In a last-minute clarification issued to ITV News, the Home Office stated that dual nationals who hold an expired British passport can, in principle, present it alongside their foreign passport to demonstrate exemption from the ETA scheme. The concession, however, comes with a major caveat: carriers retain discretion, and many have already programmed their systems to treat an out-of-date document as invalid.
The ambiguous guidance is creating fresh confusion just five days before full ETA enforcement. Airline sources told ITV they have no technical means to validate an expired passport and will therefore default to refusing boarding to avoid fines. Industry lobby Airlines UK has asked for an urgent ‘carrier information notice’, but none has yet been published.
![Home Office says expired UK passports ‘may’ prove citizenship—but airlines keep right to refuse carriage]()
For travellers and corporate travel managers seeking immediate clarity, VisaHQ maintains up-to-the-minute guidance on ETA rules and passport validity, and can facilitate alternative travel documentation solutions when time is short. Full details and live support are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/
Immigration lawyers fear that families travelling for Easter could be split if a parent’s British passport has lapsed while children travel on valid UK documents. The Passport Office’s one-week Fast-Track service is fully booked in London and Liverpool until mid-March, leaving little room for remediation.
Employers with frequent flyers who hold dual citizenship are being urged to implement a ‘passport validity audit’ across HRIS and traveller-profile databases and to brief travel bookers that staff risk denied boarding if they rely on the Home Office’s discretionary wording. Risk managers are also asked to prepare duty-of-care responses, including visa-on-arrival fallback plans through Dublin for stranded employees.
The ambiguous guidance is creating fresh confusion just five days before full ETA enforcement. Airline sources told ITV they have no technical means to validate an expired passport and will therefore default to refusing boarding to avoid fines. Industry lobby Airlines UK has asked for an urgent ‘carrier information notice’, but none has yet been published.
For travellers and corporate travel managers seeking immediate clarity, VisaHQ maintains up-to-the-minute guidance on ETA rules and passport validity, and can facilitate alternative travel documentation solutions when time is short. Full details and live support are available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/
Immigration lawyers fear that families travelling for Easter could be split if a parent’s British passport has lapsed while children travel on valid UK documents. The Passport Office’s one-week Fast-Track service is fully booked in London and Liverpool until mid-March, leaving little room for remediation.
Employers with frequent flyers who hold dual citizenship are being urged to implement a ‘passport validity audit’ across HRIS and traveller-profile databases and to brief travel bookers that staff risk denied boarding if they rely on the Home Office’s discretionary wording. Risk managers are also asked to prepare duty-of-care responses, including visa-on-arrival fallback plans through Dublin for stranded employees.
