Re:Travel after declaring BRP stolen outside the UK

[TricolorGav]

Namaskar,

I am posting this to let me know what I did in a similar situation as I couldn't find much on this when I was freaking out about potentially not being let back into the UK. As a disclaimer, this is not official advice and is only what I did in my situation. I cannot guarantee that you will be let into the country if you follow my steps.

I’m born, brought-up and studied in Aamchi Mumbai and in UK on ICT VISA. I’m living and working in the UK for the past 6 years and went on holiday to the French Riviera with my Mrs. & parents, where my rental Car was vandalised and backpack stolen that had my BRP cards, bank cards, GB licence & electronic devices. I was freaking out about trying to get back on my flight and enter back into London through Stansted airport.


The official guidance from the UK.GOV website is to cancel your BRP card immediately online and apply for a One-off Visa which cost similar to getting a passport issued abroad. You are restricted to getting advice during office hours which is frustrating. The British consulate will not help you as Visas are not their concern as this has been outsourced to a third party that manages the process (TLS Contact) Also, as I was not a British citizen they wouldn't help me anyway. The Indian Consulate consulate did a speedy one day service in providing a duplicate passport( I had to use ‘jugad’ ) and were extremely accommodating and helpful. Ofcourse, they couldn't help as they do not help with UK visa problems.

As stated above, visas are handled by a third-party provider which I believe make money off every step of the overly bureaucratic process. The BRP card is not your visa but proof of your Visa so why should I apply for a one-off visa that can take several days/weeks from a foreign country? - It should be noted you can of course pay crazy fees to prioritise your application but can still take at least one working week and filling the application form online is alone is similar to the long process you had to go through when applying for your original Visa.

In the end I decided to bite the bullet,I did cancel my BRP card online but decided to forgo the stupid one-off visa process and take my chances with the Stupid/ coach and border control.

So, first we all travelled from Marseille to Paris through National Rail service run by SNCF. Once in the capital, we made our way to the Indian Embassy in Paris ( 20 Rue Albéric Magnard); closest Metro station is La Muette.
Before heading there make sure you have originals, photocopies and digital copies of the docs mentioned in this link -
https://www.eoiparis.gov.in/page/passport-services/
Get in first thing as they close office for general public by 11:30 am.

Stage 2 for us was to visit the TLS contact office to initiate the process for our one-time UK visa, which as mentioned above is pricey and temporary. We scouted through the internet and had mixed views/ experiences of individuals who have tried this method. It was a method of perseverance, faith and luck; so all agreed to take this chance.

Compared all our travel options and National Express was the reasonable choice for our first attempt. Booked 4 tickets from CDG to London Victoria for €56. A journey of 7.5 hours with three stops; 1 services,2 border control and 3 channel crossing.
On the day of travel we were checked-in by our coach driver without any ID/Doc checks. Had our first stop in an hour at a services for 20 mins.
Second stop was at the border control with French Officials, explained them the situation and provided docs ( please photocopies of lost BRP, old passport with observation page displaying valid Schengen visa and police report originals.
Passed through the French officials without a hiccup and was advised to show same set of docs to the UK officials.
At the UK Border Control, again reiterated the situation. They couldn’t verify details for my Mrs. and me through our Indian passport or biometrics. We were asked to step into a waiting area while they do further checks. 15 minutes pass, and the official walks back to us with a big smile and gives us the ‘Thumbs-up’. He was able to verify us through some other database and confirmed that Home Office have received our emails reporting our BRP cards are stolen.

We were allowed entry and that was that. I heard that this process is at the discretion of the Border Control Officer so I guess it depends if you get a nice one. The process was actually faster and easier than experiences I’ve had at any airports with my BRP card.

So we are back to the beautiful weather that England has to offer, but hey-ho at least we are home.

Hopes this helps some out there.

Good luck!
G.

[Zerubbabel]

That was an adventure. Happy you made it back.

The worst thing that can happen to you is to lose your passport and BRP abroad. Here, you were lucky it was in France so you could approach the Home Office officials as you may find them either in Calais or Paris, Gare du Nord and other places. But the same issue happening elsewhere, would be even harder to manage.

While reading your post, I guessed it was in Marseilles area. Marseilles is a lawless place in France. If you park your vehicle there with valuables, it will be broken into. It's not a risk, it's a certainty. Once they see foreigners around, they always go to the car to see what they can steal.

Add Marseilles to your no-go list.

[iwolga]

What you did was close to suicide mission! Glad it all went - relatively - smooth. I bet you will never leave docs in the car in your life. Experience is always cheap at any price