British citizens with a second nationality risk being blocked from entering the UK from Wednesday, the Home Office has confirmed.
The government has decided to ignore pleas from families, the Liberal Democrats and the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis for a grace period to allow British dual nationals to adapt to the new rules they face.
Those who do not present a British passport or a certificate proving their right to enter the UK may be refused boarding on a flight, ferry or train under the latest rules.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK is moving to a modernised digital immigration system to enhance our border security. From 25 February, international carriers will check all passengers for valid permission or status to travel to the UK – just as they currently do for visa nationals.
“The correct permission for British citizens is a British passport or a foreign passport endorsed with a certificate of entitlement. At their own discretion, carriers may accept some expired British passports as alternative documentation.”
Davis and the Lib Dems had called for a grace period allowing British dual nationals to obtain passports or the certificate of entitlement to prove their are British, but that has been ignored.
Hundreds of dual nationals contacted the Guardian in the last week to describe the stress the new rule was causing. One man cancelled a flight to his father’s memorial service, a family is missing a grandparent’s 80th birthday party and another has cancelled a trip to Spain for a wedding.
All said they knew nothing of the rule until they read about it in the media in the last 10 days.
Davis acted after one of his constituents living in the Netherlands said she was no longer able to visit her dying mother in a care home in Yorkshire because her passport was stuck with the authorities awaiting renewal.
Another British couple on honeymoon in New Zealand said they were scrambling to end their dream holiday and cancel accommodation at great expense to get home before the new rule kicked in. The husband is a dual national but does not have his British passport with him.
The rules were published on the government’s gov.uk website in November, but not communicated in any effective way to those potentially affected.
Many said they had not heard of the rule until the Guardian reported it on 13 February.
The alternative to a British passport is to pay £589 for a certificate of entitlement linked to their second passport.
But dual nationals have said a certificate takes up to eight weeks to obtain and was punitively expensive compared with the £16 cost of an electronic travel authorisation available to tourists.
The Home Office said it recognised the rules were a significant change, so it had “provided additional temporary guidance to carriers on possible alternative documentation, including expired passports issued in 1989 or later and alongside a valid non-visa national third country passport where biographic details match.”
It said it was “an operational decision whether carriers accept alternative proof, and if so, what alternative proof they will accept”.
