[Cherie]

A scramble for EU passports is under way after Britain’s vote to leave the union. There has been a spike in the number of online searches for “getting an Irish passport”, and some European citizens publicly offered themselves – probably jokingly – in marriage.


Ireland’s foreign ministry said it had received a significant rise in the number of Irish passport applications from Britain. It published a guide on how to obtain documents for the 430,000 Irish-born people living in England, Wales and Scotland.

Anyone with a parent born in Ireland is automatically eligible for a passport, irrespective of where they live. People with an Irish-born grandparent or a parent who had Irish citizenship at the time of their child’s birth may also qualify.

Northern Ireland residents are also entitled to citizenship. Adam Quinn tweeted: “From Belfast, proud to be British but definitely getting an Irish passport to retain EU citizenship. Lucky I can do so.”

As well as the spike in UK Google searches for “getting an Irish passport”, there was evidence that panicked expatriates were trying to acquire citizenship and naturalisation in other EU countries.

Charles Masters, a translator who can certify legal documents, said he had received six or seven applications on Friday from Brits living in France seeking French passports.


“A lot of people were thinking they wouldn’t have to worry about getting French nationality. Now all of a sudden it’s ‘Oh Jesus!’” said Masters, who lives in Burgundy.

He said getting French citizenship was relatively straightforward. You need to have lived in the country for five years and to have no criminal record. The cost is a couple of hundred euros.

Masters, who is originally from Reading, said: “I’m gutted by the result. We got French nationality ourselves two-and-a-half years ago. We were thinking: ‘You never know.’ Now ‘you never know’ has actually happened. We are in shock.”


Other people resorted to humour to disguise their frustration and disappointment at the Brexit result. Some said they were accepting proposals or were seeking sham marriages. Other EU citizens said they were taking bids.

There was a wry realisation among international travellers on Friday that having a post-Brexit British passport would mean standing in the unfashionable slow-moving non-EU queue at airports. The days of gliding through the quick lane are drawing to a end.



Looking forward to getting off a plane full of Brits and watching them queue behind the chinese guy trying to get his point across to the one immigration officer in the non EU queue while I head to my sunlounger after sailing through....