Passport refused - uncancelled passport in maiden name

FighterBoy wrote:Very interesting thread, fantastic read, you guys should be proud of yourselves! It seems like sending uncancelled foreign passports is potentially dangerous ... you are best off cancelling them and/or 'losing' them unless they contain something pivotal to the application. I'm very grateful to stumble across this thread and wish the OP & others the very best of luck.

Thanks for your concern.
My wife is now looking forward to her first trip abroad, later this week, "travelling like a Queen".

The bigger picture is still quite a minefield, the naturalisation & passport sections of the HO are out of sync with each other;
the guidance notes for passports (or naturalisation) don't cover this policy yet;
Check & Send, certainly at the post office in my town are still in the dark over this;
- so others still risk getting caught out through no fault of their own.

noajthan wrote:

FighterBoy wrote:Very interesting thread, fantastic read, you guys should be proud of yourselves! It seems like sending uncancelled foreign passports is potentially dangerous ... you are best off cancelling them and/or 'losing' them unless they contain something pivotal to the application. I'm very grateful to stumble across this thread and wish the OP & others the very best of luck.

Thanks for your concern.
My wife is now looking forward to her first trip abroad, later this week, "travelling like a Queen".

The bigger picture is still quite a minefield, the naturalisation & passport sections of the HO are out of sync with each other;
the guidance notes for passports (or naturalisation) don't cover this policy yet;
Check & Send, certainly at the post office in my town are still in the dark over this;
- so others still risk getting caught out through no fault of their own.

I'm glad to hear things are looking up for you and your wife. I can't believe this militant UK government has the audacity to ask for other passports to be submitted ... this past 2 years. What if another nation doesn't want you to send any or forbids it. People are best off cancelling or 'losing' foreign passports. This forum is a fantastic truth revealer.

You are absolutely right, before applying i was not sure that if i include my other passport or not! i wish i didnt:(
it has been 8 weeks since i have applied and no news what so ever ! they keep saying that the application is with the examiner !
I sent the HMPO a letter and asked them to send a letter to me explaining the reason that my application has been delayed! I never heard back and i called them again they told me that they received my letter however they would never send a letter confirming my passport has been with them for 8 weeks or even writing explaining the reason for this delay ! was going to publish it however

I am wondering why is that HMPO do not wish to give me a letter if they are not sure of them self what they doing !!!!!





quote="FighterBoy"]

noajthan wrote:

FighterBoy wrote:Very interesting thread, fantastic read, you guys should be proud of yourselves! It seems like sending uncancelled foreign passports is potentially dangerous ... you are best off cancelling them and/or 'losing' them unless they contain something pivotal to the application. I'm very grateful to stumble across this thread and wish the OP & others the very best of luck.

Thanks for your concern.
My wife is now looking forward to her first trip abroad, later this week, "travelling like a Queen".

The bigger picture is still quite a minefield, the naturalisation & passport sections of the HO are out of sync with each other;
the guidance notes for passports (or naturalisation) don't cover this policy yet;
Check & Send, certainly at the post office in my town are still in the dark over this;
- so others still risk getting caught out through no fault of their own.

I'm glad to hear things are looking up for you and your wife. I can't believe this militant UK government has the audacity to ask for other passports to be submitted ... this past 2 years. What if another nation doesn't want you to send any or forbids it. People are best off cancelling or 'losing' foreign passports. This forum is a fantastic truth revealer.[/quote]

new to this limno-hell married name business.

I don't think i'm as stuck as some of you are as my Certificate of Naturalization is in my maiden name. However I've lived with my married name ever since I got married (5 years ago). I want to get a British passport with my married name because it would make my life easier ( I have two surnames maternal and paternal) so just having one would be great!
However my birth country (Mexico) doesn't let me change my passport to my married name. So I can still get a British pasport in my maiden name but i;d rather have it in my married name.

Dear all,

I find myself in the very same position has some of you which angers me has it makes no sense this same name policy for women who gotten married and acquired a new surname and having the documents to proof that one is married and using the married name for all purposes, they are forcing one to go through a costly and timely process which is I think is not fight.

