Passport changes prevent British dual national from visiting dying mother

A British woman living in the Netherlands has told of the “stress upon stress” caused by new Home Office rules that leave her unable to travel to see her 91-year-old dying mother back in England.Annie, who requested her surname was not published, said her British passport expired last Friday and had been submitted as part of her passport renewal application. She had “reasonably expected” to use her Dutch passport to carry on visiting her mother, as she had done every couple of weeks for the past few months.But rules that come into force on Wednesday require Britons with dual nationality from any country apart from Ireland to present a British passport to enter the country or pay £589 for a “certificate of entitlement”, which can take up to eight weeks to get.“What the Home Office don’t understand is what they are doing is taking away this chance to be with my mum at the end of her life,” Annie said.“To be with your mum at this time is not an easy journey. Every time I see her I wonder if I will see her again. It’s such a traumatic journey. The last time I saw her she said: ‘Don’t cry, I’m always with you, I’ll always be with you.’”The former Conservative government cabinet minister and Brexit secretary David Davis has called on the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, to urgently introduce a grace period to allow hundreds of Britons like Annie to continue to travel on their second passport while their British passport is processed.David Davis: ‘Dual British citizens are being treated as though they are foreign visitors to their own country.’ Photograph: House of Commons/PADavis, who is Annie’s mother’s MP, said: “British nationals should not be disadvantaged simply because they hold a second nationality. Yet under the new arrangements, dual British citizens are being treated as though they are foreign visitors to their own country. The practical effect is that some are being prevented from boarding flights and returning home.”He said the Home Office should urgently introduce a grace period and “workable transitional arrangements” for dual British nationals. “British citizenship must carry with it an unambiguous right of return.”He said he would take up Annie’s case with the home secretary and “ask that she urgently reconsiders this policy in light of the unacceptable impact it is having on ordinary British citizens”.The Liberal Democrats shadow home affairs spokesperson, Will Forster, has also called for a grace period to be introduced by next Wednesday.Annie’s mother, who is in end-of-life care after multiple strokes, has been in a home in Yorkshire for the past few months. Annie said she had “reasonably expected” to be able to continue to travel on her Dutch passport and was shocked to learn that from next Wednesday she could not.“It is only weeks before I get my passport but we don’t know how long she will last. You want to be with your mum at the end, to share the whole journey of life, not just the good stuff. You don’t want to just be there for a funeral, it’s too late then,” she said.“When I read the article last Friday that said I couldn’t travel I instantly had tears in my eyes because I just thought: ‘How dare they add this stress to stress.’”Annie moved to the Netherlands in 1999 and said she had no intention of becoming a dual national, feeling as British as the day she was born. But, like many Britons living in the EU, she took citizenship after Brexit to allow her to continue to access rights where she lives with her husband and children.“I know I have a Dutch passport but I had to get that after Brexit. But in my heart I am British. It is my country. I love going back, I feel like I belong, my shoulders drop when I go home.“It is bigger than just going home to Mum. What she represents for me is my home and no one has the right to take that away from me and that right to be with her in the end of life.”The Home Office has said the new rules have been on the gov.uk site since October 2024, with the British passport for dual nationals rule posted on the official gov.uk site since November 2025.But hundreds of people have said they knew nothing of the rule, there were no warnings in airports or communication with Britons abroad.The Home Office said it could not comment on individual cases, and declined to comment on questions relating to a number of other scenarios hitting Britons abroad.It said it recognised this was a “significant change” for carriers and travelllers but that it had been “clear on what people need to do to prepare for this change for some time”.“From 25 February, dual British citizens will be expected to present either a valid British passport or certificate of entitlement,” it said. It added that carriers, “at their discretion”, could accept an expired British passport alongside a passenger’s second passport to prove they were British.