Passport Application Section 4 - Parents and Grandparents

For citizenship achieved through naturalisation, with foreign born parents:

(a) we need to fill out section 4 in full, i.e. put parents name, date and place of birth and marriage date ?

(b) we need to provide grandparent details ?


My local post office says definitely yes to both, but I've seen posts here which say grandparent details are not required.

Can someone confirm the two questions ? If the post office are wrong, then there is no point in me using their check and send service, I'll just put it in the mail myself.....

(a) place of birth and marriage date: You don't have to write, if they are unknown.
(b) grandparent details: not necessary at all that foreign born parents.
If your post office insist on them you could be sending your application by special delivery yourself.

just to add - i presume you provided parents detail in the AN form - use the same info in passport application as well.

ban.s wrote:just to add - i presume you provided parents detail in the AN form - use the same info in passport application as well.

Indeed we did, and can just repeat those.

These first passport applications are ridiculously more difficult than they used to be. You have to get a professional counter signature AGAIN, so we will have to travel some distance to the same professional referee again that we got for the Form AN.

And then the interview, it has to be just the applicant unless they agree that a relative can sit in. That is essential for someone who got ILR and citizenship by the ESOL route, and whose English might be quite basic. That must be a situation they are well used to though and they must surely allow it.

I'll be sending the application by special delivery myself, the post office insisted again that grandparent details must be provided. They are supposed to know what they are doing...

If the PO insist, why don't you just provide the info or just write "unknown"?

You don't need to use the same reference you used for naturalisation.

No relatives are allowed in the identity interview. If needed, the Passport Office can provide an interpreter.

Jambo wrote:If the PO insist, why don't you just provide the info or just write "unknown"?

You don't need to use the same reference you used for naturalisation.

No relatives are allowed in the identity interview. If needed, the Passport Office can provide an interpreter.

I've put a note in Section 8 that grandparent details aren't required. I'll try the Post Office with that. If they play ball, all well and good, if not then I'll send it myself.

I know we don't need to use the same professional reference we used for naturalisation, but it is the only one we could get !!

OK, so no relatives allowed... I'll send a covering letter explaining the ESOL situation, and give them the option of allowing a relative in, or them providing an interpreter.

I still think this is all ludicrous. For ILR and Naturalisation, all checks have already been made, the passport should just be a formality. If all they want to do is an identity check, the foreign passport and foreign ID card both have a name and a photo on them.

This might surprise you but most of first time passport applicants don't have a foreign passport (or driving licence) so an interview is more appropriate.

They will not allow anyone in (beats the point of identity check if someone else is giving out the answers). Interpreter will be provided if needed.

Another proof that post office C&S is a waste of time and money.

Ayyubi72 wrote:Another proof that post office C&S is a waste of time and money.

Yes, I'm just going to send it directly. I'll also include a covering letter explaining the potential language difficulty and the omission of grandparent details. The booklet they give you is quite clear as to what is required.

Tuvoc wrote:

Ayyubi72 wrote:Another proof that post office C&S is a waste of time and money.

Yes, I'm just going to send it directly. I'll also include a covering letter explaining the potential language difficulty and the omission of grandparent details. The booklet they give you is quite clear as to what is required.

There is no need to send any covering letter. They will probably just throw it in bin. Potentially there could be people in many dozens of type of circumstances who qualify for British passport for one reason for another. If they started to fully explain every kind of situation on the passport form then the passport form will run into a few dozen pages, and that will cause even more confusion.

Browsing the forum we find that parents and grandparents question is asked a dozen times a week by naturalised citizens. Needless to say, the answer remains the same.