First British Passport

[Iman230]

Quick leading in topic from my other post

Will my spouse be able to successfully apply for a first British Passport:

1. If the Naturalisation certificate is in my spouse's Married name BUT
2. The foreign national passport is in her maiden name (but is expiring)

Also:

The ILR (BRP) is in my spouse's maiden name.

What is the correct process?

[cs95tdg]

You may want to take a look at the following thread. As your spouse's foreign passport is expiring, the easiest option appears to be having it cancelled before applying for her British passport, in her married name. This will eliminate the 'dual identity' issue highlighted by HMPO.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1196883

Note that her ILR BRP,will no longer be required for anything, as she is now naturalised as a British citizen.

[Iman230]

Wow, that's well documented!
HMPO should just apply common sense and provide the first UK Passport based on the expiration of the foreign passport.

So the ILR BRP renders useless once naturalisation.

[cs95tdg]

HMPO should just apply common sense and provide the first UK Passport based on the expiration of the foreign passport.

Yes, I don't quite understand why they require expired passports to be submitted. So the safest option is to get it cancelled through your spouses local consulate as HMPO don't consider a expired passport to be cancelled.

So the ILR BRP renders useless once naturalisation.

Yes, she can also request that HO delete her biometric details as she's naturalised.
http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 17-40.html

[Iman230]

They should review the current process so it saves time and hassle for all the new citizens to make it easier. It's hard enough to come in to the country as a spouse, then apply for Indefinite leave, then go through the process of the life in the UK and not to mention to demonstrate your English, and then go through the tracks of naturalisation and then finally be able to apply for your first passport, all very much time consuming, and costs at certain points. The whole process probably takes just over 3 years!!!

But on the flip side, I suppose it acts as a deterrent to those who want to fraud the system, but the total cost is unreal, and not to mention increasing every year.

Thanks for answering.

[noajthan]

They should review the current process so it saves time and hassle for all the new citizens to make it easier. It's hard enough to come in to the country as a spouse, then apply for Indefinite leave, then go through the process of the life in the UK and not to mention to demonstrate your English, and then go through the tracks of naturalisation and then finally be able to apply for your first passport, all very much time consuming, and costs at certain points. The whole process probably takes just over 3 years!!!

But on the flip side, I suppose it acts as a deterrent to those who want to fraud the system, but the total cost is unreal, and not to mention increasing every year.

Thanks for answering.

The linked thread (above) catches all the learnings from 4 months of stress and hassle we have had with HM PO to finally achieve a first British passport for my wife.

(it was a 6 year journey overall for my wife, following same route you have described).

Cancelling the foreign passport certainly worked for us as cancelled pasports do not have to be submitted.

Good luck with your spouse's application.

[Iman230]

They should review the current process so it saves time and hassle for all the new citizens to make it easier. It's hard enough to come in to the country as a spouse, then apply for Indefinite leave, then go through the process of the life in the UK and not to mention to demonstrate your English, and then go through the tracks of naturalisation and then finally be able to apply for your first passport, all very much time consuming, and costs at certain points. The whole process probably takes just over 3 years!!!

But on the flip side, I suppose it acts as a deterrent to those who want to fraud the system, but the total cost is unreal, and not to mention increasing every year.

Thanks for answering.

The linked thread (above) catches all the learnings from 4 months of stress and hassle we have had with HM PO to finally achieve a first British passport for my wife.

(it was a 6 year journey overall for my wife, following same route you have described).

Cancelling the foreign passport certainly worked for us as cancelled passports do not have to be submitted.

Good luck with your spouse's application.

So cancelling a foreign passport would be best course of action, and submitting the naturalisation certificate will help with the passport?

[noajthan]

So cancelling a foreign passport would be best course of action, and submitting the naturalisation certificate will help with the passport?

iman230,

Cancelling the foreign passport is one option.
The thread has other options and other people (in slightly different circumstances) are trying some of those options too.
As the policy change is new it's early days and not everyone has completed and reported on their outcomes.

I do know the route of cancelling a foreign passport is proven and acceptable to HM PO as it has worked for us.

If you do that before you apply for the British passport then the cancelled passport does not have to be mentioned nor submitted with the application to HM PO.

You will have to check if your embassy allows cancellation of a passport and how exactly to do that.

Finally, yes you will need to submit the original naturalisation certificate with the British passport application. It should be in the name you wish to naturalise in.
If all other passports are cancelled then there are no second identities for the HM PO to object to.

Good luck.

[Iman230]

Hi again
Thank you for clarifying that. When we get round to applying for the first passport we will submit other documentary evidence other than the passport which is in the maiden name to avoid any sort of issue.

We want my wife to be able to naturalise in her married surname and drop her maiden name going forward which includes the use of the married surname on the new British passport.

I just hope that we can do all this without a deed poll as most of her documents for the UK are all in her married surname bar the details from her foreign docs.

[noajthan]

Hi again
Thank you for clarifying that. When we get round to applying for the first passport we will submit other documentary evidence other than the passport which is in the maiden name to avoid any sort of issue.

We want my wife to be able to naturalise in her married surname and drop her maiden name going forward which includes the use of the married surname on the new British passport.

I just hope that we can do all this without a deed poll as most of her documents for the UK are all in her married surname bar the details from her foreign docs.

As long as the existing passport (in maiden name) is cancelled before you apply (not just expired) it does not need to be submitted.

If all other documents are in married name that clearly aligns with your intentions to use married name in future; it should be a straightforward application.

My daughter's case was as simple as that (all documents in same surname) and took just 18 days for the application to be processed and a British passport issued.

For my wife the documents didn't match up (we didn't know about the new names policy & passport guidance notes are not clear about it); it took 4 months to sort out.

Good luck.

[Iman230]

Thanks for your reply.

The only document that will show her married surname will be the naturalisation certificate, and maybe her bank records.

Lets hope the Cancelled foreign passport process helps have her British passport being issued.

Thanks again.