How to leave UK as soon as possible? (EEA national, but no travel document)

The proper way to leave a country where you are stuck without travel document is to get an emergency travel document from your country’s embassy/consulate. Having to wait a month to get one when there is apparently no doubt regarding your identity and citizenship is unheard of for me, the Polish diplomatic service seems completely dysfunctional. I am not a Polish citizen but when I needed one from my own country it took one business day (and a week-end of anxiety because while I could contact the embassy on Saturday, they needed to contact people back home during business hours to verify my data before doing anything).

That said, even if your consulate is unhelpful or disorganised, you depend on them when you are abroad so stay calm and polite, never get aggressive and try to work with them even if they make you jump through hoops. Explain your difficulties, keep asking what you could do, if there are alternatives, etc. If they want you to write an appeal/request, do that. Even if you don’t have enough time and money to produce a legally sound document, a sincere and heartfelt letter might give them the cover they need to make an exception for you.

If you positively cannot get anything from the Polish embassy, traveling to Poland on your own would seem very difficult.

• Leaving the UK is not a big problem per se. Historically, passports were invented specifically to prevent people from leaving their country but today it’s regarded as a basic human right, you don’t need to fulfill many requirements like you do when entering a country. Consequently, exit checks are not usually designed to stop people from leaving but only to record overstayers and/or catch people who are sought by the justice system. The border guards will however want to establish your ID to be able to check whether there is an arrest warrant or some sort of warning about you.

• In your situation, one additional issue is that you are a minor. Border guards might be concerned that you have run away or are otherwise in danger. Anything you can get from your parents/legal guardian (ideally an official document if there is such a thing in Poland or a notarised/translated letter but if nothing else have your parents fax over a handwritten note or something).

• If anything, it should be easier to enter your own country rather than another Schengen country. If you manage to show up at a Polish airport, border guards might keep you a few hours to make verifications but they will eventually let you in (plus you speak the language so communication should be easier). In some cases, a recently expired passport is officially accepted so if you have one it might be enough to board a plane and enter Poland without issues.

• The problem is that if you are leaving by air, the airline will want to establish your identity for security reasons and to make sure you are entitled to enter your destination (because they are liable for a fine if they did not check properly). Without some sort of travel document (even an expired one would be better than none), it will be nearly impossible to board an international flight out of the UK.

• I don’t think the lack of control on internal borders in the Schengen area helps you much. It’s true that if you make it to France or the Netherlands, it should be easy to go to Poland. Even in the current context, I would not expect any ID check on this itinerary. But you first need to enter the Schengen area itself.

  As EU citizen, there are special rules that might work to your advantage but in principle you still need an official ID card or passport (also to prove you are an EU citizen in the first place!) If you want to try it anyway (ideally at a train station rather than by air, to minimize cost/damage and avoid the middle man), try to take as many documents as possible (expired passport/ID, anything with your name and photo on it, copy of your birth act to establish your citizenship…) but it’s a long shot.

• Alternatively, you might try to leave by ferry or by train (e.g. Eurostar). In that case, French and British border controls are co-located so you might be able to talk to a French border guard instead of dealing with an airline employee. But you still have no way to prove you are entitled to enter the Schengen area.

• Finally, one easy way to leave the UK is through the Republic of Ireland. There are no border checks there but once you are in Ireland, you have the same problem with airlines and the Schengen area all over again. One small difference is that there are ferries to France and I am not sure whether there are exit checks so you might be able to make it to the French territory. But you still have to deal with the Schengen entry check there. You could also give the Polish embassy in Dublin a shot, maybe they are more helpful than in London.

I am not sure how much of this is possible now, but:

1. You should file a police report for your lost passport (even if its expired).
2. Take the police report to the Polish embassy and ask for an emergency travel document. Don’t ask for a replacement passport (which may take longer). You should also provide some proof of your Polish nationality; but start off with who you are – since it seems you have no proof of identification right now. Anything with your name and picture that was issued in Poland – you should bring with you to the Polish embassy.

The main issue is that you need to convince the border authorities that you are entitled entry into the Schengen zone (or whatever other country you are trying to get to).

As you have no government-issued identification, this should be your primary focus.

Even if you were able to exit the UK without any documentation, as the UK is not party to the Schengen agreement – you would be subject to immigration controls and not having a way to prove who you are will lead to major problems.