So I acquired my British citizenship by means means of long residence and sent off my passport application via the post office check and send service on the 22nd of may 2015, they received my application on the 26th of may 2015, they did not acknowledge my application i called to check if they received and then they confirmed yes they had received it. Now I got letter on the 17 of July 2015 dated the 6th of July 2015, they only send letter by second class which takes weeks to arrive, anyways the letter stated that I need to send from the list of documents below 3 of them to confirm that i intended to use my married name for all purposes and also that i send my jamaican passport has proof before they could issue a passport in my married name I would need to change the maiden name in my Jamaican passports they cannot issue british passport with different names or I send proof that i sent a application doing so.

I got on the phone and I explained that I had to send my jamaican passport as proof has it was required and that I sent my marriage certificate which shows clearly both names and also my naturalisation certificate has both names so I don't what the issue is, the advisor put me on hold and said i need to cancel my jamaican passport I said ok how do i do that she put me on hold and came back saying if i write a letter confirming that I would not use the jamaican passport and allow it to be clipped and stamped with cancelled then it could be done. so I sent off the letter stating this along the proofs they requested about using my married name for all purposes.
still after 3 weeks no reply I called they confirmed they had received the proofs and application with policy writers, i was so upset i made complaint to durham office and they contacted me by email asking me for more information and finally said to call which i did and they said I have to wait. another week which is now 26 of july 2015 i called up and they stated that they cannot issue passport and letter was sent out on 24th, I went mental, i asked whats wrong you have all my documents and i can't help the fact i have a maiden name and married name and i have provided everything asked for she was insisting i need to contact my embassy to change the name or cancel my citizenship, i made some points to her I said why should i cancel my jamaican passport when amen tilted to it and was jamaican before I became british and my country allows dual nationality and you have my documents so how can i even do anything. whats the sense in going through a time consuming process and also very costly to get a Jamaican passport just to change a maiden name when I won't be using it. she said thats the policy i requested i speak to manager she said she will send a request which takes 48 hours and I said i complained and no one has done anything and i need to get this sorted. she said i can put the application on hold till i get a new passport i was like are you listening to me,I was upset i said ok and after calming down I called back to say please return my documents and i was explaining to this guy I was stressed he explained to me that infact my jamaican passport was returned on the 24th and I can a british passport but issued to me but in my maiden if am happy to do so without going down the route of cancelling or getting a jamaican passport and that he has sent a not to the examiner to issue the passport so i said that means after 3 months i would go to interview and 39 weeks pregnant for a interview after they did all that checking, he said don't stress he will make a note and I might not have to go, I couldn't believe what I was hearing he reassured me to not be stressed and have a good weekend.i then called up again and said i got two different stories could it be clarified again and the advisor explained that the first person had an over sight and didn't se that my passport had been returned and there was a note to say that i could have the british passport but only in my maiden name, so i said fine by me. so now waiting to see what happens next. but this very stupid and we all to complain so they can change this. I have no intention of changing my name in my valid jamaican passport and I will just wait for a while and re apply without jamican passport and get my married name and see what they will say now cause it will be a british passport my maiden name is in. serious is pointless has a british citizen and entitled to a passport. i will update you all of what happens.

IN the end they sent me another application that I have to fill in again (including the reference which is a nightmare for me!). they didn't even bother explaining that they totally refused to grant me a passport in my married name. I had to call and eventually got to speak to someone in Liverpool who told me that indeed they sent me a new application so I could fill it in with my maiden name at least I'll get a passport out of this, but it also means that I'll always have to travel with marriage certificate and birth certificate of my daughter as our surnames don't match when we travel together.

Dear Charimito

i having a similar problem, i have hired a solicitor to deal with the situation, HMPO dose not explain anything on the letter and they request a call back only thats odd, for that reason i had to get a solicitor, she called them and explained my case,however they still didnt send a letter to me or my solicitor. we are going to sent them all the documents with professional statement,now that they made me wait 12 weeks hell NO !!!! lost money because i booked holiday for 25th july!!! i wont give up!!!! i would even would go front of the judge, if im the citizen thats my right !!!!
If you are reading my post please ask your MP or a solicitor to write to them and request an explanation on the letter BEFORE withdrawal your application! at least if you later need to take legal action you have proof.

