‘It was a complete surprise to me’: Vancouver Island senior warns other dual citizens about new U.K. passport rules

A Vancouver Island senior has a warning for other dual citizens of the United Kingdom and Canada.

Mike Stephen has lived in Canada for nearly 60 years.

“I was born in the U.K. in 1941. I came to Canada with my wife in 1967,” said the senior, who now lives in Saanich and is a dual citizen.

Stephen frequently visits the country of his birth, and when his U.K. passport expired this month, he learned the rules for renewing it have changed.

“There was a checkbox to say, ‘Do you have another passport?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a Canadian passport.’ So then they decided that they needed to have all this extra information,” said Stephen.

Starting this week, the United Kingdom is enforcing new travel rules that don’t allow dual citizens to enter the country on their other passport.

“To get into Britain as a dual citizen, there has to be a British passport,” said Stephen, who was surprised he hadn’t heard about the change until now.

“I was in Heathrow Airport at Christmas and New Years, and nowhere did I see anything about this issue,” he said.

Serina Bowles, who operates “The Travel Agent Next Door,” is fielding calls from many clients who are dual citizens and had no idea they can no longer use their Canadian passports to enter the U.K.

“A lot of people who maybe in the past had a U.K. passport have let that expire, because once they became a Canadian citizen, they now just travel as a Canadian on their Canadian passport. So we have a group of people who were born in the U.K. who have an expired passport, that now need to renew it,” said Bowles.

And another group will be impacted buy the new rules: Canadian children of U.K. citizens.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of the fact of the dual citizenship by inheritance, that they are considered a dual citizen,” said Bowles. “We also have the group that are now considered dual citizens because their parents were born in the U.K., who have always been Canadian citizens, that under these rules technically now need to apply for a U.K. passport.”

Dual citizens without a U.K. passport also have the option of applying for an extra travel document that costs hundreds of dollars, or renouncing their U.K. citizenship.

“So I thought, ‘What the heck, I might as well renew this, I have had a passport for 60 years,’” said Stephen.

He was shocked to learn he had to provide a colour photocopy of every page of his Canadian passport to apply for a new U.K. passport.

“It was a complete surprise to me that I had to go through this stuff. And now, obviously, there are many, many other people who have British citizenship that have to go through this without knowing about it,” said Stephen.

“The information is out there,” said Bowles. “The disconnect is: How are people who don’t know to look for this information going to find it?”

She is concerned the changes could catch spring break travellers off guard.

“Ultimately, the onus is on the traveller to make sure that they are aware and prepared on the day of travel for any entry requirements. So even though this hasn’t given people a whole lot of notice, this is still in effect now,” Bowles said.

Stephen hopes he gets his new U.K. passport in time for his next trip in early May. And he hopes by telling his story, he alerts other dual citizens.

“So at least they don’t try and get on the plane without these documents and get turned off the plane,” Stephen said. “At least they understand what has to be done.”