Wife FLR extension - children's British passports expired

My family moved back to the UK in 2013. I am a British Citizen, UK-born, UK parents, brought up in the UK. My wife was granted a visa in early 2013. She was then granted discretionary leave to remain in early 2016 on the 10-year route, as we had problems meeting the financial requirement (though we benefited from the help kindly provided here on the forums). Since then we have had no problems meeting the financial requirement, and her 2018 extension went through without any problems.

We have two children 13 and 11, who were born overseas but applied for and received British passports in July 2015. These expired in July 2020, and when I went to the UK government website to renew them it stated very clearly that, due to congestion, applications should not be made unless they applicant needed to travel before September 2020. We did not need to travel, so I put that on the shelf. I haven't done anything since, basically because there has been no prospect of travel due to coronavirus.

Now my wife is filling out her form, and in one part it asks for the children's passports. However, given that they are expired, these cannot be entered - the form requires an expiry date in the future. I don't want to provide false information by giving a future date in, say, July 2021, but we do want to include the passports to underline that they are British citizens.

So in the part asking "Why are all of your children not applying with you as part of this application?" we have noted that they are British citizens, but that their UK passports have expired, explained why we haven't renewed them, given the passport numbers, start and expiry dates, and so on. We also intend to enclose the expired passports along that of my wife and mine (as sponsor).

Is the fact that the passports expired likely to be a problem? I feel that it shouldn't be an issue, but wife is worried...

Thanks,
Welshie

Include your children’s expired British passport numbers in the other part. Should be okay. They aren’t any less British.

The expired passports of your children will not be a problem. Put date so you can continue the application then explain the situation in cover letter.

Thank you vinny and AmazonianX. I'm wary of including the passports by changing the expiry date, but I think I will as suggested provide all related information in the form box and also copies in the supporting documentation.

Much obliged,
Welshie

I would be grateful for some more sage advice from the forum.

We have now paid the fees and submitted the application mentioned earlier. For the previous extension of leave to remain, we were directed to send off a large amount of documentation. This time there was the same document checklist, but no address was given. Instead it says:

"Attend an appointment to provide your documents and biometrics by 27 May 2021
You must book and attend an appointment with UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) to provide your evidence and biometrics (fingerprints and facial photograph). We will send you a reminder after this date if you have not attended an appointment."

1) Does this mean that the process has changed and that sending the documents is no longer possible and that we have to attend in person? (That's quite onerous for us, as the nearest centre is over two hours' drive away.)

2 On this page it says:
"Your BRP expiry date is usually the same as the expiry date of your visa. To get a new BRP, you must first apply to extend your visa.
If it is granted, you will automatically get a new BRP. You cannot use the BRP replacement service."
Which seems to imply that we are not required to do anything...?

So I'm confused about what we need to do next!

Welshie

1. The applicant needs to attend UKCVAS for biometric enrollment and identity check and yes, it is in person. All supporting documentation must be uploaded to the UKCVAS portal before the biometric appointment date. Nothing is posted to UKVI anymore.

2. If the visa extension is approved, the applicant gets a new BRP card. This is not the same as enrolling biometrics at UKCVAS.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Gosh, that's a big change, isn't it. I suppose it could make some aspects of the process easier.
On the other hand, getting all the documents in digital form might be challenging!
And I suppose ID documents such as passports will need to be presented in person.

Welshie

Everything needs to be uploaded digitally, even passports and BRP card. Good visible photos are also accepted as well as online statements etc.

At the appointment with UKCVAS, the passport and BRP should be taken with so that the staff can confirm identity. They don't keep it.

CR001 wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 26, 2021 11:51 am

Everything needs to be uploaded digitally, even passports and BRP card. Good visible photos are also accepted as well as online statements etc.

Thank you CR001. Looks like I've printed out a lot of stuff for nothing! Lesson learned...

W

Just a quick update in the hope that it will help those who come after...

We submitted her application on the last day of her visa, then booked an appointment at our nearest UKVCAS centre. By the time we had discussed it, the earliest slot we could get was about five weeks after submitting her application.

In the meantime I scanned and uploaded all the mandatory and supporting documents, and paid £40 or so for the checking service. This service did identify one document that we had not filed in the right category, so we added that and it looked fine.

On the day we drove to the city with the UKVCAS centre, arriving 90 minutes early (we were worried about congestion but it wasn't an issue). We took mandatory and supporting documents but the latter were not required. In fact, the email explicitly says you don't need the supporting documents, but we had printed them out so we took them anyway, as a comfort blanket.

Five minutes after we arrived at the car park near the UKVCAS centre, the person responsible for her interview rang our mobile, said they had a spare slot, and asked if she would like to get in earlier, to which we said yes. The meeting - only my wife was allowed into the building - took about 25 minutes. The most difficult bit was getting a good set of her fingerprints, apparently.

About an hour after the meeting we got an email informing us that the application had been submitted by UKVCAS to UKVI. In the afternoon of the next day we got an email telling us that her application had been successful and that a new Biometric Residence Permit would be delivered in seven days.

So, the usual intimidating process, but if you follow the rules carefully, as we did, and meet the requirements, it's actually quite streamlined. Thanks to everybody for their help.

W