Good Luck to all

Hi mimimari26 !

Frankly at this point I just want a passport, and actually they have never denied me one, they've just said I can't have it in my married name. I need to travel for work, so having a passport is more important than having it in my married now, it sucks but I don't have the luxury to wait for weeks. Once I have it, I might raise this to my MP but for now my #1 priority is to have a passport!! I was lucky that my naturalization certificate is in my maiden name so at least a passport in the end should be granted. Best of luck to all!

If anyone does talk to a solicitor or anything like that, I would strongly suggest pushing for a very simple solution, which is to add a note in the passport indicating that the holder is also known by their maiden name on passport number X issued by country Y. That way, we could have the name of our choice on our British passports (because British citizens are supposed to have the right to choose their names and shouldn't have to relinquish that just because their other nationality is less generous in that regard: that would be discrimination on the basis of holding another citizenship) and at the same time, the government's alleged fears about fraud or terrorism or other criminal activity being facilitated by CONCEALED foreign identities would be completely allayed. There would be no concealed foreign identities. Every single time the British passport was viewed, the different name on the foreign passport would be revealed. I think this is a reasonable and staggeringly simple and easy solution, if only they'd pay attention.

I'm still in the middle of trying to get this all sorted out, with no idea if it will work. I'll provide updates if any do materialise. Let's keep each other informed and please let's try to push for this incredibly simple and reasonable solution of the note in the passport! Good luck everyone.

Well am in the same position and they waited 3 months to tell me that I have to change name in my foreign passport or get a deed poll to revert back to using my maiden name. they said if I wanted a british passport that was what I have to do under no uncertain terms and that they would change their minds, I have contacted my local mp about this issue and she said she will write to them about it because I really don't see why I should have to pay just to get a passport in my name or if I don't be forced to revert to my maiden name thats not fair because I have sent all the documents with my marriage name even though i have a former maiden name if you do a check I come up anyways, its really silly and discrimination and really some loral and ethical issues going on here that should be addressed by the government.

First of all Thanks to everyone here keeping in touch and updating

As you all had the same situation about your passport application and never received any letter from HMPO explaining their reason, i have came to the conclusion that it could be a major problem for them to actually write to us as we could use it against them! we could publish it !!! If they so confident that we are wrong why refusing write to us! Even my solicitor is confused!

My problem is that in the country f my origin no one is allowed to change their names! And it is very clear stated in the government website! I have asked a professional whom is qualified and worked in the UK for many Years to write a statement regarding changing name in my country! , also attaching the official documents of government website and my statement and solicitor cover letter!

when my solicitor called they told him that they are Passport & Identity department,and they almost can not refuse British citizen denying them passport!!! So my Question is that if they are only Passport & Identity department, It should not be their concern to issue the passport in any name as long as you have Deed poll or married! the law in the UK allows you to change your name if you are british citizen and have no criminal record! So as a citizen i can change my name but the HMPO dose not accept your marriage or deed poll !!!
i will see my solicitor tomorrow and update you
Good luck to you all

Dear Mimimari,

Please do mention to your solicitor that the solution I mentioned above - issuing a passport in the married name BUT having a note in the passport specifying that the holder is also known as [maiden name] on passport number X issued by country Y - would solve all the problems instantly. It would allow us to have the name of our choice on our British passport as all citizens should have the right to do, and it would ALSO allay the government's alleged fears that 'secret' foreign identities will be used for criminal purposes. This is because the foreign identity would absolutely not be secret in that case: the British passport would refer to that foreign identity, which would therefore be immediately revealed to anyone viewing the British passport!

Unfortunately the new rigid name policy does exist. You can see it here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crac ... -detection
And from that page you can click on the link leading to the policy itself, which is this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... e-guidance

In these documents it is explicitly stated that the aim of these policies is precisely to avoid criminal activity conducted under a concealed foreign identity - and I repeat that this danger would be completely removed by the government requiring people with a different name on their foreign passport (accompanied, if they insist, by some kind of consular letter explaining the impossibility of changing the name on that foreign passport) to have a note in their British passport revealing that other foreign 'identity'. Everyone would be happy. It would be a win-win situation obtained at zero cost. The delays in passport applications of respectable married ladies with no criminal records (which are currently diverting attention from applications by actual criminals) would no longer be 'necessary'. So please do mention this (copy-paste this message if you like) to your solicitor. This is a realistic and easy solution.

