UKM Form, Biometrics And Passports....Am I Doing This Right?

[BillOddieHell]

First up, doing a friendly wave from chilly Sydney! Hello to all on this forum. Okay, so my situation is this. Mum was naturalised as a UK citizen way back in the early 1950's, along with her parents when they as Anglo-Indians left after India's Independence in 1947. My late Father, also an A-I, had come in Britain and was naturalised in the early 1950's. They met, married, my Sis was born in London, and as part of the wave of 'Ten Pound Pom' skilled migrants, immigrated and settled here in 1968. I was born here in Sydney in 1971, now I'm 45, and Mum will be turning 78. In their latter years, both parents successfully applied for Australian Citizenships, and have never broken their UK citizenry....been both dual's up until Dad's passing in 2015. We're both looking at settling in the UK, Mum for the fact that she's homesick and we have family in Surrey and elsewhere, and me as I'm looking at better prospects in my profession.

So after a lot of checking, double checking, phone enquiries etc, and being pretty damn sure I got things right, I downloaded the UKM form (which I fall under, born to British Mum prior to 1983) plus two passport applications for Mum and myself. Prior to our short trip to the UK at the beginning of this month (3rd-16th June to repatriate Dad's ashes, see family, and for me to tour around a bit) I did the passport app's online, filling in all the doco information and then paid and downloaded the form whilst in London, which we were able to get countersigned by a family friend who's a UK-registered nurse there on the 14th June, just before we flew back. Contacted the UK passport office when we got back who said they need the countersigned forms along with supporting documents....straightforward thing....I'm ex Aussie public service, so form filling and protocol I do in my sleep. They were even friendly enough to say that there is no problem to wait for any POI to come from the UK Home Office guys who are handling my Citizenship application, so long as both departments were kept informed of what I'm doing with cover letters on both my applications (the Citizenship guys needed my original Aussie passport, birth cert, Mum's birth cert (baptism/birth cert in her case, as this was common practice for POI in British India, which is how she got her UK papers and passport many moons ago) and her UK Naturalisation. Fair enough. But now there's this:

Filled out the UKM form to the best of my ability, being a stickler for details. And of course, had to list any stuff like driving offences, traffic fines etc (dunno what London is like as a driver, but here in Sydney they'll fine you if you bloody sneeze the wrong way in your car!) so yeah, been the straight-forward honest Bob....of course as a young 'un, wasn't an angel, but nothing that was remotely arrestable, and more importantly, all fines and penalties were promptly paid. But now there's this: after going around the mulberry bush online via the Gov.UK sites, related agencies and their helplines, spoke to the UK Consulate here yesterday morning to be told that if I'm sending a UKM form off, that I can't send it WITHOUT the BRP details as they could reject my citizenship application.....yet for all a) That's why I'm sending the form off, as surely under the clauses I'm eligible for citizenry, right? b) I've only been in the UK just this once as a tourist only, so how could I even have a BRP from the authorities? and c) questions on the UKM form ask if you have ever been issued a BRP, had fingerprints recorded etc by authorities, which of course is no.

So my dilemma is this: Passport app's were just sent yesterday by express mail. They'll get them in 4 days max. All supporting doc's plus a correctly filled and countersigned UKM form is ready to go. I've even arranged with a London cousin to receive all doc's plus citizenship cert from the UKHO once the app is processed, so that way she can pass on as my nominee all the remaining support doc's to the Passport guys. I've got the correct addresses and all. But now, of all people, the UK Consulate here say I could balls-up the whole process by not having biometric details on my UKM form, and I need to register for a visa and so on. I mean, yesterday I registered onto the Visa4UK site, but haven't as yet scrolled through for visa application yet. So who's saying the right thing here when it comes to concurrent applications (citizen and passport applications)....me or the UK Consulate?

Extremely frustrated, despite the stiff upper lip. Oh, and sorry for the mini-novel, but, well.....hopefully you people may understand. Cheers.

[a_powers]

Trying to understand your situation, both mother and father are naturalized UK citizens? So you wouldn't need form UKM as you would inherit citizenship via your father. You would just need to go straight for the passport as you are already a UK citizen.

[BillOddieHell]

Trying to understand your situation, both mother and father are naturalized UK citizens? So you wouldn't need form UKM as you would inherit citizenship via your father. You would just need to go straight for the passport as you are already a UK citizen.

