Confusion by the names on BRP, driving license and passport

[darknumbers]

I got my indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status smoothly last year and planning to buy a house as joint ownership with my wife. However, I came across with some frustrating problem with my 'first' name and 'last' name arrangement.

I am a Malaysian born Chinese. On my passport, my full name is represented as:
Name: XXX YYY ZZZ

Traditionally, my respective first name and last name are:
First name: YYY ZZZ
Last name: XXX

However, on my BRP card and driving license which I registered in UK, it appears that I don't really have a row for my first name. Instead, my full name XXX YYY ZZZ is listed as my last name.

This thing is becoming frustrating when the solicitor is carrying out anti-money laundering check on my identity. As my profile does not match when I filled in my first name and last name like what I did in any official document applications, including my previous visa applications:
First name: YYY ZZZ
Last name: XXX

I did a quick check and several sources suggest that, Malaysian passport does not contain the attribute of "Given name" in their system:

https://travel.stackexchange.com/questi ... -last-name

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_passport

The tweet by Malaysia Airlines always mention something relevant to this issue:

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Did anyone encounter this issue? How can I overcome/correct the issue if necessary?
Many thanks!

[ywlgy]

On both BRP and driving license, the first row is family name and the second is given name. So you are saying your BRP and driving license have an empty 2nd row?

I assume you have entered the first and last names separately on your BRP and driving license application forms. If this was the case, I assume the UKVI and DVLA used the machine readable zone on your passport, which is flawed as you suggested, therefore leading to the wrong format.

Have you checked with your Malaysian friends to see if they have similar issues?

[darknumbers]

Hi ywlgy,

Thanks for the reply!

On both BRP and driving license, the first row is family name and the second is given name. So you are saying your BRP and driving license have an empty 2nd row?

Yes, that is the case, on my BRP and driving license, I only have my first row written as "XXX YYY ZZZ", both of them have empty second row.

I assume you have entered the first and last names separately on your BRP and driving license application forms. If this was the case, I assume the UKVI and DVLA used the machine readable zone on your passport, which is flawed as you suggested, therefore leading to the wrong format.

I thought the same too, I always fill in my first name and last name as I thought how it should be. But looks like UKVI and DVLA actually use my passport machine readable zone as prioritised reference.

Have you checked with your Malaysian friends to see if they have similar issues?

I did check with one of my Malaysian friends, and his driving license doesn't seem to have this error. I will check and compare with more Malaysian friends and see anyone is facing the same issue as mine.

[darknumbers]

Some updates from the BRP error team:

Good Afternoon,

Thank you for notifying us of a possible error on a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP).

We have investigated this matter and the information shown on the BRP is correct according to Home Office records.

We are able to correct certain types of Home Office errors such as spelling mistakes in the name. However, I can confirm the strict rule we adhere to is the name on a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) must match the name as shown in the passport and not any other document.

This is both for security reasons, but also because if the information on the two differs, the customer is likely to experience difficulty in travelling.

You state that currently the order of your names is incorrect. However if you look at the Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) of your passport, you will see that there is no double chevron ‘<<’ between any of your names, the double chevron would designate that the name appearing before it is the family name.

If you are informing us that your passport is incorrect, then you will need to obtain either an Amendment to your current passport or a new passport and make a new application for a Transfer of Conditions

Kind Regards,
XXX

BRP Error Team

Looks like I will need to cope with this issue for the time being. But it would be great if anyone can share their experience as well. I do have Malaysian friend who has right format (Last name and first name on his driving license first row and second row respectively).

[ywlgy]

Maybe you can ask the Malaysian embassy to add an observation on your passport saying "Your family name is X and your first name is Y" and ask UKVI to correct it according to this?