Good luck, and let's all keep each other updated!

Dear Antsmall

Thank you for all your info
May i ask if you have spoken about the note to HMPO and if yes what they respond to you !

However when i told my solicitor about the note before, she said that is not the case as your name change never erases from the system, and anytime you renew your passport or for any matter they can clearly see in their system that you have changed your name. in any country these information is very important and they would never erase it !
so my solicitor said we are going to complicate the matter by asking them to add a note in their system !

I hope it works for you

Antsmall wrote:Dear Mimimari,

Please do mention to your solicitor that the solution I mentioned above - issuing a passport in the married name BUT having a note in the passport specifying that the holder is also known as [maiden name] on passport number X issued by country Y - would solve all the problems instantly. It would allow us to have the name of our choice on our British passport as all citizens should have the right to do, and it would ALSO allay the government's alleged fears that 'secret' foreign identities will be used for criminal purposes. This is because the foreign identity would absolutely not be secret in that case: the British passport would refer to that foreign identity, which would therefore be immediately revealed to anyone viewing the British passport!

Unfortunately the new rigid name policy does exist. You can see it here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/crac ... -detection
And from that page you can click on the link leading to the policy itself, which is this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... e-guidance

In these documents it is explicitly stated that the aim of these policies is precisely to avoid criminal activity conducted under a concealed foreign identity - and I repeat that this danger would be completely removed by the government requiring people with a different name on their foreign passport (accompanied, if they insist, by some kind of consular letter explaining the impossibility of changing the name on that foreign passport) to have a note in their British passport revealing that other foreign 'identity'. Everyone would be happy. It would be a win-win situation obtained at zero cost. The delays in passport applications of respectable married ladies with no criminal records (which are currently diverting attention from applications by actual criminals) would no longer be 'necessary'. So please do mention this (copy-paste this message if you like) to your solicitor. This is a realistic and easy solution.

Good luck, and let's all keep each other updated!

Well, what I meant is to have a note on the actual passport specifying that although for Britain the person is called [married name], on their foreign passport they are called [maiden name]. So for Britain we would officially have our married names, just as they are given on our citizenship certificates (registration or naturalisation or whatever) which the government has already issued, but the other identity which a foreign state recognises would be referenced in the British passport. There are provisions for having notes in British passports referring to other names, e.g. maiden names, noms de plume etc. The very same extant mechanism could be used for us. This would not be any modification of the name which the British government has already recognised for us by issuing our citizenship certificates in that name, but a reference to the existence of another name enforced by the passport holder's other nationality.

I spoke to the HMPO and also to a solicitor. I live abroad, with a large time difference with Britain, which complicates matters. The HMPO appears to be staffed exclusively by people who are only capable of parroting the FAQ, usually with added spelling errors, and aren't very good at processing any information which isn't already familiar to them. They also take a very long time to answer anything and then all they do is re-state the policy which the interlocutor has already quoted at them! The solicitor confirmed that they are incredibly obtuse and practically impermeable to any attempts at any but the most rudimentary communication. However, the solicitor did say that a passport refusal (I haven't applied yet) can be countered by a request for a judicial review; at that point, a higher and, we hope, more cognitively complex "authority" would step in and perhaps be amenable to reasonable arguments offered by the supplicant. At the moment I'm still in the middle of the process and therefore haven't yet reached the point of requesting a judicial review: I'm still waiting to be registered for citizenship by descent, having applied slightly over two months ago. But you are at a more advanced stage of the process and might therefore be in a position to probe more possibilities.

I'll tell you if anything transpires. Your solicitor's appointment is of course your own (especially since you have to pay through the nose for it!) and you are free to use it as you wish, but I think that the use of this already existing mechanism of annotations in British passports would solve the problem by removing any fears of criminal activity using 'secret' foreign identities (in other words, removing the 'secrecy' of these foreign identities) while also allowing us the ancestral common-law freedom to choose our names.