Cheers mate! The only thing is that the passport section will still need my Citizen Cert though, am I right? And the way I got to get that particular cert is with her and my doc's that I mentioned...her naturalisation cert, her and mine birth certs plus my Aussie passport. I mean, if the Passport Office guys say that dear Ol' Dad's passport, UK Nat Cert and even a UK travel document that was issued for him when he was emigrating here in 1968 is sufficient POI for me anyway, then really.....rather than hanging around waiting for biometrics in order to send the UKM form off, I may as well keep my Aussie passport Oz-side and send the other supporting documents straight off to the passport guys. But the problem still is the actual citizenship document itself.....won't I need that for POI once we decide to emigrate, which is why we're trying to get this all in order in the first place? Or do the UK Border Control guys just wave you through with just holding the passport itself? We really want to do this right from the get-go!

[CR001]

If your father/mother were naturalised BEFORE you were born you are automatically British and can apply for a passport directly.

The passport form is used for a number of people applying through various routes. Leave the cert number blank, you don't have one. You are British by descent.

[noajthan]

Trying to understand your situation, both mother and father are naturalized UK citizens? So you wouldn't need form UKM as you would inherit citizenship via your father. You would just need to go straight for the passport as you are already a UK citizen.

Cheers mate! The only thing is that the passport section will still need my Citizen Cert though, am I right? And the way I got to get that particular cert is with her and my doc's that I mentioned...her naturalisation cert, her and mine birth certs plus my Aussie passport. I mean, if the Passport Office guys say that dear Ol' Dad's passport, UK Nat Cert and even a UK travel document that was issued for him when he was emigrating here in 1968 is sufficient POI for me anyway, then really.....rather than hanging around waiting for biometrics in order to send the UKM form off, I may as well keep my Aussie passport Oz-side and send the other supporting documents straight off to the passport guys. But the problem still is the actual citizenship document itself.....won't I need that for POI once we decide to emigrate, which is why we're trying to get this all in order in the first place? Or do the UK Border Control guys just wave you through with just holding the passport itself? We really want to do this right from the get-go!

If you're not naturalised because you are British by descent you don't need a certificate

Just supply father's documents from the passport guidance.
Have you checked it?

If you come back to UK on Australian passport and apply in UK it may be quicker:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... ssport.pdf
- these forms and guides are generic and tricky, read carefully: see Table B

(And chuck the UKM form on the barbie - goodie goodie yum yum).

[a_powers]

Trying to understand your situation, both mother and father are naturalized UK citizens? So you wouldn't need form UKM as you would inherit citizenship via your father. You would just need to go straight for the passport as you are already a UK citizen.

Cheers mate! The only thing is that the passport section will still need my Citizen Cert though, am I right? And the way I got to get that particular cert is with her and my doc's that I mentioned...her naturalisation cert, her and mine birth certs plus my Aussie passport. I mean, if the Passport Office guys say that dear Ol' Dad's passport, UK Nat Cert and even a UK travel document that was issued for him when he was emigrating here in 1968 is sufficient POI for me anyway, then really.....rather than hanging around waiting for biometrics in order to send the UKM form off, I may as well keep my Aussie passport Oz-side and send the other supporting documents straight off to the passport guys. But the problem still is the actual citizenship document itself.....won't I need that for POI once we decide to emigrate, which is why we're trying to get this all in order in the first place? Or do the UK Border Control guys just wave you through with just holding the passport itself? We really want to do this right from the get-go!

I am not an expert on these things, but wouldn't your UK passport be proof of citizenship? Don't think you need much else.

[BillOddieHell]

If your father/mother were naturalised BEFORE you were born you are automatically British and can apply for a passport directly.

The passport form is used for a number of people applying through various routes. Leave the cert number blank, you don't have one. You are British by descent.

Cheers for that! Dunno if a question of mine has by accident popped up on one of your posts on this here thread (flipping from page to page here on my computer juggling things here atm) but I'd assume that the Passport Office are the geezers who accord you your new biometric information on your passports.....pretty much like how we got our new biometric Aussie passports?

Sorry for being such a newb to all this, but given our personal circumstances over her in Sydney, a few years back we weren't even contemplating this sort of stuff whilst Dad was around, because even if we could back then, we'd be unable to due to his ill health. Now, especially with our family situation and my working and personal circumstances, we think it might be a struggle at first, but we're in the right frame of mind to do The Big Move. For Mum, that will be nothing as she's done the moves from India to post-war UK, UK back to India briefly before returning to train as a Nursing Sister, then did the big long six-week boat haul all the way out here, so she's a heckuva tough old bird even at her age, saying that the travel and immigrating game is a lark for generations in our family....a lot of our professions demanded it. For me, it's a whole new ball game, but I think I have the nerves to do it. Lucky we have family on both ends of the divide that have the nous to help and give advice and so on.

[ohara]

HM Passport office are the ones who process the passport applications. There is no biometric information submission required; UK passports do not yet store fingerprints and the photos you provide are scanned in digitally by HMPO.