Two more British teenagers have found themselves unable to return to the UK because of new Home Office border rules on British dual nationals that kicked in in February 2026.
Their cases emerged just hours after reports a 16-year-old British schoolgirl was blocked from boarding a flight in Denmark home to the UK because she was a dual national and did not have a British passport. She has missed two weeks of school so far.
Another 19-year-old student from Oxfordshire is stuck in Madrid after a university-organised trip to the Spanish capital. She is part French and had not yet obtained a British passport to comply with the new rules, which require British dual nationals to present a passport, new or expired, or certificate of entitlement to airlines before boarding flights to the UK.
Another young woman, an 18-year-old British Danish national, was left stranded in Mumbai where she and a group of friends were transiting after a two-week holiday at the end of February.
Air India refused to board her because she did not have her British passport with her, separating her from her friends who returned home.
She had travelled out of the country before the rule change on 25 February and was not aware of the need to bring her British passport. Her parents sent her a photo scan of the British passport and tried, without success, to get assistance from the British embassy in Mumbai.
Another woman, in Yorkshire, has been left heartbroken after her son, who has been living in New Zealand since 2018, cancelled a flight due to arrive in the UK on Friday because he did not have British passports for his two children.
The Home Office was approached for comment. It has consistently declined to comment on individual cases. It has said on multiple occasions that it notified the public of the new rules with postings on its gov.uk website page in October 2024.
Last week, in a U-turn, it said EU citizens with settled status in the UK could travel on their second passport. This does not apply to their children, however.
The Home Office has also refused all calls to introduce a grace period to allow those who did not read gov.uk, and who have now learned of the rules in the media, to get passports.