Passport/re-entry to the UK query

Billy64

My wife and daughters (all born in the UK) are dual UK/Canadian passport holders. As it is expensive to keep renewing both sets of passports we have only kept the Canadian passports up to date.The question I have is other than a passport what form of I.D. would be acceptable to the people at passport control? last year we re-entered the country at Gatwick and the member of staff was reluctant to let them in and eventually agreed but said she was putting a note (electronic I think as there is nothing to see in the passports) against their passport information with a warning of some sort. This was despite them having their expired UK passports as well as their Canadian in date passports.
She was less than pleasant and stated that we had nothing to prove they had a right to enter and live in the UK.
We could just enter as a tourist and say they are leaving in a couple of weeks but my wife does not want to do this as honesty is her best (and only) policy!!.
Any ideas anyone?

phatbear

in reality the only forms of identity acceptable to border force are passports or national identity cards, which neither canada or the uk have.

an expired passport is just that expired and therefore no longer proves identity, after all you would have an expired passport if you changed your name or the secretary of state revoked your right of abode.

i appreciate that having both documents is expensive but no one forces you to have dual nationalities

Heliflyguy

If the check in agent in Canada used the system to find out then this is what it would say:

NATIONAL UNITED KINGDOM (GB) /EMBARKATION CANADA (CA)
DESTINATION UNITED KINGDOM (GB)
VISA DESTINATION UNITED KINGDOM (GB)
...... NORMAL PASSPORTS ONLY ......
PASSPORT REQUIRED.
- PASSPORT AND/OR PASSPORT REPLACING DOCUMENTS MUST BE VALID
FOR THE PERIOD OF INTENDED STAY.
- EXPIRED BRITISH PASSPORT (NO TIME LIMIT) ENDORSED ¤BRITISH
CITIZEN¤ IS ACCEPTED.
- EXPIRED BRITISH PASSPORT (NO TIME LIMIT) ENDORSED ¤BRITISH
SUBJECT¤ IS ACCEPTED, PROVIDED STATING ¤CITIZEN OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM AND COLONIES¤ AND CONTAINING A CERTIFICATE
OF ENTITLEMENT TO THE RIGHT OF ABODE.
- BRITISH PASSPORT ENDORSED: ¤BRITISH NATIONAL
(OVERSEAS)¤,¤BRITISH OVERSEAS CITIZEN¤,¤BRITISH OVERSEAS
TERRITORIES CITIZEN¤, ¤BRITISH SUBJECT¤ OR ¤BRITISH
PROTECTED PERSON¤ MUST BE VALID ON ARRIVAL.
- NATIONAL IDENTITY CARDS ISSUED BY GIBRALTAR MUST BE VALID
ON ARRIVAL.

This is if you used you UK passport to check in but you probably use your CA and UK passport to check in then the UK passport to enter the UK, of course your Canadian passport allows you to enter the UK for up to 6 months with the period of stay determined by the UK immigration officer and the passport needs to be valid for the length of stay.

In practice though as you have found out it will not be an easy process.

If your not staying long in the UK then your better off just using your CA passports.