This name paranoia is very new. Before, people renewed their British passports in the names by which they were recognised in Britain irrespective of what name they might have had on any foreign passports held. If we are registered or naturalised under our married names, or have had those names recognised by deed poll etc, then as far as Britain is concerned - the government as a whole - we ARE called by our married names. This is only a passport problem. All that needs to happen is for our British name to remain exactly as it is, but for the passport to disclose the foreign 'identity'. Any claim of complication on their part would constitute unnecessary obstructionism.

Good luck, feel free to copy any portion of my messages for your solicitor(s), and please do keep us updated; and I'll do likewise!

Dear antsmall an other members

my Solicitor had contacted the passport office and they first transferred her to the examiner after when my solicitor wasn't still satisfied than the examiner told to my solicitor the Manger would contact my solicitor!After 2 days their manager called and here is what they told to my solicitor:
Under the new laws the passport office has one name policy, and can not issue British passport under different name than foreign passport! Their argument is that they can not accept an individual under 2 different identities.
And they are very clear about it.
They told her
1:why is she want to carry 2 identities
2:why is that she dose not surrender her other Citizenship
3:Why is that she dose not change her name in the foreign passport



Please do not Waste your time

So if you are reading here do not waste your time applying for British Passport,if you have changed your name by deedpoll or marriage but not your foreign passport, you would be highly likely rejected unless you have a valid reason for argument with HMPO
for example the official authority of your other nationality dose not allows name change or you need protection and so on !!! You must provide them with evidence.
If your name in foreign passport could be change, i mean if the law of that country allows you to change your name or surname please do so!
Under no circumstances HMPO would issue a Passport under a different name then your foreign passport as i said before unless you have a valid reason!!

As i said i hied an expert to translate change of name & Surrounding citizenship law of the country of my other citizenship, also he's going to write a professional statement.
with all that my solicitor said is really 50/50 that they accept to issue a passport with different name then foreign passport.
Regarding to note in their system : they said is not a valid reason for them to issue a passport ! my solicitor said that according to what she has been told to add a not in their system is invalid point cause you are still carrying 2 identities and they cant stop you not to use each one of your identities in the future in the UK & overseas.

i hope that helped
good luck

Well, the problem that many of us are having here is precisely that our other nationality does not allow name changes. Obviously if we could simply change our names on the foreign passports then we would! (That is what I am trying now, even though my other nationality does not allow name changes: I am going through a lengthy legal process). The HMPO appears to be staffed exclusively by people who do not understand that some countries don't allow name changes (which indeed also seems to be the case with those who created this badly designed 'policy'), yet people may have deep-seated emotional reasons (as opposed to criminal reasons) to want their married names. I, personally, find it profoundly humiliating to travel with my husband while being forced to bear a different surname: to me it's like announcing publicly that I'm not his wife. This applies a fortiori because in his country, husband and wife MUST have the same surname, so people there assume we're not married, which is deeply painful.

So did you get the impression that the passport people would accept some kind of official communication from the foreign government (e.g. consulate) attesting that that country does not allow name changes?

As for the note, what the passport people offered me was to issue a passport in my maiden name with a note explaining my married name. So it's easy for them to add a note into the passport. It's technically not impossible nor even difficult for them to issue a passport in our married name with a note explaining the maiden name, as proven by the fact that until this asinine 'policy' came into being, they were issuing passports irrespective of names on foreign passports. What suddenly constipates them is this new 'policy' whose raison d'etre is to prevent people engaging in criminal activity by using a different name that the government doesn't know about. If the government does know about it because it is explicitly stated in the passport, then the 'danger' of this 'other identity' being hidden is entirely absent. So the policy is about preventing crime *through* *hidden* identities, not about preventing 'multiple identities' just for the sake of it. That is why they allow notes in passports about maiden names, noms d'art, nobiliary titles etc: a person could then conduct business by this other name without it remaining unknown to the 'authorities'. That is exactly the same as a person having this other name on a foreign passport rather than on some other document, as long as that identity is made perfectly clear on the British passport! The fact that they refuse to be reasonable about this does not mean that the point has no merit. Sadly we're dealing with unreasonable beings. They are confusing the reasoning behind the 'policy' with the mere wording of the 'policy' itself, taken in isolation and applied inflexibly even when any justification for this has been undermined.

