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But is that different from Settled Status, which is part of the Brexit agreement?
And she’s never been asked for proof at Edinburgh or London – once, in Edinburgh, when there was a technical problem, the officer said: Just go through, I’ve seen your house in the telly!
The problem is not with immigration in UK, but more with the airport staff outside UK. Best to read up on what evidence your partner can produce.
Two years ago I was asked to show proof at MAD.
Can Mrs Mack not get a UK passport? Not to be produced in Spain, of course, where apparently they take a very dim view of anyone aspiring to be anything other than Spanish!
@inman – you’re quite right: I was seeing naturalisation+passport as a package deal!
@Colin_Mac: “passport endorsement” is also ending, so I would have a quick look.
Our move to the online system was awful, with weeks of back and forth due to the IT system (which they admitted). OH is in Brazil now, but has also taken his employment contract and the
deeds to the house just in case!Amazing how people moan so much about the U.K. yet want to continue living here! When he lived here in the 70s the HO used to send the local police to interview him once or twice a year to ensure that he was still in his job of technical translator which couldn’t be performed by anyone else, being married to my mum didn’t seem to cut any ice back then!
I was visited by the Guardia Civil when my Spanish papers arrived, to see if I
was hiding any other family members at home. The hilarious thing was, my apartment
measured about 35m2, so they just opened the wardrobe and left!https://londres.consuladoportugal.mne.gov.pt/en/the-consulate/news/birth-registration-online
So a fairly straightforward process. However, it looks as though Portugal follows the UK policy of making you pay through the nose for a passport – 100 euros if you apply from abroad! Spanish one was only 28 euros.
Apparently problem is actually here in the UK with the London consulate. Consulate is overloaded/in demand, and appointments released once per week and based off old archaic system.
Can’t get a passport appointment until you have an ID card on your person, can’t get an ID card until you are a registered citizen (also needs appointment). All of course to be dealt with separately and takes time. This sounds quite a common experience amongst European friends from Greece, Romania, Belgium, Cyprus etc.
For Portuguese, it is easier to circumvent by just going to one of Lisbon or Porto airports and applying there. Probably cheaper and quicker as passport is received within 3 days.
Spain, whilst cheaper, I am sure is not that much easier.
OH is an EU Citizen with Settled Status.
He travels back and forth to Portugal regularly, and we have been to the US and Japan together since Brexit without any problems.
Tonight, we thought he was going to be denied boarding our flight from Nagoya to Helsinki and on to LHR.
Took 25 minutes to get Swissport (on behalf of Finnair) to check us in. They only did this once he accessed his UKVI account on the .gov website. He (and I) were totally unaware of any need to prove settled status when flying back to the UK.
Warning to any other EU Citizens with SS who are also unaware. Make sure you know how to access you UKVI account and get a share code which check in staff can use.
When SS was first introduced, we thought that all checks could be done by reference to the passport. Things have maybe changed.
Thanks for this warning. I have (only) an Irish passport and thus no need for any paperwork to demonstrate my residency in the UK. That’s been often problematic when European customs officers see my UK-bound boarding pass and say “How do I know you’re not just going to Ireland with these goods?” So I have little faith that an Irish citizen’s special status in the UK will be understood by ground handling agents worldwide.
But customs and immigration are different entities – surely the rights of Irish citizens to enter the UK are well documented and understood? This is entirely separate from the EU, Brexit and the forthcoming ETA requirement. Otherwise the thousands of Irish passport holders who fly to the UK for various reasons would have been having issues by now?
But customs and immigration are different entities – surely the rights of Irish citizens to enter the UK are well documented and understood? This is entirely separate from the EU, Brexit and the forthcoming ETA requirement. Otherwise the thousands of Irish passport holders who fly to the UK for various reasons would have been having issues by now?
Well documented and understood in the UK and Ireland yes. I wonder would a ground handling agent in Osaka be as understanding. Oh well, nothing I can do about it as no document to apply for.
But Irish passport holders travel from outside the CTA all the time. I’m assuming these officials have some sort of reference material and aren’t just expected to know it all off by heart?
You could always show the UK gov page which explains it!
This story reminds me of a time I crossed the land border between Guyana and Brasil at Lethem, on my UK passport along with an Irish passport holder and randomly some Cubans.
The Brasilian immigration officer had no idea about the difference between the two countries (UK and Ireland), and kept looking cluelessly at the front covers of both passports and clearly trying to look for a photo that matched on his screen with the country name adjacent. I think the reference to Northern Ireland on the front of the British passport also really threw him.
He spoke absolutely no English and inevitably gave up when we just kept repeating “UK” (a place he had clearly never heard of so had to default to England) and “Ireland” in Portuguese.
But Irish passport holders travel from outside the CTA all the time. I’m assuming these officials have some sort of reference material and aren’t just expected to know it all off by heart?
