British citizen travelling on foreign passport? Visa?

dktreesea

benjus wrote: »

Well this is the response I got by email from the British Consulate in La Paz:

• The Passport Office is extremely busy at the moment and their target times for overseas applications have been raised to 8 weeks. The consulate has offered to escalate the matter with the Passport Office as it has now exceeded this time.
• They can provide an emergency travel document which would be valid for travel to the UK and back - as long as he doesn't travel via certain countries like the US or Argentina, and transits no more than 5 countries. It would not invalidate his current passport application.
• He could apply for a UK visa in his Bolivian passport, however they warned me that the process is neither simple nor friendly.

So, in the absence of the local passport issuing service at the embassy pulling their finger out and giving him his renewed passport, he should get an emergency travel document, leaving Bolivia on his Bolivian passport and entering the UK on his emergency travel document. Then, for going back, leaving Britain on his emergency travel document and entering Bolivia on his Bolivian passport. His full passport will presumably be waiting for him at his Bolivian home once he arrives.

maybe ask him to carry his expired passport and his birth certificate just in case, but the emergency travel document should suffice.

System

No, if he tries to leave on his Bolivian passport then the airline will refuse boarding as he doesn't have the relevant visa.

He will need to travel to the UK on the emergency document. He can probably travel back to Bolivia on his Bolivian passport though.


Customs/immigration is not the problem it is the airlines and their rules to try to protect themselves against fines and deportation costs due to incorrect documentation.

duchy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

That depends on a number of things.

When the brother in law came to visit he was held at immigration for 10 hours because they didn't think he had sufficient funds with him even though we had vouched for the fact that we would be paying everything for him, he was staying with us and had provided bank statement showing we could afford to support him.

At departure it was all no problems as no visas are required for them to visit the UK for under 6 months as a tourist/ family.

Indeed but he wasn't stopped because he didn't have correct documentation like a passport but because he was viewed to be entering with the possibility that he may have had another agenda (like overstaying or working). That happens on a very regular basis and an airline would not be fined for that -They checked your brother had A tool to enter......the fact immigration felt the need to confirm he was using the correct tool and was a genuine holidaymaker is not the airline's concern (thank goodness or check ins at airports would require a lot more time)

InsideInsurance

duchy wrote: »

Indeed but he wasn't stopped because he didn't have correct documentation like a passport but because he was viewed to be entering with the possibility that he may have had another agenda (like overstaying or working). That happens on a very regular basis and an airline would not be fined for that -They checked your brother had A tool to enter......the fact immigration felt the need to confirm he was using the correct tool and was a genuine holidaymaker is not the airline's concern (thank goodness or check ins at airports would require a lot more time)

I understand the differences but was just correcting the fact that the airlines checks are the harder of the two. As you say, immigration checks go much wider than those of the airlines.

The Mrs' non-EU passport was double checked many a time by the airline because it was an old fashioned handwritten/ non-machine readable type with multiple extensions that are also handwritten in. Ultimately never took more than a couple of minutes and a couple of times it was more for the curiosity of the fact that some people still use these rather than a genuine concern.

At immigration into the UK on a number of occasions she was challenged on how she qualified for the "visa" and made to wait 3 hours one time when she was told that the visa was invalid. Thankfully later the guy came back and simply waved her through (obv no apology for saying her visa was invalid when in fact it wasnt).

The OPs case I agree it is the airline that would probably be more difficult but in general it isnt

benjus

dktreesea wrote: »

So, in the absence of the local passport issuing service at the embassy pulling their finger out and giving him his renewed passport

The local embassy doesn't issue passports. The renewal application had to be sent to the Durham passport office.

peachyprice

littlereddevil wrote: »

Nothing we didn't know then

Except this bit, that others on this thread were adamant couldn't be done

benjus wrote: »

He could apply for a UK visa in his Bolivian passport, however they warned me that the process is neither simple nor friendly.

benjus

Vice Consul from La Paz just emailed me to say that the Passport Office printed the passport on May 19th, and it should be couriered to Bolivia shortly, so all looking pretty hopeful.

PolishBigSpender

peachyprice wrote: »

If he turns up at immigration control in the UK with a Bolivian passport they won't know he's a British citizen.

My brother always travels on his Australian passport, he's treated as an Australian at immigration and has never been asked if he's a British citizen or been treated as solely a British citizen.

That would be because he hasn't declared himself as such. Having said that, he should still be going through the EU line as an EU citizen regardless of which passport he uses.


As for them not knowing - well, he'll declare himself as one, won't he? It's not exactly rocket science here...

Once arrived at UK point of entry they will be detained until satisfied the traveller has right of entry etc -usually same day but they could be held overnight if needed but most people never get to that point as they are simply denied boarding at point of departure by the airlines as it is a condition of travel to produce proof satisfactory to them that you are entitled to entry.

I said all along that it was dependent on satisfying the airline.

In respects to the UK border guards (whatever they're called today), they cannot refuse entry to an EU citizen except in some very limited grounds. Not having the correct documentation is not one of them, though as you say, he may well be detained for a while until they're satisfied.


As I said, I crossed the UK border before with a document that said I was Polish, but the document wasn't valid for any sort of travelling. They simply found a Polish translator who asked me quite a few cultural questions that only Poles would know, then they called the Polish embassy to clarify if my details added up.

peachyprice

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

Nope. A British citizen is not entitled to apply for a visa, because they are already exempt from immigration control under the relevant laws. When you enter the UK as a citizen exempt from immigration control, the passport control is rather an identity check. That's why passports are not marked, because the marking implies that immigration control has taken place.


He can be Bolivian too, but under international law, the British authorities will recognise him solely as British. His Bolivian citizenship is more or less an irrelevance for the British.

Did you read OP's update, or are you choosing to ignore the fact that you were wrong?

benjus wrote: »

Well this is the response I got by email from the British Consulate in La Paz:

• He could apply for a UK visa in his Bolivian passport, however they warned me that the process is neither simple nor friendly.