By Katie Todd of RNZ
Travel agents say they are fielding queries from panicked people who think they might be caught out by new United Kingdom passport rules.
From February 25, expat British and Irish dual citizens are required to use their British or Irish passport to enter the UK, or pay more than $1300 for a 'certificate of entitlement' to use in their New Zealand passport.
Alternatively, they can pay about $1100 to renounce their citizenship.
Previously, dual citizens have been able to visit the UK on a New Zealand passport, more recently with an ETA, an electronic online declaration costing about $37.
Tori Keating, managing director of Queenstown travel agency xtravel, said the rules had left "an awful lot of people quite confused".
"I actually had a client book her trip to the UK to visit family and friends for the 25th of February literally the day before the announcement came out. So she had to get herself a passport. She only had a four-week turnaround for her passport to come through, but now the turnaround time is extending out as literally hundreds of thousands of people are trying to organise passports for trips that they have pre-booked this year."
To start the passport process, people had to track down their birth certificate or apply for one in the UK, she said.
"That gets sent over, then you have to send it back so that you can actually do your passport application."
She was trying to find out how it would affect people on a cruise ship travelling around the world, who boarded last month and were due to arrive in the UK after the deadline.
"It's thrown a huge curveball for those who may be caught out."
The British High Commissioner has encouraged people to use an online tool to check if they have British citizenship.
Lorence said a key point of confusion was whether people entitled to apply for a UK passport needed to apply, including children and descendants of citizens.
"Nowhere does it say you must now apply for a British passport to come to the UK. Nowhere is that in black and white. But there won't be any case studies until after the 25th of February," she said.
Dunedin travel agent Rosann Connolly-George, of Vincent George Travel, said about a third of her clients heading to the UK this year had already been in touch, worried they would be affected.
Some were thinking about avoiding the UK altogether, she said.
"A couple of our clients are actually rethinking about going into the United Kingdom and focusing more on the European side of things - which is a real shame for the tourism there."
UK border system goes digital
The new passport rules were part of what British High Commissioner Iona Thomas called a broader shift towards a more streamlined immigration and border-control system.
The UK government was rolling out a fully digital system, replacing physical documents with online records of immigration status and digital travel permission.
Disability advocate Blake Forbes said he was concerned about what that could mean for people who were "digitally isolated" and less computer-savvy, including elderly people and those with disabilities.
"I would like to see them just keep those more non-technological options for a little bit longer."
Earlier, the British High Commission said it had put out notifications last year to make people aware of the change.
Thomas said she was sorry dual citizens were finding the new passport rules hard to adjust to.
Dual citizens warned to sort passports well ahead of travel
Dual citizens who did not have travel plans should still be aware of the change, Keating said.
"It's no longer going to be enough to be able to get into the UK urgently with a New Zealand passport, even if you try and say that you didn't realise you had the citizenship, you don't want the citizenship.
"All of the processes, all of the steps need to have been taken before you can actually board the plane. And in fact, you won't even be allowed to board the plane if you don't have your UK passport or your Irish passport.
"Being prepared right now gives you more flexibility to be able to move quickly if needed."
People with queries should not rely on AI or social media for answers, she said.
"Start with the British consulate, or the Irish consulate," she said.
