February 2026 – We are making plans!
This is a huge part of the journey, and usually a very enjoyable part of the journey. We get a lot of enjoyment out of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. It shouldn’t be stressful; it should be fun!
We applied for and were accepted for an amazing sounding house sit in South England. We have booked a “bucket list” trip on a canal boat in France. These are the first pieces of the puzzle; we will build our year around this.
Next puzzle piece, we have to get to England. Flights Auckland to London Heathrow, 31 March 2026 – Booked……
Hold on …… Wait, stop right there. There is a rule change!!
There was a new rule implemented last year with a grace period of a 1 year. It did not get much airtime apparently, and we missed it all together. We were having dinner with friends and were asked if this new rule will affect us? Hmmmm, we better have a look into this.
The rule goes like this:
To enter UK from 26 Feb 2026 with a foreign passport you need to fill in an ETA, Electronic Travel Authorisation, at a cost of around £10. This is a digital, pre-travel permission requirement for non-visa nationals visiting or transiting the UK for up to 6 months. If you want to enter the United Kingdom on a New Zealand passport but have a parent who was born in the UK, even if you yourself was born in New Zealand, you will be denied that ETA. This is because with a parent born in the United Kingdom, you are deemed to be a British Citizen by decent and you MUST travel on a UK passport when entering the UK.
Really!!??
The facts:
- My father was born in Scotland.
- I have had a UK passport in the past.
- I lived in Scotland for 8 years in the 90’s.
- My British passport expired at least 15 years ago.
What does this mean for us, and these amazing plans we are making?
Well, first of all, I cannot arrive in London now without a UK passport. I chose 15 years ago not to renew my UK passport and travel solely on my perfectly good NZ passport. I do not need British citizenship; I will never want to vote on British politics or live there in the future.
What can we do about this? We already have our tickets to London booked. We have homeowners in South England expecting us to look after their house and dogs.
I will just have to get a new British passport. As I am not the only one in the world who has discovered this in the last month and there is a 13 week wait for processing. Our flight is only a few weeks away, there is not enough time!
What if we just lie? don’t admit to the citizenship? Research showed “that they will know” everything is linked now, and they will know. I would be denied entry and turned around at the gate. This is a disaster, what do we do?
We had a highly stressful 24 hours with research, phone calls, talk to the BOT, Chat GPT, immigration, airline help desk etc etc. To re-route our tickets to Paris rather than London is going to be very expensive. This seems so unfair.
How did we solve this problem?
We cancelled the original tickets, accepted the cancellation fee and rebooked to Paris.
We reluctantly had to advise our homeowners and cancel our house sit.
I applied for my Fathers birth certificate from Scotland and i will apply for a new UK passport. I will have to figure out somewhere to have said passport sent to in Europe and hope to meet up with it en route.
We are now leaving New Zealand on 21 April, 3 weeks after our original departure date. We will continue with the plans from there.
So why the change in policy?
- Security and digitalisation, UK borders are going fully digital.
- The new ETA system. British citizens cannot legally be granted an ETA (including a British citizen by decent)
- Global standardisation, UK borders are coming into line with USA, Canada and Australia.
Really? Is that it? What about a little ‘revenue gathering’ thrown in there?
If you really don’t want to take up the right to be a British Citizen, you CAN renounce your citizenship. For the small, phenomenal fee of £450.00!
How many 1000’s of people is this affecting throughout New Zealand and Australia? let alone the rest of the world. This has been an expensive process for us, but we will get there in the end. My fathers birth certificate has arrived from Scotland and I have now filled in my application and paid the $300 NZD fee. I have fingers crossed that there are no surprises with my passport application, and we do get to visit Scotland again.
So, Is travel getting harder? You know what? I really think it is. Between proving onward tickets, visa regulations constantly changing, retiming of flights, over booking and cancellation of flights. It can be a bit tricky; you have to keep your wits about you. The border control officers have so much power and sometimes, between you and me, there can be a discrepancy in the interpretation of the rules.
Happy travelling!! Thank you for reading,
PS Since writing this the Iran War has started. This is another story, makes our passport debacle seen very mild. Our travel plans are changing – again….. watch this space.
Kiwis Do Fly 