More info from HO after I already got British citizenship

[Fairtrade]

Hi everyone.

I recently (September) naturalised as a British citizen and applied for my first British passport end of September. Today almost 6 weeks later I got a letter (dated 4th of November) from the Home Office asking for the following:

"In Order to fight the increasing thread of identity fraud, we need to verify the information provided on the passport application form. To help us do this we need to know where you have lived over a period of 3 years."

To confirm this, please provide letters on business headed paper addressed to the Identity and Passport Service from one of the following:

- Your bank and building society
- Your employer
-Your landlord or mortgage company
-Your school, university or education authority
-Your local authority
-The Department of work and Pensions
-Your dentist or if absolutely necessary, your GP
- A commanding Officer (if you are a member of HM Forces)

The letter must confirm all of your addresses between November 2006 and November 2009

If you provide a letter from the bank, building society, mortgage company or local authority the letter must confirm that you have held an active account throughout this period.

Please note we will not accept a Bank Statements or utilities bills..


Let's just put it this way, I have chucked most of my old bills now and the Home Office have kept some of the letters when I applied for Indefinite leave to Remain. I live with my partner, he is the one paying the rent and on the tenancy agreement. I am self employed and don't have an employer or accountant as I have a small business online. I don't have any other letters from universities or educaion authorities. I only have council tax letters for the last 3 years but they want a letter from the council written on business headed papers, stating that I have lived at my previous addresses for the last 3 years. So I guess council tax bills wont help either!


I have booked flights to my home country for me and my partner 3 months in advance leaving 2 months and a week for the Home Office to issue the British passport. After all they say first time applicants need to wait up to 6 weeks for the issue of first time passports.

Now exactly 6 weeks after they got my application, they ask for all this extra information that I really don't have now.
What do I do now??

Can I ask the Home office to send back my original passport so that I can travel to my home country and come back to britain as a british citizen without a british passport?

PS. Why do they even need to know where I lived if I have already proved this information when I got ILR? What can they do to me if I can't prove this information now? Deny me the right to have a british passport even though I'm a british citizen?

[keshgrover]

That letter is not from HO it is from IPS. The details you have filled in your passport form are probabley not matching with your credit file or the records they hold for you. A letter from bank confirming your address for last three years would do the job.

good luck.

[whirly]

Fairtrade,

As keshgrover says, the letter is fairly standard. IPS (not the Home Office) is treating you like any other first-time British applicant. They are required to run background checks and cannot simply contact the HO to see what they have on file for you. I had the same problem since I had virtually no credit history at the time, and being a non-EU citizen was not previously on the electoral roll.

They won't deny you a British passport; they just won't issue it until you have proved that you are who you say you are. This can be done quite easily by providing the docs they ask for. Ask your council for a letter - mine did one for me within a few days. Get a bank doc if you can. Failing that, give them anything official you can think of to prove your identity.

I know it's a hassle, but think of it a different way: would you want IPS to issue your passport to someone who had stolen your identity?

Best of luck...