Passport application
Discussion
My wife is applying to renew her British passport.
She came to the UK in 2007 (from Thailand), got British Citizenship in 2011 and applied for a British passport which was duly granted, under her maiden name. By this point she had only ever had two passports, one Thai passport issued in 2007 which expired in 2012 (they only last 5 years over there), and the British one issued in 2011 that would have expired in 2021. The Thai passport was never renewed as there really was no requirement for it, ie. no longer than 30 days in Thailand per visit.
In 2012 we got married, she took my surname and updated (into my surname) her passport, banking, mortgage etc. and driving licence to suit. New passport valid until 04/2023 but 3 weeks ago she applied to renew it as we plan to go to Thailand in Feb 2023 and they require you to have a min of 6 months remaining on the passport to get it. She filled out the application, ticking yes to 'have you ever had a foreign passport' and posted her current British passport off to the application dept. A week or so later they requested her old Thai passport, this was duly sent and then a week later they emailed and said they will not issue her new passport because it doesn't match the name on her old Thai passport, which expired in 2012.
The surname in the Thai passport was never updated because (mentioned earlier), there really was no requirement for it, why would you update an expired passport..? So she is faced with having to apply for a new Thai passport from the UK under her married name (has to be posted to and from Thailand, so likely to take a while), then post this to the UK application dept. for them to carry on. I managed to talk to a lady in applications who, incidentally, was very helpful and confirmed this is a new policy..?
All of this when she already has a passport under the married name, and all in all this will be her third British passport.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
She came to the UK in 2007 (from Thailand), got British Citizenship in 2011 and applied for a British passport which was duly granted, under her maiden name. By this point she had only ever had two passports, one Thai passport issued in 2007 which expired in 2012 (they only last 5 years over there), and the British one issued in 2011 that would have expired in 2021. The Thai passport was never renewed as there really was no requirement for it, ie. no longer than 30 days in Thailand per visit.
In 2012 we got married, she took my surname and updated (into my surname) her passport, banking, mortgage etc. and driving licence to suit. New passport valid until 04/2023 but 3 weeks ago she applied to renew it as we plan to go to Thailand in Feb 2023 and they require you to have a min of 6 months remaining on the passport to get it. She filled out the application, ticking yes to 'have you ever had a foreign passport' and posted her current British passport off to the application dept. A week or so later they requested her old Thai passport, this was duly sent and then a week later they emailed and said they will not issue her new passport because it doesn't match the name on her old Thai passport, which expired in 2012.
The surname in the Thai passport was never updated because (mentioned earlier), there really was no requirement for it, why would you update an expired passport..? So she is faced with having to apply for a new Thai passport from the UK under her married name (has to be posted to and from Thailand, so likely to take a while), then post this to the UK application dept. for them to carry on. I managed to talk to a lady in applications who, incidentally, was very helpful and confirmed this is a new policy..?
All of this when she already has a passport under the married name, and all in all this will be her third British passport.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
I assume the goal is to prevent people having two live passports in different names - without seeing a current passport in your wife's name HMPO would know there's nothing stopping your wife from renewing the Thai passport without changing the name. Why this has suddenly started to matter enough to become policy I don't know, but I'd assume there's been some cases of people exploiting what are essentially UK-sanctioned multiple identities.
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