. And even if I HAD known that, it never dawned on me that I might have unwittingly possessed British citizenship in addition to my Canadian citizenship for over seven decades! After all, I was born here and have lived here my entire life.
My dad was a British national. So, for that matter, was my mother, but apparently she didn't count. The rest of my family, i.e. my parents and three older siblings, came to Canada in 1950. They became naturalized Canadians and to the best of my knowledge, always traveled on Canadian passports after that. It does make sense to me that my two surviving siblings would have dual citizenship as a birthright, but I always assumed that I had Canadian citizenship and nothing else. It also seems to me that the U.K. government wants to make it HARDER for their own kith and kin to visit than they do for citizens of other random countries. Is that reverse xenophobia or what? It seems to me to defy common sense!
Anyway, I'm betting that a lot of people will be caught off guard by the new rules.
Rebecca Zandbergen, host of CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning, managed to arrange an interview with the British High Commissioner's office in an effort to clarify matters and let's just say he was the soul of discretion and diplomacy in deflecting her questions! You can listen to that interview here:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-100-ottawa-morning/clip/16201575-why-many-british-canadians-scrambling-u.k.-passports
So, it's the airline's responsibility to ensure every passenger has the requisite documentation before they board the plane. If they're not satisfied, they can turn them away. If they inadvertently let someone on without proper documentation, that someone may be turned away by U.K. Borderforce after the plane lands.
What specifically could be the consequences for the hapless passenger or would-be passenger, or for the airport officials at either end of the journey? Mr. High-Commissioner-Chap couldn't or wouldn't say.
Ottawa Morning apparently then tried to get a statement from Global Affairs Canada which, in time-honoured bureaucratic tradition, passed the buck or the loony or the pound squarely back to the U.K. Government.
Does anyone in this forum have any experience with the new travel rules? Any horror stories? Or success stories? Or practical advice or tips?
(no subject)
Date: 2026-03-07 09:55 am (UTC)I might have been the holder of a Belgian passport if things had worked out differently and these days travelling on an EU passport makes a deal of sense!