Dual British-New Zealand citizens are angry and bemused after discovering they have to pay hundreds of dollars to return to their country of birth.  Travel agents are warning that many passengers are unaware of the change, which will come into effect for expat British and Irish dual citizens from next month.  While other visitors can pay $37 for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), New Zealand passport holders born in Britain will have to travel on a UK passport – and some say it is not straightforward to get one.  Vince and Diane, who live on Auckland’s North Shore, moved from England in 1966.  They were shocked to find they could no longer visit British family and friends without first applying for a UK passport; the last time they used one was 50 years ago. From the end of February, they cannot use their New Zealand passport, as UK citizens will no longer be eligible for ETAs.  Vince, who asked that his surname not be published, did not believe it when he first heard the news.  “I said, no, that’s a load of absolute rubbish. There’s no way they would do that. There’s no way they would penalise me just because I am British. So then I did some research and it is definite that on the 25th of February if you’re a dual citizen and you’re born in Britain, then you have to have a British passport.  “If you as a Kiwi [born in NZ] wanted to go to Britain, no problem at all – just use your Kiwi passport.”  It put British citizens in a worse position in their own country than visa-waiver travellers – such as New Zealand-born citizens using ETAs, he said.  His shock at the cost was matched by his outrage at the bureaucracy involved – including finding a UK passport holder to confirm his identity, form-filling, the possibility of an in-person interview at the embassy in Wellington, and having to post his New Zealand passport.  “If you don’t want to send the passport, which I didn’t, you have to send a photocopy of every page. And they make the point that even if the pages are blank, you’ve got to send a photocopy. So I sent 42 pages, 41 of which were blank. Isn’t that fantastic? So, yeah, this is bureaucracy gone mad.”  Vince considered whether he could get around the rule by hoping authorities assumed he was New Zealand-born – but then realised his NZ passport reveals he was born in the English city of Coventry.  The wait for a new British passport would be worrying for people with travel already booked or who had an emergency, he said.  A new passport seemed a better option than an alternative the UK government is offering – a “certificate of entitlement” costing £589/$1373 compared to £94.50/$220 for an adult passport – but it is still much more than an ETA (£16/$37 for two years), and a lot more work.  “Up until now, it’s cost me around about $600, copious amounts of form filling in, and now we’re still waiting to see what else they want. It has to go by special delivery – there is only one way the post office will accept old passports and that costs $121. Absolutely ridiculous. And we’re in our 80s, we’ll probably only ever go [to England] one more time.”  ‘Absolute chaos’  Another Briton – who asked only to be identified as Jane for privacy reasons – said her dual-citizen husband had lived in New Zealand for about 18 years. He was able to travel back with an ETA last time he went, and found out through social media he needs a passport the next time he returns.  They are worried that others who are making urgent trips to see old or dying relatives will find out too late about the rule change, costs and potential timeframes. Hundreds of thousands of people would be affected among Commonwealth countries and elsewhere, Jane said.  “This is what’s happening to so many expats, not just in New Zealand, but all over the world. They’re basically being forced into this because essentially, they’re not going to be able to go back to the cou...