Thanks for your news Antsmall, it chimes with this experience...
Callback
Was called by HM PO today.
The official was helpful, fairly open & patient to questioning.
Our case has been referred 'somewhere' (to some unit) for an 'opinion'; it was referred in mid-March & chased up (internally) in late March.
He apologised for the delay in this case & recommended I call back every 7-10 days to chase it.
(he said he's now also marked it for an increased priority of attention).
Status
He stated the situation is
not an outright refusal to issue a British passport.
New policy
He stated there is a policy that
prevents issuing a British passport in a new identity when any valid passport exists in another identity.
He did not identify the particular law or regulation
Policy documents
He said they have
regularly updated,
internal policy documents that are
not made public
He was unable to confirm if this internal policy document was the now withdrawn June 2014 document; (
Overseas Policy and Procedure Changes 9th June 2014, ie the one discussed earlier in this thread).
He reminded me there are public policy documents on the HM PO website, but commented that they made be out of date (
).
Q&A
I re-explained the situation from my viewpoint (& confirmed I had examined every document available on the HM PO website) & then followed up with some questions.
The official replied as follows:
he confirmed he recognised people in UK can have dual nationality;
he confirmed he recognised women in UK can & do have maiden names &
can use them if they wish to;
he recognised we weren't fraudsters (
) or committing any offence (
) by my wife currently using her 2 names on various bank accounts, medical records, official documents & etc;
he acknowledged that, as per HM PO policy documents, an observation can be added to a British passport to note the use of a maiden name by a woman;
- he said doing this wouldn't help in our case (although it would make the 2nd name obvious);
He again
summarised the position by stating the HM PO won't be issuing a British passport in a second identity.
What can I do
I asked if I could help by contacting the PH embassy;
my idea is to establish the actual status of my wife's
uncancelled Filipino passport (which we believe is now null & void, as she is now a British citizen, & therefore is not in fact a valid identity/travel document anymore).
The official said it would not help as they have to wait on the reply to their internal enquiries.
Unfortunately I forgot to restate that, in my opinion (& in our case), the Filipino passport was now null & void and so could not be considered as a
valid second identity.
Next steps
As I took the call at work, I also forgot to ask why the guidance (& NCS Post Office service) aren't more explicit & don't help on this topic of
discrepancy of names/passports.
If such guidance was clearer at least some people could do something
before they apply
Will pick up on these points next time I call.
Next time, I also want to dig into the apparent incompatibility of this secret new
identity policy compared to the
UK naturalisation process which did accept (& approve) an application in a married name (supported by marriage certificate & identity documents in a maiden name)
Wait & see
Finally, the official said we will receive further instructions or advice once the internal referrals have been completed;
he said it should be possible to continue with the current application rather than re-applying;
- at least it sounds like the time & cost of a second application may not be necessary, but for me the delay & inconvenience &
inability to travel is more significant.
(again he recommended I call back every 7-10 days to chase the case)
