Passports Needed for Dual National to Get British Passport

[Richard W]

I was updating myself about names on British passports and I came across the following weird statement from Appendix A at Change of name guidance for official documents:

8.2 Being in possession of an existing passport or the ability to obtain a passport from another country is part of the decision making process in considering an application for a British passport. It is an important element of the identity confirmation process.
8.3 Failure to disclose this information during the application process is a criminal offence and may render the applicant subject to criminal prosecution. HMPO will consider whether the matter should be referred for criminal investigation and whether the existing passport should be withdrawn. A withdrawal of the passport would be on the grounds of:

I wondered where this information was being requested, and in the on-line application form for a British passport I found the following instruction:

Dual nationals:

Applying from the UK - you must send us the original non-British passport and provide the number below.

Are they seriously now saying that dual nationals who have only ever held British passports must now attempt to obtain a passport of another nationality? There's no "if any" qualification to the instruction.

At least those non-Irish nationals entitled to Irish nationality aren't obliged obtain the nationality by applying for an Irish passport (some British citizens could lose their jobs for becoming Irish), but it seems that they have to confess that entitlement, though I haven't found exactly where the confession is wrung out of them. (There may be rare cases where such an entitlement, arguably deservedly, puts one's acquired British citizenship at risk.)

[lulu2]

I thought that, if you have dual citizenship and want to apply for a British passport, you need to renounce the passport from the other country that you are a citizen off at the time of application.
Is this what you meant or am I missing your point?

You aren't allowed to have two passports if one of them is British even if the other country of citizenship allows you to have both.

[Wanderer]

I thought that, if you have dual citizenship and want to apply for a British passport, you need to renounce the passport from the other country that you are a citizen off at the time of application.
Is this what you meant or am I missing your point?

You aren't allowed to have two passports if one of them is British even if the other country of citizenship allows you to have both.

Rubbish, my partner has two passports, at least 5 of my friends have UK and US passports, not sure where you get your information from but it's 100% wrong.

[Richard W]

For several years now, someone applying for a British passport has had to show any other passports held to the Passport Office. The optimistic view is that this is so that confusion does not ensue if one uses one of these other passports to travel into or out of the UK. A pessimistic view is that the government is building a register of dual nationals so that dual national transgressors can be stripped of British citizenship.

I saw a strange assertion that those applying for passports were legally obliged to declare their ability to obtain a passport from another country. The assertion in a government guide is the only evidence I've seen for this claim, and I was looking for confirmation (or dismissal) of this claim.

The other issue is that on-line British passport applications now assume that dual nationals applying for a British passport have necessarily held a non-British passport, which is patently absurd. I was wondering how people had handled this assumption and what problems if any they had encountered. It may be that it is best handled by simply ignoring the instruction given to dual nationals.

[lulu2]

I thought that, if you have dual citizenship and want to apply for a British passport, you need to renounce the passport from the other country that you are a citizen off at the time of application.
Is this what you meant or am I missing your point?

You aren't allowed to have two passports if one of them is British even if the other country of citizenship allows you to have both.

Rubbish, my partner has two passports, at least 5 of my friends have UK and US passports, not sure where you get your information from but it's 100% wrong.

Apologies for having said the wrong thing. I don't know about US passports but I had been told that I would lose my EU passport if I applied for a UK passport.
I am glad that this is not the case.

[Richard W]

Apologies for having said the wrong thing. I don't know about US passports but I had been told that I would lose my EU passport if I applied for a UK passport.
I am glad that this is not the case.

It's been worse than that; for some EU countries, naturalising as British would entail automatic loss of the continental citizenship. There may be ways to retain the original nationality, depending on the country, such as getting permission in advance (Austria) or declaring the intention to retain the original nationality within some time frame (Spain).

[Richard W]

It may be that it is best handled by simply ignoring the instruction given to dual nationals.

A better solution is to use the printed application form from the Post Office. That does not instruct one to submit passports that one has never possessed.

Having studied the printed application form, I now believe that the statement that is is a criminal offence to fail to disclose the ability to obtain a passport from another country is a terminological inexactitude. I can believe that the guidance should be saying that it is falsely denying the ability that is a criminal offence.