Dual nationals in New Zealand feel treated as "second-class citizens" because of new UK passport rules. Photo / Getty Images
By Gill Bonnett of RNZ
Dual nationals living in New Zealand say they are being treated as “second-class citizens” after being told they’re no longer welcome back home with their Kiwi passports.
RNZ revealed yesterday that from next month anyone who was born in Britain or has citizenship there will no longer be able to travel to the UK without a British passport.
The British High Commission said it put out notifications last year to make people aware of the change.
Until now, dual citizens have been able to visit on a New Zealand passport, more recently with an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) costing about $37.
The British Government said that was only meant to be a transitional measure.
Citizens of other countries said they too are affected by a similar global tightening of borders and passport rules.
Art historian Mark Stocker emigrated to New Zealand from Britain in the 1980s and still returns there for family, friends and work commitments.
Dual nationals will now have to pay more to visit – through passport fees – than for someone born in New Zealand or any other visa-waiver country, he said.
Stocker said the change has not been well signalled and “came like a bombshell”.
“This has certainly put me off visiting. And I just feel that it seems to be discriminatory because of the accident of [place of] birth. I don’t have any criminal, terrorist or other offences.
“I like to revisit Britain - without feeling passionately sentimental or nostalgic about it. I’ve got some family and plenty of friends there. I hope that they will have second thoughts and relax the rules.”
The news has left him with two options, he said: the “sheer kerfuffle” of applying for a second passport – through an online form that needs photocopies of his NZ passport pages to be mailed to passport staff – or renouncing his citizenship.
“Putting all these barriers in my way when I’ve done no wrong seems to me to be unutterably weird and very retro, given that the technology is what it is. It seems absurd, almost obscene, to go through – to chop down the trees, to photocopy the 40 redundant pages, to pay people money. Does this combat terrorism? I would doubt it.
“Could the British government please return to their senses? Could they be compassionate and decent towards expatriate British who ... have no animosity whatsoever, only affection. If they want to put us off from returning to their country of origin, they couldn’t be doing the job better.
“It’s going to happen to people who were born in Britain and moved to New Zealand as babies or toddlers. That’s nuts.”
It’s not only the UK that has been changing the rules.
Mark, a Canadian man living in Dunedin since the 1990s, said he went through the same shock when his entire family was travelling to Canada two years ago.
A travel agent had advised their New Zealand passports would be sufficient, but some years earlier Canada had also decided its dual citizens must travel on Canadian documents.
“This could have been us. We could have gone to the airport, and only then would we have been turned back, and we wouldn’t have had a clue. And I had all the documentation, everything photocopied. I wouldn’t have known. And if I hadn’t checked on my own, just because I was paranoid that something could go wrong, we would have arrived at the airport and our son would have been told you can’t come. It would have been horrible.
“Of course, when you arrive at the airport, you’re not dealing with high-level immigration officers, you’re dealing with someone at the gate who knows what he’s or she’s been instructed to do, and they’re not in a position to wave you by.”
He was tearing his hair out when they found out about the new rule and that his son only had a New Zealand passport.
“So we had to, at the last minute, apply for an emergency waiver through the consulate here. And that was quite a process. We were told it was unlikely to arrive on time, if we were to be granted one at all. And it did fortunately arrive a few days before our flights were scheduled to leave. Otherwise, one of our sons would not have been able to travel with us because his Canadian passport had expired.”
Other concerns among people who had emigrated to New Zealand were the rules around joint Irish citizenship, or for those who were born in the UK to New Zealand parents but who never got citizenship.
Another dual national said it was not only those born in Britain who were affected. He was born in New Zealand but decided to get a UK passport by descent some years ago, and worried that he was worse off now as he cannot just buy an ETA on his Kiwi passport and fly.
Many compatriots accused Britain of revenue-gouging – or complained that Brits were “whingeing Poms”. Others thought that it was comparable to what other countries were doing as they try to capture data, check identities and ward off criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists.
Meanwhile, for those travelling soon, anxiety levels are rising.
The message from the travel agents’ association is to always check and never assume.
Its chief executive, Julie White, said it’s a big change that may have benefited from more proactive advertising, and more time to adjust.
“There’s definitely activity – a little bit of panic and nervousness from our members, customers, because the concern is – will they be able to get a passport in time? Because the 25th of February is not that far away – six weeks away.”
Britain did signal it was coming, she said, just not how quickly.
“What has come as a surprise is the drop-dead date [of Feb 25]. While they did give some indication of it, perhaps there could have been a bit of a dial-up on proactive comms.”
The British High Commission said while the UK introduced an ETA requirement for non-British nationals, any British citizens visiting the UK “must enter on their UK passport, or if they do not have a British passport, on the passport of another country with a UK certificate of entitlement”.
It said British nationals cannot apply for an ETA but did not answer a question about why that was the case, why they needed to travel on a British passport, or how long it takes to get a new passport at the moment.
“We have been posting about the requirements for dual nationals since 18 August 2025. There have articles on the UK government’s website, Gov.uk, since 29 May 2025,” said the spokeswoman. “We encourage British nationals who plan to visit the UK to apply for, or renew their passports, as soon as possible.”
- RNZ