British passport and accents in foreign passport

[Petulacek]

I am a Czech national. Our names contain special characters, which also appear in our passports. Could this be a problem when I’m applying for a British passport? The HO’s website doesn’t go into this much detail, only that my name on any foreign passports must match the UK passport exactly. Please help? Many thanks!

[alterhase58]

The following document may help you:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... t_2016.pdf
There are references to the treatment of special characters, and based on the International Civil Aviation Organisation rules. I believe special characters are "translated" into the nearest letter, for example letter "a" with accent will be shown as "a" without accent.
Have you applied for citizenship?

[Petulacek]

Many thanks for your response. I have not applied for BC yet. Just to clarify, I have no problem with my British passport showing my name without the accents. However, I do wonder whether I may need to change my Czech passport so that it matches the British one exactly, ie so that it doesn’t contain the accents, as this would require changing my name back at home. Are you able to advise on that, please?

[alterhase58]

When you get your naturalisation certificate it will already show the translated characters. Use the name as written on the certificate. As I understand from the document, if you use the special characters in your passport application, they will translate them anyway. I don't think there will be an issue with the Czech passport as the name as such is not different.

[Petulacek]

Great, many thanks for your help! That’s what I hoped for, but just wanted some assurance.