Petra has now applied for a UK passport from Spain – but that had its own complications. “They agreed to accept a notarised copy of my German passport so I did not have to send that off, but they also wanted my original citizenship certificate – which I don’t have, it’s in the UK,” she explained.
Petra now has a “nervous wait” to see if the documentation she was able to provide is accepted and processed in time for early March, when she is due to travel back to the UK before heading to the US for work.
She said she felt let down by the way the changes have been introduced, adding: “I’ve been a British citizen since 2019. The UK is my home – I’ve lived there for 40 years, I own a home, I work and pay tax. My whole life is there.”
Swiss dual national Shaun West said he was considering not replacing his British passport and renouncing his citizenship over the new requirements.
“There’s no worth in it for me,” said the university professor, who became a Swiss citizen after Brexit.
He said he would rather pay the ETA fee to temporarily enter the UK to see his parents, adding: “[The government] said I’ll lose consular services. I’m not bothered. [They said] you won’t be able to live here. I’m not going to.”
West said that he found out about the rule change “utterly by accident” by reading online about how it affected Canadians, and said he believed it was discriminatory against dual nationals.
