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A BRITISH-SPANISH dual national has been left stranded in Spain for an unknown period of time after being blocked from boarding a flight under new UK border rules.
Natasha Cochrane De La Rosa, 26, had gone through security and passport control in Amsterdam’s airport on April 2.
She was expecting to breeze through the gate and settle down in her plane seat for her flight back to London Luton, just as she had done dozens of times before.
But this time was different. To her shock, she was informed that she could not board as she did not have the necessary documentation.
She was left standing at the foot of the runway with the plane in sight but out of reach.
“It felt like all the blood just drained from my face, I had no idea what they were talking about,” she told The Olive Press this week.
READ MORE: Dual nationality? What you need to know about travelling to the UK from Spain under new ETA rules
The documentation that Cochrane De La Rosa was missing was a British or Irish passport or digital certificate of entitlement; these documents are now required for British dual nationals entering the UK following the introduction of new border control rules on February 25.
With only her Spanish passport in hand, Cochrane De La Rosa can not enter the UK.
This was something she was unaware of – and she blames UK authorities for ‘not doing the job of ensuring dual nationals were informed and had enough time to actually gather the paperwork well enough’.
“They’ve been scrutinised heavily by lawyers and advisors for not allowing a grace period and this is the perfect example of why a grace period should have been implemented,” she said, adding: “It feels like a betrayal, it feels like I’ve been tricked out of my country.”
After being denied boarding, Cochrane De La Rosa spent an extra night in Amsterdam before travelling to Spain to stay with family friends.
READ MORE: Dual nationality? What you need to know about travelling to the UK from Spain under new ETA rules
Speaking from the Sevilla home of her mother’s childhood best friend, she told The Olive Press that she ‘is lucky to be staying with people who are like family’ to her.
However, she added that while ‘Spain is a second home, it isn’t my home, it isn’t my base or my foundation’.
Cochrane De La Rosa’s home is London; she was born in Islington, educated in the capital and now lives there with her family and works for an AI company based in the city.
Despite this, since sharing her story with the BBC she has received online backlash from individuals telling her that she does not ‘belong in the UK’, that she is ‘not welcome back into the country’ and that she ‘was never British’.
Meanwhile other commenters online have told her that ‘dual nationality should be abolished’.
“It is absolutely disgusting because you cannot control what nationality your parents give you,” the Londoner said.
Her situation is not one of legality because she is a British citizen with all the rights to work in Britain, and she has paid British taxes all her life.
Instead, it is an issue of documentation as she has no British passport, nor is she in possession of the documents required to obtain the £589 digital certificate of entitlement.
Her Spanish mother and British father were unmarried when Cochrane De La Rosa was born in 1999, leaving her in a legal ‘grey area’ as historical nationality laws mean her father did not automatically pass her citizenship onto her.
Before Brexit, Cochrane De La Rosa could leave and exit the UK on her Spanish passport under free movement laws, something which she had done throughout her whole life.
She has contacted the British embassy and consulate in Spain for advice on her situation but each person she has spoken to has said that all she can do is apply for a passport or the aforementioned certificate.
This is ‘nowhere near as straightforward’ as she had hoped when she was first denied boarding as she is having to prove her mother’s legal status at the time of her birth, something which requires contacting the HMRC, banks and GPs.
In doing this, her and the lawyer, who has offered to take on her case on a pro bono basis, will be able to show that her mother was in Britain legally, something which is challenging as at the time EU free movement laws meant she did not require documentation to be in Britain as a Spaniard.
Once this information is gathered she will apply for a British passport which could take ‘months’.
“Apparently they’re denying people passports left, right and centre because of how much they’ve tightened the rules but they should have no reason to deny me,” she says.
Now as she deals with the ‘psychological damage’ of being barred from her home, all Cochrane De La Rosa can do is hope that a passport application gets approved as quickly as possible.
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She advises all British citizens without a British passport to contact their MP, read the government website, and do ‘all the due diligence before leaving the country’, even if you think you have settlement papers.
Speaking on the new border control rules, a Home Office spokesperson said that a ‘substantive’ campaign had been running since 2023 with specific guidance available for dual nationals since October 2024.
This move by the Home Office makes Britain’s dual national guidance the same as Australia’s and the US’, which also require citizens to travel on their national documents.
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