You could always show the UK gov page which explains it!
They have access to an online system, and likely they have a print out on a binder somewhere in the check in desks.
But customs and immigration are different entities – surely the rights of Irish citizens to enter the UK are well documented and understood? This is entirely separate from the EU, Brexit and the forthcoming ETA requirement. Otherwise the thousands of Irish passport holders who fly to the UK for various reasons would have been having issues by now?
Immigration and customs haven’t been different entities on these islands for at least ten years. UK Border Force is responsible for controls on both people and goods entering the UK.
He didn’t come to the UK as an Immigrant. He came 27 years ago as a Migrant Worker exercising his rights under the Treaty of Rome, and has been domiciled here ever since.
His Settled Status notification said nothing about him being an Immigrant or needing a visa.
Does your OH knows what you think of immigrants like him?
It’s basically code for white European immigrants to say they shouldn’t be considered same as non white immigrants. Unfortunately there are a few.
My geography teacher at school was as white Anglo-Saxon as it is possible to be, but she was born in Nigeria when her parents were working there. Her only citizenship is British and her parents returned to the UK when she was 6 months. She did not step foot outside the UK again until she was 30. For many bureaucratic purposes she was treated as an immigrant, while for others it simply did not compute that a white person could be born in a “black” country (despite the existence of apartheid South Africa at the time!)
Why and how would a British citizen, with a British passport since birth, be treated as an immigrant???
Treated how, as an immigrant, exactly? I can’t think of any bureaucratic purposes which depend on where you were born, rather than which nationality you hold. Plenty of white British nationals were born in “the colonies” and other black-majority countries historically so it can’t have been completely alien to the authorities. For example, actress Joanna Lumley was born in India, and writer J R R Tolkien in South Africa.
Good to see some people are finding my post useful. If it just helps one person to avoid the problems we had last night, then it was worth it.
Those of you who are looking for an argument can sod off.
There has been plenty of communication about it. If he has a paper ILR, there is no change. If he has a biometric card, the expiry date should’ve rung alarm bells for you.Neither he nor I have seen any communication about these changes. HMG could/should have sent a message to all EU Citizens with Settled Status.
He never got a paper ILR. He applied using the (Android) app before we left the EU, and the notification was by email.
He was not issued with a biometric card.
He is not the only one unaware of the changes.
No immigrant requesting settled status got any paper or card. It was always all online.
There have been no changes.Of course there have been changes. The introduction of ETAs means airlines are now checking proof of entitlement to enter the UK before allowing boarding, whereas they didn’t before.
But whereas the ETA is electronically linked to the passport, meaning the check is automated for EU visitors, it seems there is no automated check for EU citizens who are in the UK with settled status.
EU Citizens with Settled Status are at a disadvantage, and have not been personally notified of the changes.
Nobody has been personally notified about the ETIAS system, either, there are always going to be changes taking place and ultimately it’s down to the passenger to ensure they meet all the requirements.
I don’t think it was ever promised to individuals with settled status that everything which applied to citizens would apply to them – this was never the case when freedom of movement existed. SS has effectively replaced the EU treaty rights which allowed EU nationals to live and work in the U.K., it’s not citizenship.
It’s the same for U.K. nationals who have settled in other EU countries, in some instances they are treated very differently from the citizens of those countries.
Of course there have been changes. The introduction of ETAs means airlines are now checking proof of entitlement to enter the UK before allowing boarding, whereas they didn’t before.
But whereas the ETA is electronically linked to the passport, meaning the check is automated for EU visitors, it seems there is no automated check for EU citizens who are in the UK with settled status.
EU Citizens with Settled Status are at a disadvantage, and have not been personally notified of the changes.
Like it was mentioned before, Home Office always advised everyone with (Pre-)Settled Status to have the share code at hand when travelling. The “The 3 million” organisation to support EU citizens in the UK have always said the same too.
The “changes” I was referring too has about having papers or cards in any case. That never existed for people with (Pre-)Settled Status, it always online only.
My problem is paying for all the passports, as we are a bit addicted to travel and already have all the maternity leave trips planned… I wasn’t planning on paying for 3 passports, only 1 or 2. It’s just I don’t trust the UK right to remain system if baby only got PT passport and we cannot wait 12+ months for the Irish.
First world problems and all… I am definitely definitely not complaining.
You do realise that the baby’s British passport costs £61.50? There are no other costs as the baby is automatically British. I’m not sure about your finances but just saying this in case you misunderstood the cost.
There is no question of “right to remain”. The baby is a British Citizen and has undeniable right to remain irrespective of the passport. The only way it can be revoked is by the Home Secretary or an act of Parliament. Border officials have no authority over British Citizens but they can ask you to establish citizenship of the baby, in case if the baby is travelling with a non-British passport. For that you just need to keep a copy of the birth certificate and your passport.
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