As many of you will be aware, tightened controls on UK Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) come into force on 25 February. All UK citizens (including dual citizens) MUST present a valid UK passport (or a certificate of entitlement) in order to enter the UK and we understand that carriers will have obligations to ensure that boarding pass issuance is linked to the passport used for the journey.
We have held a meeting with senior officials at the Home Office. The following guidance is based in part on that discussion, but we must stress it is merely guidance and cannot be taken as definitive.
We strongly urge that dual UK Spanish citizens use a British passport both for making travel arrangements and to enter the UK. For the moment we suggest that a straightforward UK trip is booked as two, separate, one-way segments. This is due to a lack of carrier uniformity in allowing inclusion of more than one passport in booking details (the Home Office say that they are working with carriers to allow this). Secondly, we see that it is an imperative to book the return trip to Spain as a Spanish citizen. We recommend that a Spanish passport is used in all interactions with Spanish officials at departure. We are waiting for more details on carriers' obligations with respect to ETA.
This implies that you carry both a UK and Spanish passport. We know that a number of you have concerns that discovery could compromise Spanish citizenship. However, Exteriores have published advice that appears to cover this point satisfactorily and should allay concerns.
https://www.exteriores.gob.es/
If you do not have a UK passport, it remains possible to travel on a Spanish passport with a "certificate of entitlement" (to reside in the UK). This is digital and this not visible to the Spanish authorities. However, it costs in excess of €600 plus fees for submitting biometric information.
We recognise that the UK government's insistence on using a UK passport presents financial issues and may also impact ability to travel at short notice to the UK (due either to passport application or renewal). We have raised these concerns both to officials and Ministers, including the argument that, if you travel on an ETA, you are not seeking to live in the UK. However, UK immigration law is complicated, and a legal challenge would be costly and not guaranteed to be successful. The Home Office say that they are working to improve response times (and an on-line application can be completed in two weeks). Incidentally, we are aware that there have been some issues due to different UK and Spanish naming conventions. The Passport Office claim to have issued internal guidance on this point but it would not do any harm to include a note with the application, reminding the Passport Office about the Spanish convention.
The Home Office are aware that applicants for an ETA may have some uncertainties within the application process, particularly the section on other nationalities. Consequently, there may be instances where an ETA has been issued to a British Spanish dual citizen on their Spanish passport. No sanctions or penalties seem to exist in respect of such cases and it is possible to book travel and enter the UK using a Spanish passport, without issues at the UK frontier, especially when using e-Gates. The risk is that if e-gates are unavailable then a manual inspection may raise questions on the part of the UK immigration officer (eg place of birth on the passport). It is theoretically possible for someone in that position to be refused admission to the UK, equally the immigration officer may show leniency based on questioning! For this reason, we strongly recommend that you always carry a valid UK passport in case issues arise (although it may well remain in your pocket or bag!). We await clarification on whether the ETA can be revoked in such circumstances.
For convenience, the British Embassy guidance.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/
