Stranded abroad, lost passport

[Basel_AH]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice please!

I applied for citizenship on 20 July 2020. I then travelled abroad on 24 July 2020 and soon after my arrival, I have unfortunately lost my passport

After searching for it without avail, I issued a police report and went to my consulate to apply for a replacement on 3 August. I applied and was informed that I should receive the replacement within a month time which would be 3 September in best cases. My country is currently is in lockdown and nothing is clear on processing times and the capital city is in a state of emergency due to some complications.

I received an email on August 6 that I have been identified as being eligible for the new approach involving biometric reuse. This is a positive thing for me as I do not need to attend a biometrics appointment in person for my application to be processed.

However, I'm wondering if I should send an email FurtherNationalityEnquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk telling them about my situation of the lost passport? Or would that do more harm than good to my application?

I was thinking of sending them an email because I thought that maybe they can speed up my approval process and I can make an oath at the embassy here and get my British passport? This could be faster than waiting for my country's one!

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Thank you

[secret.simon]

Imaginative approach, but it is unlikely to work for many reasons.

a) One's nationalities denotes which country/ies are responsible for assisting you when abroad (as distinct from citizenship, which denotes which countries allow you to participate in their political life). If you have not acquired British nationality yet, in a sense, you are still the responsibility of the country whose nationality you currently have. So you need to liaise with the embassy/officials of that country, not the UK's.
b) While your situation may be genuine, imagine the moral hazard if it comes out that one way to expedite one's naturalisation application is to go abroad and lose one's passport. That may become the de facto means of expediting naturalisation applications and the Home Office may not be too happy about that.
c) Generally, the oath of allegiance is not administered at embassies, except for certain select groups of applicants (spouses of British diplomats abroad, people who are registered under forms UKF/UKM because they would have been born British citizens but for the laws at the time of their birth, etc).
d) There has been a major slowdown of British citizenship certificates being issued for people who have already received their approval within the UK anyway.
e) The Passport office looks askance at first British citizen passport applications from abroad and subjects them to greater scrutiny, thus possibly slowing down the process of getting a British passport anyway.

It is unclear from your post whether you are in a home country (one of the countries of which you are a national) or in another country, but your best bet is to try to get a passport through an expedited approach, if possible.

If you are in a country of which you are not a national, you may be able to apply for an Emergency Travel Document or emergency passport. The rules for that vary from country (of nationality) to country, with some only issuing it to return to the country of nationality that issues it and some allowing it to be used to the country of usual residence.