Passports

[benj1980]

I'm contemplating renewing our British passports, but not really fussed! Although we do like to travel a bit we have Australian passports. I'm aware some countries you pay a tourist or temporary visa fee and others you don't dependent on your passport. So my question is what countries do you pay visa fees on an Aussie passport and which ones on a British? For example, I believe you don't require a visa on a British passport when going to Vietnam, but you do with an Australian passport?

[rammygirl]

Yes there are one or two advantages. It was much easier for us to get a visa for India last year than our Uk mates who we met there.

It is

On 13/05/2023 at 10:08, InnerVoice said:

Thanks for the clarification. If you don't mind me asking how long did you live in the UK for, and do you think it was a good decision? In hindsight do you think you'd have been better off selling your Australian property, investing the money, and then buying a new home on your return? I assume you were renting while you living in the UK, so your Australian home remained your primary residence throughout?

cheaper than the Australian one and easy to renew online. If you let it lapse too long you can’t just renew it and it is a more expensive and difficult process.

 

[Marisawright]

8 hours ago, benj1980 said:

I'm contemplating renewing our British passports, but not really fussed! Although we do like to travel a bit we have Australian passports.

Are you never planning to visit the UK again?  As a British citizen you are required to enter the UK on a British passport.   

There have been a few discussions about this on the forums.  If you arrive on your Australian passport, they can't deny you entry, but you may be delayed.  

[InnerVoice]

9 hours ago, benj1980 said:

I'm contemplating renewing our British passports, but not really fussed! Although we do like to travel a bit we have Australian passports. I'm aware some countries you pay a tourist or temporary visa fee and others you don't dependent on your passport. So my question is what countries do you pay visa fees on an Aussie passport and which ones on a British? For example, I believe you don't require a visa on a British passport when going to Vietnam, but you do with an Australian passport?

That's true, which surprised me because when I visited Vietnam in 2007 on my British passport I needed a visa.

As Marisa has implied, if you plan to visit the UK in the next 10 years then you should definitely renew your UK passports. If you don't, then personally I wouldn't bother. You won't find many countries in the world that you're likely to want to visit that have different entry requirements for UK and Australian citizens (clearly Vietnam is an exception). Based on the Henley Passport Index, an Australian passport allows visa-free access to 186 countries and a UK passport 188 countries. If you are interesting in making a comparison between the two, then here are a couple of links to visa requirement pages on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_Australian_citizens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_British_citizens

[Blue Manna]

Are the photos on Australian and British passports the same size now?

[benj1980]

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Are you never planning to visit the UK again?  As a British citizen you are required to enter the UK on a British passport.   

There have been a few discussions about this on the forums.  If you arrive on your Australian passport, they can't deny you entry, but you may be delayed.  

How would they know? Wouldn't I just be in a different line? I have lots of friends who haven't renewed their British passports and have been back multiple times, never had an issue or delay other than queueing in a different line.

[rammygirl]

3 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Are you never planning to visit the UK again?  As a British citizen you are required to enter the UK on a British passport.   

There have been a few discussions about this on the forums.  If you arrive on your Australian passport, they can't deny you entry, but you may be delayed.  

Is that a new thing? We entered on our Aus passports as visitors no issues. 

[rammygirl]

1 hour ago, Blue Manna said:

Are the photos on Australian and British passports the same size now?

When I did mine it was really easy just took a picture on my mobile waist up, they sort the size.  You just upload a digital picture. 

[Nemesis]

7 hours ago, rammygirl said:

Is that a new thing? We entered on our Aus passports as visitors no issues. 

At present there is no requirement to enter on your UK passport.

However when the UK introduces the ETA system over the next couple of years that may well change. The point is coming where everyone on an Aussie passport, (along with others who are currently visa-free) will need an ETA to enter the UK. Presumably this will work like the similar systems in Australia, Canada and the US, in that if you hold citizenship in that country, you cannot get a visa/ETA, but must use the passport of the country you are entering.

https://www.etauk.uk/

[calNgary]

8 hours ago, rammygirl said:

Is that a new thing? We entered on our Aus passports as visitors no issues. 

Same here,,, Twice and no issues either time... I think Marissa is pointing out the very worse case scenrio, which is that you 'could' be questioned meaning a delay of probably half an hour to an hour.

   Cal x

[Quoll]

20 hours ago, Blue Manna said:

Are the photos on Australian and British passports the same size now?

No.

