B.C. woman unable to visit dying brother, as U.K. fails to expedite passport

A B.C. woman is desperately trying to get home for her brother’s funeral—after new passport rules prevented her from being there for his final moments.

Eight days ago, Linda Cyrette’s brother Russell Sleith had a heart attack in Liverpool, England.

When her brother’s doctor urged family members to gather given his grave condition, Cyrette did the natural thing and, along with her husband, booked a flight to visit him.

But the Surrey woman’s desperate requests to British officials to expedite her passport application have been denied, leaving her to watch her brother’s final moments on FaceTime.

Now, family in the U.K. is holding off on scheduling the funeral so Cyrette can attend, with no timeline on when she’ll be able to get her U.K. passport.

“I didn’t get to go home,” Cyrette said during an interview with CTV News at her home on Thursday.

“I didn’t get to say goodbye to my brother. Now he’s passed away. I want to go home for the funeral. And at this point, I’m no further ahead.”

This comes following recent changes made by the British government that require its citizens, even dual nationals, to use a United Kingdom passport when entering the country.

Cyrette – born in Scotland and a dual British-Canadian citizen – had an application already in the system and has tried repeatedly to reach British passport officials both in Canada and the U.K. to communicate the urgency of her situation.

She says the consulate in Vancouver won’t see her without an appointment, and she can’t get through on the phone lines, making an appointment impossible to book.

CTV News reached a U.K. Home Office spokesperson by phone, who suggested Cyrette could have potentially travelled to the U.K. with her Canadian passport and an expired British passport.

But Cyrette says the U.K. passport website indicates she would be ineligible for that because her U.K. passport, which expired in 1996, is too old.

Even beyond the concern about potential denial of entry into the U.K., Cyrette says when she asked Air Canada if she would even be allowed on the plane, the airline told her it couldn’t guarantee that.

Given the uncertainty, Cyrette and her husband cancelled their plane tickets, which was possible under the cancellation insurance they had purchased.

Cyrette showed CTV News correspondence with British passport officials, in which they denied her request to accelerate her application, saying her situation didn’t meet their criteria.

Travel advisor Serina Bowles told CTV News the new rules have been causing challenges for travellers, urging anyone who potentially may need to travel to the U.K. on short notice to be aware of the changes.

“In the instances that you may need to urgently get to the U.K. or if you want to travel to the U.K. in the future, now is the time to get your passport and make sure that you have everything in order,” Bowles said.

The U.K. Home Office did not send a statement in time for deadline.

Cyrette says she has been staying up at night to try to talk to U.K. passport officials given the time difference, in the hopes that there is still a way for her to be there for her brother’s funeral.