Misalignment of EU & British Passport Name

[ziggy7777]

I am an EU citizen with settled status; before acquiring settled status I had PR. My young kiddo is a dual national of the EU country I am from and Britain. She has had a British passport all her life. Last year I also got her an EU passport. A few weeks ago I applied online to renew her British passport, due to expire this summer. The form asked if the child has dual nationality, I clicked on yes and it then asked for the EU passport to be sent in along with the British one. This was no problem and of course I did that.

A few days ago I received a letter saying my daughter's UK passport and EU passport have a misalignment in her first name. Her name is Louisa, written Louisa in her British passport and British birth certificate, but spelled Louiza in her EU passport. The last name is aligned just fine, the issue is literally the s that has turned into a z in the first name. The letter from the passport office directed me to amend the EU passport. I contacted the embassy to do this, but alas this is not possible due to official government guidance from that EU country. They use a very specific spelling guide that mandates them to spell names phonetically on all official documents and they cannot deviate from that or amend the spelling of the first name. I have requested an official response from them indicating that and that the passport cannot be amended.

I contacted the passport office immediately to let them know this was the case and they said that despite this not being something I caused, despite there being a letter from the issuing EU authority indicating this was the case and that the spelling cannot be amended because of their official guidance that it would then be down to the individual case worker whether they would accept this and renew my daughter's British passport or not? Is this true? Is there nothing I can actually do in this process other than hope the case worker accepts the official response from the EU issuing authority? My kiddo lives here and has lived here all her life. This is her country. I really don't care that much about her having an EU passport; she needs to have her UK one...

I would really appreciate any advice about this or any tips if anyone's been through this or something like this before... I'm just not sure what else to do!

Thanks a million!

Ziggy7777

[alterhase58]

This is an unfortunate issue that many dual national applicants encounter, especially after naturalisation. HMPO insist that names are the same across all travel documents (i.e. passports). My understanding is that if the issuing authority of the foreign passport refuses to change details then they should provide an official explanation/letter confirming. It appears you have requested such a letter? Once received you should submit that to HMPO - they won't accept anything over the phone.

FYI - thread on this issue going back to 2016: british-citizenship/new-policy-regardin ... 16754.html

[ziggy7777]

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply!

I absolutely understand the insistence that the names are the same across all travel documents from the HMPO, but this isn't an error in the spelling of the name made by another country. It is official guidance from the EU country issuing the foreign passport re how names should be spelled on their official documents and they are unable to deviate from it; their system will not allow them to change the z into an s... It's honestly surreal!

Yes, absolutely. I have requested a letter from the issuing authority of the EU passport confirming they cannot change the z to an s in my kiddo's first name and explaining why - according to their official guidance - they cannot do this. I will submit the letter to the HMPO as soon as it is received, but the UK passport office let me know on the phone that even after this letter is submitted the decision to renew or not will be down to the individual case worker because of the misalignment? Which also seems a bit surreal... Is there anything else I could possibly do in this situation to renew my kiddo's British passport?

[alterhase58]

Interesting to hear that the HMPO Helpline suggests it's down to a caseworker as to what change they accept or not.
The helpline people may not be as close to policy as one might expect - caseworkers need to give consideration on specific circumstances.
Following on from the link I provided earlier I would suggest you read document "Annex A: use of names in passports" (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... t_2016.pdf) in particular page 7 "Exceptions". Even attach a printout of that document or the section. This is nothing new to HMPO.

[ziggy7777]

A very strange thing occured.

I received a call from the HMPO caseworker pointing me to yet another difference between the two passports, that of a hyphen or the absence of one between two last names and the need for the other country's issuing authority to produce a letter explaining the hyphen issue too. I thanked the caseworker and said I would obviously do that as a matter of urgency. The renewal application was put on hold.

I then contacted the EU country's issuing authority to ask for the updated letter (about the hyphen too), so I could forward it to the HM Passport Office and unfreeze the application that was on hold. I'd printed off the policy you kindly sent and written an accompanying letter etc and then one day, out of nowhere, I got an e-mail to say the passport renewal had been approved and the passport printed and sent out. I'm not entirely sure what on earth happened or why to unfreeze the renewal, but thought I'd update the thread for anyone who happened to bump on it in the future so they had the info of what actually happened.

[alterhase58]

Thanks for the update - it's good to know that eventually the application was pushed through.
Just guessing that HMPO internal review found the hyphen wasn't an issue at all. Perhaps an over-zealous caseworker? HMPO do have discretion for certain changes, such as replacing special letters (Umlaut, circumflex, etc.) with the nearest English character.
In any case it seems the worst is over and just need to wait for the passport - check carefully in case they made a mistake!