[Parley]

23 hours ago, Marisawright said:

Are you never planning to visit the UK again?  As a British citizen you are required to enter the UK on a British passport.   

There have been a few discussions about this on the forums.  If you arrive on your Australian passport, they can't deny you entry, but you may be delayed.  

I think you have made the rookie assumption that because that is Australia's policy it must be the same in UK.

Actually there is nothing the UK law or regulations that says this.

If you are travelling for a holiday to the UK for less than 6 months it is fine to use your Australian passport.

[InnerVoice]

5 hours ago, Parley said:

I think you have made the rookie assumption that because that is Australia's policy it must be the same in UK.

Actually there is nothing the UK law or regulations that says this.

If you are travelling for a holiday to the UK for less than 6 months it is fine to use your Australian passport.

I thought the same too, but then I've only ever entered the UK on my UK passport. It's expired now though and I have no intention of ever renewing it, unless I need it to claim the UK state pension if/when that day arrives.

Edited September 5, 2023 by InnerVoice

[Quoll]

4 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

I thought the same too, but then I've only ever entered the UK on my UK passport. It's expired now though and I have no intention of ever renewing it, unless I need it to claim the UK state pension if/when that day arrives.

There are mutterings that they will make entry for UK citizens on a UK passport mandatory in the near future. 

[InnerVoice]

39 minutes ago, Quoll said:

There are mutterings that they will make entry for UK citizens on a UK passport mandatory in the near future. 

There are about 50 countries in the world which don't allow dual citizenship. Imagine if the UK became one of them? We'd all have to give up our British passports, and more-importantly our UK state pension entitlement. The government would save millions. I'm rather surprised they haven't done it already!

[BendigoBoy]

9 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

There are about 50 countries in the world which don't allow dual citizenship. Imagine if the UK became one of them? We'd all have to give up our British passports, and more-importantly our UK state pension entitlement. The government would save millions. I'm rather surprised they haven't done it already!

I'd have renounced my citizenship already, except it's money better spent on Sunday lunches than giving it to HM Treasury to fritter away.

[Parley]

9 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

There are about 50 countries in the world which don't allow dual citizenship. Imagine if the UK became one of them? We'd all have to give up our British passports, and more-importantly our UK state pension entitlement. The government would save millions. I'm rather surprised they haven't done it already!

It is not going to happen. People have paid money into a scheme to receive a pension. It is not going to be stopped.

[InnerVoice]

3 minutes ago, Parley said:

It is not going to happen. People have paid money into a scheme to receive a pension. It is not going to be stopped.

It's a form of taxation, not a scheme, and you only qualify for benefits when you meet certain criteria.

[FirstWorldProblems]

6 minutes ago, Parley said:

It is not going to happen. People have paid money into a scheme to receive a pension. It is not going to be stopped.

When they paid that money in they expected to be allowed to retire at 65. That’s changed. 
 

It wouldn’t be all that hard to build a media campaign to get support for this would it?  Something along the lines of “people who retire in the U.K. put 100% of their pension back into the economy by spending their money here, benefiting us all. Those drawing money from the U.K. public purse whilst living elsewhere are hurting patriotic Brits by giving that money to foreign economies, weakening Glorious Britain”.  

[BendigoBoy]

13 minutes ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

When they paid that money in they expected to be allowed to retire at 65. That’s changed. 
 

It wouldn’t be all that hard to build a media campaign to get support for this would it?  Something along the lines of “people who retire in the U.K. put 100% of their pension back into the economy by spending their money here, benefiting us all. Those drawing money from the U.K. public purse whilst living elsewhere are hurting patriotic Brits by giving that money to foreign economies, weakening Glorious Britain”.  

Sounds pretty par for the course for how Blighty's gone over the past ten years or so...

[Parley]

Loads of countries pay pensions or equivalents to expat retirees living overseas.

There are thousands of US citizens retired to Thailand and the Phillipines where rent is cheap and they can live comfortably on just their social security checks.

It works well for people with no other assets due to some hard luck story or another.

[benj1980]

And I thought this discussion was about passports! 

[Nemesis]

3 hours ago, Quoll said:

There are mutterings that they will make entry for UK citizens on a UK passport mandatory in the near future. 

See my post above. When they bring in the new ETA for non-visa countries, its almost certain that UK citizens will not be able to hold an ETA, so will need to travel on UK passports. Similar thing happened in Canada a couple of years ago hen the system was introduced there. Caught out a lot of Canadian dual-citizens who didn't have Canadian passports. 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Nemesis