Queensland retiree Sharon Angold has declared she is boycotting the United Kingdom in an angry protest over changes to passport regulations for dual citizens. 

Ms Angold came to Australia in 1969 with her family and is one of more than a million Britons who became known as “ten-pound Poms” after they took advantage of an organised migration scheme that cost just 10 pounds per adult.

New UK entry requirements for dual citizens mean the 67-year-old will now be required to apply for a British passport to travel to her country of birth.

“I am so angry that I reside in a Commonwealth country where the king is our reigning monarch and yet I am being singled out for having dual citizenship … It’s a money grab,” Ms Angold said.

From February 25, dual British and Australian citizens will no longer be able to enter the UK on Australian passports and must have either a British passport or a Certificate of Entitlement (COE).

Dual citizens have flooded the British High Commission and consulates with inquiries, with some scrambling to comply with new requirements for pre-booked trips.

“They’ve made a wrong call … you can imagine how many people would have to go through this and how much money they would reap from that alone,” Ms Angold said.

While she held a British passport in her 20s, Ms Angold allowed it to lapse because she got an Australian passport after becoming a citizen in 1986.

Hundreds of people concerned about the changes have contacted the ABC.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has relayed its concerns to the British High Commission and the ABC understands the information has been shared with the Home Office in the UK.

While Ms Angold wanted to visit family in the UK, she said the changes left “a bad taste” in her mouth and she planned to go to Europe instead.

“All my aunties and uncles are gone and I just have a few cousins … the cost of them going to Europe is nothing,” Ms Angold said.

‘Shocking and surprising’

Brisbane retiree Steve Tyrrell came to Australia under the same migration scheme as a 10-year-old in 1966.

His father served in WWII and wanted a “better life” for his family, bringing them here as ten-pound Poms.

“There was a lot of encouragement from Australia and England at the time to have migration out to the colonies,” he said.

Now 70, Mr Tyrrell has never held a British passport but will have to apply for one under the new rules if he wants to travel to the UK.

“I’m incensed,” he said.

Mr Tyrrell became an Australian citizen in 1983 and travelled to the UK in 1985 on his Australian passport.

“There was actually no issue at all. I was deemed an Australian because I am an Australian citizen on my passport.”

Mr Tyrrell would have to renounce his British citizenship if he wanted to travel to the UK on his Australian passport.

“I actually thought I had renounced my citizenship … when I swore allegiance to Australia.”

Mr Tyrrell said he was worried the changes might also affect his children if they ever wanted to visit the UK, as he understood they were regarded as British citizens.

“It’s annoying that to visit the place of my birth, of all the countries in the world, that they’re going to penalise me to do that and I’ll only visit probably one more time,” he said.

Mr Tyrrell said he felt the changes were at odds with Australia being a Commonwealth country.

“I see it as a money grab … there’s absolutely no goodwill attached.”

‘Tightening borders and screening’

Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the ABC the changes to UK entry requirements applied to all dual British citizens, not just Australians.

“This is a broader change that many Australian-British dual citizens are caught up in … we’ve conveyed these concerns to the British High Commission and I hope we can work through this,” she said.

Associate professor Anna Boucher, an expert in public policy from the University of Sydney, said rather than being punitive, the British government’s changes would bring them into line with other similar countries, like Australia and the United States.

“The UK, probably because of its former empire status, has just had a little bit more of an old-fashioned approach to visa and citizenship processing than other countries,” she said.

“It appears what the British government is doing is bringing itself up to the same requirements of most countries for their dual citizens, which is that essentially they have two passports if they wish to travel into that country.”

Dr Boucher said the changes needed to be seen as part of measures to tighten borders and the more rigorous screening of people.

“The UK is trying to tighten up its citizenship and immigration rules post-Brexit and to reduce the capacity for free movement.”

Dr Boucher said Australia had the same passport requirements of its dual citizens.

“If you were living in Britain and you wanted to enter Australia as a dual citizen, you will need an Australian passport to enter as a citizen, so really this is not particularly unusual with how citizenship is dealt with across a variety of countries.”

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