The response that the passport people took so long to give your solicitor is merely the usual re-statement of the 'policy' which we all knew about already. They are capable of nothing else. Just parroting the policy over and over again, uncritically, without engaging in any reasonable argumentation about the rationale behind it. We are dealing with robot gatekeepers who are given the power to hinder the harmless activities of real people.

Anyway, I will keep trying to change my name in my foreign country - which is probably futile, but I'm not one to give up.

I think this 'policy' of theirs needs to be challenged. The policy itself is deleterious. Many foreign countries don't allow married names and there needs to be a mechanism in place to accommodate this while still permitting British citizens who happen to be dual nationals exactly the same rights to choose their names as other British citizens. As I keep saying, the security concerns which prompted the creation of this badly designed policy can easily be allayed without being so draconian as these robots are being now.

To answer your question short yes! my solicitor told the examiner manager the difficulties of name change & surrounding Foreign citizenship in my case, The manager then told her that we need to provide HMPO with official certified documents to back up my case.
They also asked if i could ask the Embassy to explain but the embassy refused to write a letter and referred me to check the government website, which in their website of my other citizenship country clearly explains in english that i am no eligible to request a change name.

So if your embassy could give you letter that you can not change your name, you have a better chance.

Ok, thanks for the information! We'll have to explore that avenue, hoping that it works. I'll keep you updated about any developments and I'll be eager to hear what happens in your case too. Good luck to us all!

Hello there,
I just read most of here and I got one question
Is cancelling my current passport and apply for British passport will solve that problem?

I would definitely update you Antsmall

Dear Nolada
It depends !! for example for a refugee who carries UK travel document which is blue colour i could say they could change their name with deedpoll or by marriage.
However for people like us who holding another foreign passport they would want to see that you have changed the name in other foreign passport.
If you have not yet applied and you are not traveling and dont need BP urgent you could give it go !! But there is no guarantee. when applying for BP If the officer feels that you have changed your name or something not right with your application then he/she would send your application to the examiner which may take up to 4 months. and still no guarantee that they would grant you with BP in different name.
For example mine it has been 12 Weeks and still no progress.
My self i would only advice you to cancel your foreign passport before applying for BP, If you truly cant change your name in foreign passport, otherwise you could face the same problem that all of us here is facing.

Good luck To all

Hi guys,

I'm going to apply for naturalisation in about 2 weeks. As many of you in this topic I would like to use my married name in the British passport. Cancelling my foreign passport or changing the name in my foreign passport is not an option for me.

What I understand so far is that the HMPO will not issue the 1st British passport in the married name if the foreign passport is still in the maiden name.

I would like to ask if the following will work?

1. Apply for naturalisation using my maiden name
2. Apply for the 1st British passport with my maiden name
3. Change my name to married name through deed poll and apply for a new British passport with my married name.

Many thanks.

Mimimar26
My case is normal like lota of members here
I changed my name few years ago by deep poll and my country not allows me to change name at all but I can cancel my passport before I apply for BP I know its tricky and up to the case worker finger cross to all

Dear Sanu84

One tips for you that you still did not apply for Naturalisation!!! apply for Home Office travel document before applying for citizenship.And send your Deed poll or marriage certificate to them as proof of changing name.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-home-office-tr ... t/overview


If you look up at older posts here some members have posted their experiences !
some of them they have been using their married name for many years on all Official documents an on the naturalisation certificate too! all They have been refused British Passport by their marriage name or deed poll and they ended up using their old name or maiden name in their british passport !Some decided to surrounding their other foreign citizenship !


To give you a clear answer is that NO !! we have all experienced that problems !
I am not HMPO Examiner But your chances are much higher to change your name 1year after you receive you BP !!
in any case that if you want to apply for BP with old name or new name do not present your foreign passport & cancel your Foreign passport before applying !

Nolada
I really wish you best of luck < did you apply for Naturalisation ??

I did apply and still waitting for approval letter

Thanks Mimimar26 for the suggestion. It will be time and money consuming to apply for the Home Office travel document.

I guess I will just apply for BP using my maiden name then change it to my married after one or two years later. I have waited for 6 years I can wait for a bit longer.