Two more British teenagers have been stranded abroad due to new Home Office rules requiring dual nationals to present a British passport or certificate of entitlement before boarding flights to the UK. The cases emerged after reports of a 16-year-old British schoolgirl blocked from a flight in Denmark, who has now missed two weeks of school.
A 19-year-old student from Oxfordshire, Anna, is stuck in Madrid after a university trip. She is part French and had not obtained a British passport. Her mother, Rosemary, said: 'It's like they have brought in a new law and not considered the time people needed to get passports.' Another 18-year-old British-Danish national was stranded in Mumbai after Air India refused to board her; she eventually slept in the airport and caught another flight.
A Yorkshire woman, Susan, said her son cancelled a visit from New Zealand because his two children lacked British passports. 'Devastation doesn't begin to describe it,' she said. Multiple British citizens in Canada and Australia have also reported being unable to return home with newborns without British passports, which can take months to obtain.
The Home Office has declined to comment on individual cases but stated it notified the public via gov.uk in October 2024. Last week, it allowed EU citizens with settled status to travel on second passports, but this does not apply to their children. Calls for a grace period have been refused.
