Source: Radio New Zealand
Older New Zealanders with British heritage are grappling with border rule changes. 123RF
Older New Zealanders with British heritage are grappling with border rule changes – and question marks over citizenship – as they prepare for visits to see relatives in the United Kingdom.
UK migrants have discovered they need to get British passports to go on holiday to Britain, or to visit elderly parents and grandparents, from the end of next month.
Many families emigrated in the post-war period. Their children can be citizens by descent but others will not because of when and where they were born, said British High Commissioner Iona Thomas on Wednesday.
Travellers should check online if they are uncertain about their citizenship or their children’s, she added.
Younger generations of UK migrants have discovered they may need to get British passports for their families, too. Citizens can instead get a certificate of entitlement, but that is more expensive than buying a UK passport.
Wellington-based Thomas said the change to ETAs and passport rules from 25 February is for security reasons. “I do understand that travelling can be very stressful and making arrangements for travel can be difficult. And so I am sorry that people are finding these changes difficult but it is important that people travel with the right documentation all the time.”
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Iona Thomas (L) and Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro in 2022. Supplied
In the numbers
The High Commissioner did not say whether demand for passports had risen, what processing timeframes now looked like, or who was classed as a citizen.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics figures from its 2021 census showed New Zealanders were the most likely migrants in the UK to have dual citizenship (49.2 percent), ahead of South Africa (49.0 percent) and Australia (47.4 percent).
The proportion of dual citizenship among non-UK-born other passport holders has increased since 2011.
In 2008, the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) estimated the country’s diaspora population, finding that at least 80 percent of New Zealanders had some British ancestry – higher even than Australia.
“Some 17 percent (estimated) are entitled to British passports,” said the FCO, adding “Britain remains a favoured destination for young New Zealanders for their ‘Overseas Experience’.”
If accurate, the estimate would mean 765,000 people in New Zealand needed passports if they wanted to visit Britain.
The New Zealand census showed UK citizens numbered about 208,000 in 2023, although it is not known how many people instead chose the ‘New Zealand European’ option in the count.
Across the Tasman, with a larger population, more people were affected by the passport changes. About 1.1 million people there were born in the UK, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 figures. Their median age was 59.4 years. The British still made up the biggest foreign-born nationality in both countries.
One traveller said social media comments from Australia in particular suggested the ‘£10 Poms’ – named after the postwar Brits who emigrated to both New Zealand and Australia after the Second World War – were badly affected.
“A lot of these people are now in their 70s, their 80s, and they’re really, really stressing about trying to get paperwork together to go, essentially, to visit family or the relatives that they haven’t seen in decades for the last time,” she said. “It’s just all been very rushed through.”
Her primary concern, however, was knowing whether children would need British passports to travel to the UK.
“[They’re] essentially being forced to get British citizenship or get a passport now to enable their family to go and visit grandparents,” she said. “There’s lots of families that are already booked to go back and see relatives in the Easter holidays, in the July school holidays. And they don’t know whether they can actually enter the UK on their New Zealand passport. So they’re at the moment panicking and going and getting British passports because nobody can get an answer out of the British government.”
Asked for clarification on that point, Thomas said: “All British citizens must travel on UK passports. If that child is a citizen, they cannot use an ETA, and will need a British passport.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
