There is in fact a new rule, which I worked behind the scenes for a year to secure, whereby you can also apply in your married name IF you can prove that the authorities of your other citizenship won't allow you to change the name on your foreign passport. I don't have time to explain this fully now ...

Here's what I did - this is intended as general help for anyone in such a situation, even if their non-British country does allow dual citizenship. (Note: for non-compliant consulates, please keep reading since I address that in the next paragraph). I researched the laws of my non-British country ...

In case you're still reading this, the passport name policy has been clarified and improved now, as explained in more detail here: http://www.immigrationboards.com/british-citizenship/new-policy-regarding-passport-names-for-dual-nationals-t216754.html#p1401208 The new policy is here: https://www.gov ...

Lord Avebury was a star. I corresponded with him extensively on email because of the UKF struggle (which is also how I was in contact with the fantastic Lady Lister), but never got to meet him in person as I'd always hoped. A bizarre twist is that after he succeeded in getting the UKF amendments ...

For the change in the passport name policy, the star player is Lady Lister. There are also the three successive ministers who worked on it, chronologically: Lord Bates, Lord Keen of Elie, and Baroness Williams of Trafford. Laura Pearson, head of HMPO identity policy, also worked on it after it went ...

Greetings all. In a couple of threads people have described their trouble obtaining a British passport in the name of their choice (often their married name) because the passport office requires that 'all uncancelled foreign passports' be sent, in the original or in a full colour photocopy, when ...

Yes! And I made a typo: it is dated 16 August, not 18 August. The rest still stands I hope!

Congratulations, and good luck to everyone!

Yes, I got a friend in Britain to send me the famous "Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed" envelope, having first weighed all the documents that I expected would go into it so that my friend could pay for the correct postage. I can't remember the details now but I did look on the Royal Mail ...

Thanks. I hope so! Having to send all these precious original documents is rather trying on the nerves. I have a question for those who had to send their citizenship registration certificates in order to receive passports. Did you have your registration certificate eventually returned to you once ...

I have a question for those who had to send their citizenship registration certificates in order to receive passports. Did you have your registration certificate eventually returned to you once the passport application was complete? Thanks for the information!

It's wonderful to hear that after such a long wait (which was massively unfair) things are moving along for you. I hope that bfrenchfry also receives good news (another April applicant) and that things end up happily for all of us before too long! More than a year - that is grotesque. (I applied a ...

I'm in a similarly depressing situation. I applied in May, did my biometrics in Vancouver in January because I live in the USA where there are no biometric centres, and have heard nothing since. Meanwhile someone who applied in December (seven months after me) and completed their biometrics in ...

g_barrie_g wrote: As for the passport, the waiting/processing time is 16 weeks.

Wait - four months for a passport?!

You don't have to send an original foreign passport any more to apply for a first adult British passport? If that is the case, would you mind sending us the link to the page where it says that? It would be very useful. I haven't had the time to keep up with this lately. (As for my citizenship ...

Well said, Out. The policy doesn't prevent the criminal use of 'different identities' because those who can freely change their names on their foreign passports can simply change their names back again. It is an ill-conceived policy which merely gets in the way of those who cannot change their names ...

Emails that I've received from British consular officials (though about an entirely different matter - my citizenship application has been languishing for nine months with no news) have also ended with @fco.gov.uk.

Hello Suzie. Quick note: since your daughter is still under 18, you could in fact fix her nationality problem by getting married (i.e. her parents marrying each other), if that is an option. As long as the parents marry before the child turns 18 and the British parent is British 'otherwise than by ...

Yes, quite a few people have received these frightening "exceptional issues" letters when there weren't any exceptional issues at all. It seems that first of all these people use form letters even when those letters don't really fit the situation at hand (for instance I received a letter claiming ...

I applied in May and I waited eight months only to do the biometrics. I too have an astoundingly straightforward case: I supplied more than the materials requested (foolishly trying to 'be on the safe side' by supplying additional proof of eligibility) and needless to say, I have no criminal record ...

It's just so hilarious how uniformly incompetent these people are. Looking at the tragicomic amount of work that you had to do in order to accomplish what should have been a routine task, and the number of instances in which they got things wrong or didn't even bother to respond in any way, I recall ...

I completed my biometrics yesterday in the Vancouver VFS Global facility, whose address is: Oceanic Plaza, 1066 West Hastings Street, Suite 2000 Vancouver, BC, V6E 3X2 Canada (Yes, I know: Hastings, 1066. Ha ha. I suppose it makes the address easier to remember). Suite 2000 is on the 20th floor ...

Thanks for the info. I suppose they want the confirmation of delivery that comes with registered mail, but it wouldn't kill them to send us a pdf by email as well so we could be happy a little sooner (and then send us the original by post, no problem). One could argue that sending pdfs to everyone ...

Do these approval notices arrive by email or by post? If by post, are they by normal post or megagalactic registered post? I'm sorry to hear that bfrenchfry is still waiting after nine months. I'm at eight months and only now received my biometric letter (by email), and that only after having ...

No, I chose Canada because I'd read through what others on this forum had experienced (including the one in the post that you gave in your message, saying that the VFS Global people had said that we should choose Canada) and I went according to what they reported. But thanks for taking the time to ...