Home Office Certificate of Identity

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:09 pm

Further to my recent posts about the South African government taking forever to issue full South African passports and the recent decision by the UK government to forbid the use of temporary South African passports when entering/leaving the UK, does anyone know if an unacceptable delay in issuing a passport is accepted by the Home Office as a good reason to issue a Home Office Certificate of Identity?

I know the rules state:

Applicants with:

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)
Exceptional Leave to Enter (following an unsuccessful Asylum application)
Exceptional Leave to Remain (following an unsuccessful Asylum application)
Discretionary Leave to Remain (following an unsuccessful Asylum application)
Humanitarian Protection (following an unsuccessful Asylum application),
must complete section 7a of the application form, providing documentary evidence that you have been unreasonably refused a Passport by your own national authority. This evidence should be obtained before applying for a Home Office Travel Document, and will require you to apply for a passport from your Embassy or High Commission.

If your passport application is formally and unreasonably refused, the refusal letter should be submitted with your application for a Home Office Travel Document as documentary evidence.

If it has been accepted that you have a fear of the authorities of your country, a letter from your Embassy or High Commission may not be necessary. The letter sent when your application for asylum was decided will tell you whether we have accepted this aspect of your claim or not. If you have not been allowed you to stay for this reason, but for some other reason instead (such as your family circumstances or medical condition), you must still try to obtain a passport.

This criteria will be waived for nationals who do not have an Embassy in the UK.

but surely they might be willing to waive this if the delay is unjustified?

Kayalami · Post by **Kayalami** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 10:43 pm

The timeline for issuance of a RSA passport is a matter for the government of RSA to determine and IMHO any action by a country that interferes with this such as the issuance of a Home Office Certificate of Identity on grounds of 'delay' is one of needless medling. In any case a Certificate of Identity to all intents and purposes is of no use for travelling - I am not aware of any country that accepts them since they do not guarantee re-entry to the issuing state. If your intention is thus to obtain such for travel purposes I doubt it will be of any use to you even if you were to obtain one.

ppron747 · Post by **ppron747** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 11:20 pm

I agree with the premise that a C of I would be unlikely to be issued simply because of the tardiness of the applicant's home country, but surely, if a C of I is issued for other reasons, it can be endorsed with the holder's immigration status, which would (in the case of ILR/ILE or other long term statuses) give other countries the assurance they need to issue a visit visa? What otherwise is the point of a C of I?

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:18 am

What option does a South African then have if he wants to urgently travel from the UK to a third country while waiting for his passport to be issued?

In any case a Certificate of Identity to all intents and purposes is of no use for travelling - I am not aware of any country that accepts them since they do not guarantee re-entry to the issuing state.

The issuing state in this case is the UK and surely they do guarantee entry because the Home Office only issues them to people who have leave to remain in the UK and therefore are guaranteed of being readmitted.

ppron747 · Post by **ppron747** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 1:38 am

Dawie wrote:What option does a South African then have if he wants to urgently travel from the UK to a third country while waiting for his passport to be issued?

I don't know, Dawie, but I have a nasty feeling that, were the question to be asked of IND, the answer may well be "not our problem"... (Although they may attempt to cloak it in more diplomatic language!)

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:58 am

I think you would be pretty much f***ed in this situation to be honest. Stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place until your passport works its way through the system.

Kayalami · Post by **Kayalami** » Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:09 pm

ppron747 wrote:I agree with the premise that a C of I would be unlikely to be issued simply because of the tardiness of the applicant's home country, but surely, if a C of I is issued for other reasons, it can be endorsed with the holder's immigration status, which would (in the case of ILR/ILE or other long term statuses) give other countries the assurance they need to issue a visit visa? What otherwise is the point of a C of I?

Only nationals/ citizens (or say for the UK others with specified status i.e ROA) of a country are guaranteed re-entry into the relevant state. The Home Office certificate of Identity has no bearing on a person's national status. Consequently it is possible that if for some reason the holder is refused admission into the UK he/she would have to be returned to their departure point (e.g. Paris) or a country to which they are a national (e.g. RSA). Its usually logistically easier to return the person to their departure point (in this case Paris). As the person has no travel document of a country he/she is a national (e.g. RSA ppt) he/she can end up being stuck at the departure point (in this case Paris) and there is nothing the French can do since they can't send the person either to the UK or RSA.

For this reason most countries (including France) do not accept the Home Office COI as a travel document. They will however accept a Refugee Travel Document as they guarantee re-entry into the issuing state. The OP may wish to contact the relvant consulates of the countries in question to see whether they will accept a COI as a travel document. Perhaps some will be amenable to such especially if it has a settlement endorsment.

Post by **JAJ** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 2:28 am

Kayalami wrote:For this reason most countries (including France) do not accept the Home Office COI as a travel document.

Are you saying they don't accept it without a (French/Schengen) visa, or that they don't accept it at all?

Kayalami · Post by **Kayalami** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 6:35 pm

JAJ wrote:Are you saying they don't accept it without a (French/Schengen) visa, or that they don't accept it at all?

They don't accept it period.

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Home Office Certificate of Identity

Home Office Certificate of Identity