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I'm French/American, I hold both passports and live in the UK with pre-residency status (tied to French nationality). 5 weeks ago I went to the French Consulate to have my expired French passport renewed and according to their tracker, the new passport hasn't been produced, let alone shipped to the Consulate.

I was planning to leave for France this Saturday and return two weeks later. Can I travel to France and back on my US passport without causing too many issues? I'm particularly concerned about what it means with regards to the pre-residency status, whether that will be affected at all. I still have my expired French passport so can bring it along.

Thank you in advance.

Additional details: I will be travelling with my daughter who still has valid French passport.

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  • I'm sitting in the Eurostar waiting room having successfully gone through with my French national ID. I'd like to thank everyone who's responded! (no thanks to the French Consulate who still hasn't produced a new passport for me five and a half weeks later)
    – mjm
    Commented Jul 22, 2023 at 14:35

2 Answers 2

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I'm French/American

France is fine with dual-nationality, you can go there with absolutely no issues

I'm particularly concerned about what it means with regards to the pre-residency status, whether that will be affected at all

You can spend 2 years in a row outside the UK on a pre-settled status, a 2-week travel will not affect anything. To ease reentry, you may also use, if you hold one, a French ID card which, under your EUSS status, is valid for entry to the UK.

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  • Thank you for this information. In particular, I did not know my French ID card could still be used for such purposes. This applies even if the pre-residency started as late as August 2020?
    – mjm
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 14:33
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    Yes, it doesn't matter @mjm If you have the status, you can enter both France and the UK on an ID card. But you may struggle to convince airlines (take the Eurostar if you want a hassle-free experience) if you decide to do that
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 14:34
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    @mjm if you have trouble with the airline, you can always show them your US passport. This doesn't commit you to showing it at the passport control desk. Also note that France will accept your expired French passport if it expired less than 5 years ago: service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F35695/…
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 18:19
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    @mjm "But you may struggle to convince airlines" LOL, I can TOTALLY testify to that :D
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 10:19
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You are fine to reenter using your US passport, and this does not affect any of your rights under EUSS. If you are concerned that entering with a different passport than your EU one means you are not entering with EUSS status, that is not the case. Your EUSS status applies to you, not your passport. When you apply for settled status (or when it is automatically upgraded) the Home Office use things like tax records to confirm UK residency, not (solely) the entry/exit records for your passports, since these are often incomplete.

Using an American passport you would be fine to enter using the ePassport gates, unless your daughter is too young to use them. You may wish to register your French ID card to your UKVI account to make sure it is linked to your EUSS status in case you do need to speak to a border officer.

Note that this will make the ID card the primary document, and the one you use to log in to your UKVI account. Once you have your new French passport you should then add that document too.

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  • Thank you, I have started that process. It should be all ready for the return trip which was the one I was most worried about. Thanks a lot for your answer!
    – mjm
    Commented Jul 19, 2023 at 11:35
  • In fact they won't normally check entry-exit records, only VERY sporadically in case of well-founded suspicions of fraud. If you don't have an NI (tax) number, you'll be asked to upload things like annual bank statements (a physical transaction on one date in the UK counts as proof of residence for that month)
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21, 2023 at 10:17

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