bats

I arrived today withy Canadian passport. The very nice man at immigration said it would be best to bring the expired UK passport too as that was proof of citizenship and I could then go through UK lineup and wouldn't be down as being a foreigner.

Just passing on the information.

magnumpi

Interesting. I always thought this was a good idea, my UK and Canadian Passports are current at the mo, I didn't think it worth renewing my UK one in the future for this reason.

I test it myself one day with my old old Uk passport :@)

Gozit

I wouldn't do that, they can probably see that you have a current one and you'd be in a bit of trouble. Also keep in mind this strategy has less of a chance of working if you are arriving in an EU country and trying to exercise EU treaty rights.

MarylandNed

Interesting and I guess worth a try for some people. However, it's worth remembering that you often get different information from different immigration officers. I wouldn't be surprised if someone took issue with this approach at some point. Someone could rightly point out that an expired British passport is not proof of British citizenship.

Former Lancastrian

An expired UK passport to me would mean its expired and not valid for travel but valid for ID purposes to prove citizenship.

BritInParis

Unless that person's British citizenship had been revoked. If you're coming simply to visit and you don't mind waiting in the longer queue then your US/Canadian/Australian passport will suffice but if your intention is to move back or work then only a valid British, Irish or other EU/EEA citizen passport is going to assure you of that. Anything else is at the Immigration Officer's discretion.

Hurlabrick

I have a Canadian passport and my wife is British.


The UK border guys are perfectly happy for us to 'choose' which line to go through, as long as we go through together - most often I go through the UK / EU passports line with her as it is quicker (and of course adds weight to my 'permanent residence' status in the UK).

Steve_

Is it quicker? I remember last time I went through T2 I think it was there were only a handful of people waiting on the non-EU line. I did seriously think about using my Canadian passport.

bats

Passport has date of birth on it. Your citizenship can be revoked if you were born in the UK

bats

No, not quicker , hasn't been the last two times

Gozit

I've never been through immigration in the UK, but to me there was a stark difference between entering Schengen on my Canadian passport in 2013 before I became Maltese, and entering on my Maltese passport in 2015 and 2016. The former we were asked routine questions about where we were staying and why, my aunt had to prove custody of her son and bring out papers, etc. Coming through on my Maltese passport the officer didn't say a word to me and I was away. If I had been 18 I could have used the smartgates at Frankfurt airport with my EU passport. Defo much faster and less hassle to go through on an EU passport. Doesn't LHR have smartgates that British/EU citizens can use if they have a valid biometric passport?

Vulcanoid

Yup. Between plane door and baggage carousel I was stationary for under 5 seconds last time I flew into LHR, and about half of that was picking the passport up after I dropped it from the smartgate scanner.

Novocastrian

FTFY

beckiwoo

Sometimes the scanners take ages. I've seen the non EU/UK line move faster. It depends if I have come in just before or after a flight from Malaga!

bats

Cheers mate, mind you that lot is better than the previous unedited gibberish what I posted.