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Hi,

We found ourselves in a bit of a bind. My wife recently naturalised as a British citizen and obtained her certificate at the ceremony. Unfortunately the ceremony was scheduled so close to our planned holiday that it did not leave enough time to apply for a British passport. She still has her Ukrainian passport but she has, as instructed, cut up her ILR card.

Is it advisable to travel under these circumstances? I've heard differing opinions...

macduy wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:12 pm

Hi,

We found ourselves in a bit of a bind. My wife recently naturalised as a British citizen and obtained her certificate at the ceremony. Unfortunately the ceremony was scheduled so close to our planned holiday that it did not leave enough time to apply for a British passport. She still has her Ukrainian passport but she has, as instructed, cut up her ILR card.

Is it advisable to travel under these circumstances? I've heard differing opinions...

The airline is unlikely to permit your wife to board the return flight.

The certificate is not a travel document.

What date was her ceremony and what date is the intended holiday?

If you knew you had travel plans, maybe you should have booked and paid for a private ceremony sooner than the group one.

Thank you for your replies. In the past, our friend (perhaps luckily) has boarded a BA flight with just the certificate. If she were to bring other proof of her legal stay in the UK (e.g. past copy of the ILR, marriage certificate, employment contract..), would they perhaps let her board? We are flying EasyJet.
We wouldn't want the effort and money that was sunk into this holiday to go entirely to waste, but I understand this is totally on us. If there are other options we could take, we are eager to listen.

In the worst case, what are the options for applying for a first British passport from abroad?

macduy wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:30 pm

Thank you for your replies. In the past, our friend (perhaps luckily) has boarded a BA flight with just the certificate. If she were to bring other proof of her legal stay in the UK (e.g. past copy of the ILR, marriage certificate, employment contract..), would they perhaps let her board? We are flying EasyJet.
We wouldn't want the effort and money that was sunk into this holiday to go entirely to waste, but I understand this is totally on us. If there are other options we could take, we are eager to listen.

In the worst case, what are the options for applying for a first British passport from abroad?

Your friend got lucky. The naturalization certificate is not a travel document so no airline working normally would allow you to board with that.

Easyjet is a low cost busy company. Their agents won't have the patience to listen to your story. They need to see either a VISA or a passport. They won't entertain conversations about marriage, employment contracts, copies of past leaves... You are just going to get denied unless a miracle happens.

You can't apply for a passport from a holiday destination. It may take weeks to get it. You may need an interview... etc. Especially for a first passport. So it's not practically feasible.

I am sorry, I don't have a solution here and I don't believe thee is any apart from applying for passport first then only when you have it in hand going to your holiday destination.

Stupid will almost certainly refuse to board you if you are a non visa national and do not have a valid visa/BRP as they risk being heavily fined. If she is refused boarding and you failed to find a solution with the Airline, she can apply for certificate of entitlement sticker BUT do not apply for the first passport from abroad as it has a lengthy process and will raise all sort of issues with HMPO.

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode/apply ... ntitlement

P.S. The time spent waiting for COE aboard in a holiday destination may cost you much more than you are willing to lose now