At the beginning on February, the UK Home Office issued a warning for dual citizens travelling to the UK which caused a great deal of confusion and concern. It stated: “UK government strongly advises dual British citizens to make sure they have a valid British passport or certificate of entitlement, to avoid problems like being denied boarding when travelling to the UK from 25 February 2026.”
The Home Office went on to explain that visitors from 85 nationalities, including the United States, Canada, Spain and France, who do not need a visa would not be able to legally travel to the UK without an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) from 25 February 2026. This is a significant step towards digitising the immigration system and paves the way for a contactless UK border in the future.
Enforcing will mean that everyone who wants to travel to the UK must have digital permission through either an ETA or an eVisa. Carriers will be checking people before they travel. Since the launch of ETA in October 2023, more than 13.3 million visitors have successfully applied and benefited from faster, smoother travel. ETA is now a fundamental part of travel, including for visitors who take connecting flights and go through UK passport control.
Minister for Migration and Citizenship, Mike Tapp, said: “ETAs give us greater power to stop those who pose a threat from setting foot in the country and gives us a fuller picture of immigration.” ETAs are also better for travellers. Digitising the immigration system ensures the millions of people we welcome to the UK every year enjoy a more seamless travel experience.
Now, in response to a letter from long -standing Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale, Tapp has tried to clear up the confusion. He states in the letter seen by the Bulletin: “Thank you for your letter of 2 March on behalf of your constituent about changing travel requirements for British dual nationals.
You have asked about the measures taken in the period leading up to the enforcement of electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) to encourage British dual nationals to take the necessary actions.
"Public information strongly advising dual nationals to travel with a valid UK passport or certificate of entitlement has been available since October 2024, including official guidance on GOV.UK, and we included guidance for dual citizens in our ETA communications campaign which has been running since 2023. In November 2025, we announced the enforcement of ETA from 25 February 2026, which included information about the requirement for dual citizens. Further details can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/no-permission-no-travel-uk-set-to-enforce-eta-scheme.
"We have provided explicit written and spoken guidance to people who naturalise or register as British citizens, including through their application and at citizenship ceremonies, and since the start of the year we have also emailed people who have registered or naturalised in the last ten years where we hold useable contact details.
"All of this activity has supplemented our wider updates via GOV.UK, and engagement and promotion via Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office networks. You will know from my previous letter that we have more recently issued temporary operational guidance to carriers on the acceptance of alternative documentation. This includes carriers accepting, at their discretion, an expired UK passport (issued 1989 or later) alongside a valid non-visa national third country passport, where biographic details match.”