AlliF

If you are visiting the Uk, as a dual citizen but on an Aussie passport without the british passport, do you then need to get some kind of proof of british citizenship to allow entry? never thought about it til now but we are about to visit the UK in april and my daughter will only have an Aussie passport. She has dual citizenship.

bcworld

An Aussie passport will be stamped for 6 months visit on arrival.

AlliF

Ah ok, thanks. Was just wondering cos i remember someone saying something about getting a 'right of abode stamp' previously.
Wondering, if the queues at immigration at that end are really that long if would be worth getting her a UK one anyway.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

If you want to spend a couple of hundred to avoid a queue then feel free.

chris955

She was seriously overvalued even at today's exchange rate.

bcworld

Aussie friends have recently reported being out the front with their bags at Heathrow less than 30 mins after getting off the plane...YMMV.

Pollyana

I always enter the UK on my British passport, took me 30 mins last couple of times bags and all. Last arrival in Brisbane - over an hour

DadAgain

Our recent trip to the UK my daughters UK passports had expired. We still went through the UK passport holders queue (I figured 2 out of 3 of us had UK passports and it would be a bastard immigration officer that makes a 7 yr old girl queue up alone!). Our queue at the passport line was no more than 2 minutes. (Still took us half an hour to get through the airport due to bag delays... A380's are simply TOO big and if your bags are last - its a long wait!)

Anyway - once settled in England we filled in all the paperwork for a new passport for her. At £70 it seemed reasonable enough (better than the $300 it would have cost to get it from here!). When my UK passport expires I'll be filling in the paperwork, on-posting and getting family back home to send it from a UK location!

On returning to Brisbane we obviously used our Australian passports and because mine is an old 'non-ePassport' we had to join a longer queue (approx 15 minutes). ePassport holders were going through in about 2 minutes. Still the end-to-end processing time in Brisbane is huge compared to London because of the queue for the sausage and cheese police (AQIS) once you've got your bags.

Is it worth having 2 passports just to cut down queuing time? Possibly not - but as a previous poster pointed out there are places in the world where visa costs vary between Austalian and UK passport holders (East Africa has a few of these) and if shit happens when you're travelling you want to be able to get help from whoever is there... if the Australian army show up to repatriate you want to be able to get on the plane... If the British army show up to repatriate, you want to be able to get on THAT plane....

renth

I always enter UK on an expired British passport and so do my family. You only need to show proof of nationality and an expired passport is enough.

AlliF

Ok, All good to know. Dont think she could really queue on her own- she's only 8mths old. Thought we would all have to go through the non-uk line but suppose it's worth chancing it.
wouldnt normally worry about a queue but thinking travelling that distance with a bub it's gonna be a case of get outta there asap.

Swerv-o

Yes, I did that last year, though I did get a dressing down from the immigration guy who sternly asked me if I intended to renew my UK passport while I was here. I told him I did, and at 70 quid to renew, as opposed to $300, that's exactly what I did do!


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renth

I'd have politely told the immigration guy to get fu**ed. The law is perfectly clear, expired passport is OK.

Vash the Stampede

Wow, I had no idea you could enter on an expired passport. I suppose if it's your own country that makes a difference!

renth

Sums that place up as far as I'm concerned - too many ******s. A country full of wankers who all hate each other.

Swerv-o

What was worse was trying to travel from Aus to the US with less than 6 months left on the UK passport - The US has an exemption for UK passports to require the 6 month validity period, but Aus doesn't have the same agreement, and trying to argue Anglo-American Passport agreements with an Australian check-in bimbo is a struggle...


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