fady1 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 09, 2025 6:00 pm
Hello, hope all is well. I've been recently naturalized as an Irish Citizen and I'm in the process to obtain my Irish passport. In the meantime I was hoping to visit London in UK and was wondering if I can do so without the passport. I did read somewhere that I can do so with another form of identity to prove that I'm in fact Irish, so was wondering if this is possible and if yes, what would constitue such an identity. Please let me know based on your experience. Thank you.
Regards,
Fady
If you are travelling by ferry you are unlikely to be asked by anyone for proof and so you are likely fine. If you are travelling by plane there are two groups who may ask you for proof of right to entry to UK. First the airline. Depends on the airline, but they may choose to accept a drivers licence that lists a place of birth in the UK or Ireland. They rarely accept a naturalisation certificate, but you can check their policy. Second, immigration officials in the UK or Ireland. UK officials are meant to accept a naturalisation certificate, but this can be hit and miss. Irish immigration officials almost always do. You are unlikely to even come across a UK official. You are more likely to come across an Irish official on the way back.
Note that some people are fond of saying an Irish or UK driving licence can work. This is only true in practice if it lists your place of birth as being in the UK or Ireland, or the airline official can't be bothered to read it. (The fact that a birth place of UK or Ireland doesn't necessarily make you Irish or British is neither here nor there - airlines are willing to overlook this and just accept that it does.) As your place of birth doesn't change after you've been naturalised, licences often don't ever work for naturalised citizens; they'll pretty much always need a passport.
Of course, if your birth passport gives you visa free access to the UK you can use that. If both your birth passport and your naturalisation certificate are with the Irish Passport service, and your licence shows a birth place outside Ireland or the UK, you are probably limited to the ferry to get to London unless you feel like taking a risk.
Tbere'll always be someone who manages to move through the Common Travel Area without showing confirmed documents to anyone - but that's luck rather than a reliable approach.
