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Hi,

I've just recently received my DCPR (EEA citizen exercising treaty rights) with the intention of applying for naturalisation later this year. However my EEA passport will expire in Jan 2017 and I'm not sure what to do, I'd very much appreciate if someone shared their thoughts...

If I renew my passport now, before starting the naturalisation process, do I need to somehow renew the DCPR as well, or will it remain valid? If a renewal is needed, will it likely to take another 3 months again as our original application did?

Or if I don't renew my passport right now, can I still apply for naturalisation around August or September, holding an EEA passport that has less than 6 months validity left? Would that affect the process in any way?

Thanks

You can apply with your passport in Aug/Sept. There is no requirement for the passport to be valid for X months for citizenship applications.

Suggest apply for citizenship using NCS at the council, you then get to keep your original documents.

CR001 wrote:You can apply with your passport in Aug/Sept. There is no requirement for the passport to be valid for X months for citizenship applications.

Suggest apply for citizenship using NCS at the council, you then get to keep your original documents.

That's the easiest of all options, excellent! Many thanks for the quick reply!

Assuming of course that Aug/Sept is 12 months after you 'automatically acquired PR'. Unless you are married to a British citizen of course, then you could apply now.

The DCPR's validity is not tied to your current passport. It remains valid, even if you renew your passport as it is a document of its own (as opposed to vignettes which are placed in passports for example).

LilyLalilu wrote:The DCPR's validity is not tied to your current passport. It remains valid, even if you renew your passport as it is a document of its own (as opposed to vignettes which are placed in passports for example).

Problem is the letter that comes with the DCPR says to reapply. At least mine did in 2014. I do wonder whether the template is just the same for vignettes as for separate documents ?

Probably a mistake, it didn't say anything like that in my letter.
There is no mention of the PP number on the DCPR, so I suppose no one would really be able to tell anyway, unless they do some digging in their systems of course.

LilyLalilu wrote:Probably a mistake, it didn't say anything like that in my letter.
There is no mention of the PP number on the DCPR, so I suppose no one would really be able to tell anyway, unless they do some digging in their systems of course.

Unless in HO IT systems they somehow link the DCPR with the passport ID and their system will flag up the mismatch. I was convinced I'd need a new DCPR if I replace my passport - it was only after reading on here that I realised that should only apply to vignettes in the actual passport.

LilyLalilu wrote:The DCPR's validity is not tied to your current passport. It remains valid, even if you renew your passport as it is a document of its own (as opposed to vignettes which are placed in passports for example).

Thanks, that's good to know... what confuses me I think is this
"You can apply for a new residence card or permanent residence card if the passport containing your old residence card has expired - you can’t transfer it to a new passport."
https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-a-uk-resid ... rd/replace

and the fact that the EEA(PR) application form has a section
"Replace or renew your permanent residence document"

but of course it doesn't differentiate between vignettes and card style DCPRs.

"You can apply for a new residence card or permanent residence card if the passport containing your old residence card has expired - you can’t transfer it to a new passport."

That section makes it sound like it only applies to PR cards, not DCPRs.

LilyLalilu wrote:

"You can apply for a new residence card or permanent residence card if the passport containing your old residence card has expired - you can’t transfer it to a new passport."

That section makes it sound like it only applies to PR cards, not DCPRs.

I'll dig out my old letter but that sounds exactly like the wording I remember. It was over 2 years ago though.

Close enough - this is the guidance I received with my DCPR in 2014, I suspect it is a generic blurb that covers everything including vignettes inside a passport:

"If you obtain a new passport or travel document you may re-apply for permanent residence if you want this passport to be endorsed"