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Referee requirements for citizenship and passport

Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 7:06 pm
by sparks_yulu
Hi all,

I'm about to apply citizenship and passport together through NCS. On the NCS website for passport application section, it says "you do not need to complete section 10 nor have the two photographs certified. Details of referees will be collected as part of the citizenship application."

For citizenship application, I have one referee with professional standing but without a British Passport and the other is the other way around. This satisfies the referee criteria asked for citizenship application.

For British Passport application, it asks for a referee who is British and with professional standing.

I wonder if the above two I have given for both applications are good enough or I have to make sure one referee has both British Passport and professional standing.

I'm asking as I'm a bit struggle to find such a person :-(

Many thanks for your advice,

Yu

Re: Referee requirements for citizenship and passport

Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 7:27 pm
by IcikePicike
Only one has to be a British citizen but if the other isn't, they have to be of professional standing.

Both my referees were British but only one was of professional standing (accountant), the other was my former boss. Can you ask someone you used to work for or with? Then you could perhaps have two Brits

Re: Referee requirements for citizenship and passport

Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:06 am
by sparks_yulu
Sorry IcikePicike, the one you have answered is the criteria for citizenship.

For British Passport application, on the website, it asks for a referee with both British Passport and Professional Standing. But since I apply both together through NCS I wonder if it is fine to have one with each (British Passport or Professional Standing) only.

Many thanks,

Yu

Re: Referee requirements for citizenship and passport

Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:45 am
by IcikePicike
Third party weblink removed by moderator

Well, I'll stand to be corrected but I don't believe there is a difference

"Referees for naturalisation, citizenship and passport application must meet certain legal requirements.
1) Personal acquaintance
For adult applications each referee should have known the applicant personally for at least three years. A lot of applicants struggle with this requirement as they don’t know anyone who is willing to say that they have known them personally for that long.
It is therefore advisable to consider these requirements well in advance of making an application to the Home Office.
2) Professional standing

One referee should be a person of professional standing. The acceptable professions are listed in the table at the end of this page.
3) Nationality, profession and age

The other referee must be a British citizen (holder of a British passport), and either a professional person or over the age of 25."

Re: Referee requirements for citizenship and passport

Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 3:22 pm
by sparks_yulu
The above is for British Citizenship application and they have different referee requirement for British passport according to gov.uk.

https://www.gov.uk/countersigning-passport-applications

On local council NCS website, referee information is not required for British Passport application when applying together with British Citizenship. But I wonder if in such case, one of the referees has to have both British Passport and Professional Standing.

Many thanks,

Yu