Dual Nationals and Multiple Passports.

[Med Red]

I am a dual national who recently renewed my British passport.

When making the application it is now a criminal offence not to disclose that you have another nationality and passport. As required I included my other passport with the application (a mistake as a copy would have done).

A little while later I received a letter saying that as I had another passport in a different name I could not renew my British one and further I would have to make an application for the return of my other one.

I contacted the office and was told that I would have to change the name on my other passport before my British one could be renewed.

To say the office was unhelpful would be generous but eventually I found that my British passport included the three Christian names on my birth certificate whilst my other passport only included the first two. I struggled to change my other document to match my birth certificate and finally failed with the British passport office still holding my other document.

I contact the Passport Office again and was told that if I could show that I was not using my third Christian name in official communication I could have it deleted from my British passport. The office required bank statements, council tax documents etc and these were sent away. Eventually my new British passport arrived with only my first two Christian names included but I then had to reapply to get my other document back. This process took just short of three months and almost prevented me leaving the country to return to my family in my other my other country.

It should also be noted that it is a general rule that when you leave and return to a country whose passport you carry you are required to use that document. When you arrive in the other country whose passport you carry you are required to use that passport for entry and exit there. This mean swapping passports along the way but that is fine. The UK is a bit lax about nationals exiting on a foreign passport but coming back in is a different story.

[Uricanejack]

Interesting mine expired a while ago.

I usually carry the expired one with me, for a while I let my Canadian one expire and traveled on my British passport.
Which is not a problem going to the UK. Now the airlines are being annoying if I try and return to Canada using my British passport,
Canada Border Service doesn’t mind just the airline being dicks.
Last time I got a 10 year Canadian passport. so British passport not required.

Just means I have to wait in the long line up.

[ChrisJHC]

Interesting - I am in exactly the same situation!

Born in the UK and my name at birth included two “middle names”.

Now a citizen of Australia and have dropped one of my middle names.

Have both Aus and UK passports.

It will be interesting to see what happens when I try to renew my UK passport in a year or two.