Lost an ICFN two weeks before an urgent flight

[John__Smith]

I've lost my partner's ICFN card.

They need to fly out to Asia (urgently) where they are a national.

We've been married for over two years and living together in the UK for almost 4, where they were originally on a student visa here.

My conversation with someone at the Border Agency suggested that they would be able to leave the country, but may not be allowed re-admittance. We could start the process of reissuing the card, but the biometrics would take over four weeks to be arranged, at which time they'd already be out of the country. I thought that maybe I could mail the new card out to them to return with, but they (and I) need to surrender passports to the BA. Additionally, I need to fly at the same time, to a different destination, so I can't release mine either.

I thought the whole idea of biometric cards was that so they would be unforgeable, and easy to re-issue, but it seems that they want to run the whole process again - as though somehow they'd be able to change their fingerprints in that time.

If anyone has any experiences or advice in this situation, I'd be really grateful to hear it.

Thanks again to the moderators for providing this forum.

John