First British Passport Application - Send old cancelled passport (has ILR stamp) or not?

[Zrl100]

Hi there,
Just looking for some advice please.
I'm applying for my first British Adult Passport after getting my UK Naturalisation Certificate a few weeks ago.

The Passport Office website says to send in the following:
1. Naturalisation or registration certificate
2. The passport used to enter the UK
3. Any current or expired passports from other countries that haven't been cancelled

Now, the thing is that I got my ILR in 2011 & it's a stamp/vignette in my old cancelled passport. It was cancelled back in 2015 (well before it was due to expire in 2019), coz I was required to upgrade to one of those machine readable passports at the time, which the old one wasn't.
This is also the same passport I used when I first entered the UK, a good few years before 2011.

They returned the old cancelled passport back to me after cutting the corner edges off the front cover & it's also stamped cancelled inside, along with my new current passport.

So, since 2015 everytime I've travelled in & out of the UK, I've been using my Current passport along with the old cancelled one to show the ILR stamp. It's worked perfectly fine.

I made my last trip out & back to the UK in May a few weeks ago, shortly before my Citizenship Ceremony. So the immigration officer has stamped my current passport with the dates leaving & entering the UK, upon showing my cancelled passport with the ILR stamp. They've never put any date stamps in my cancelled passport since 2015, always in my current one.

1. I guess I'm asking in a long winded way, should I post my cancelled passport which has the ILR stamp & was used when i first entered the UK well before 2011, along with my current passport & naturalisation certificate? Does the passport office need to see the ILR stamp? Many people going thru this process probably never had an ILR stamp at all in their current passport nor in an expired one & instead had a BRP card of some sort, which they would've returned after getting their Naturalisation Certificate.

I may be overthinking this, but just trying to be careful & avoid any future delays where they email me back saying send the passport you entered the UK with. I read in the forums, something like this happened to an Italian passport holder but in his case he no longer had his old expired passport. In my case, the passport was cancelled before expiry. And they said not send any cancelled passports.

2. I'm planning to use one of those strong cardboard envelopes with 'Do Not Bend' written on the front to post my current passport & Naturalisation Certf & will opt for special delivery, is this the best way? Do I need to put in a cover note, or the sender address which includes the application reference no. written on the front of the envelope enough?

3. I also paid £5 extra for the secure delivery option on the HM Passport Office website when it comes to returning my documents. What I want to know is -
- Do they send back the New UK Passport & the Naturalisation Certificate & Current passport back in 1 envelope or 2 separate ones & are they all special delivery with tracking nos.?
- Are they the strong cardboard type envelopes, or you've got back standard A4 paper envelope/s?
- And have they also gone & folded the Naturalisation Certificate in half by any chance?

Thank you so much for reading, if you got this far.
Much appreciated!

[alterhase58]

1. Post only the current passport, old passport used to first enter and any other expired passports (if any). Note HMPO are not interested in your ILR status (dead now). They are validating the name(s) you have in those passports to ensure they are all the same and agree to the nat. cert. They also examine document features, paper quality, printing, etc to ensure they are not counterfeit.
2. You can pack it as you wish, putting a copy of the ref. number inside can't do any harm. Don't write a cover note explaining everything you have in this post!
3.

I also paid £5 extra for the secure delivery option on the HM Passport Office website when it comes to returning my documents. What I want to know is -
- Do they send back the New UK Passport & the Naturalisation Certificate & Current passport back in 1 envelope or 2 separate ones & are they all special delivery with tracking nos.? Generally new passport and documents are sent separately, with a tracking no. for the passport certainly also often for the documents.
- Are they the strong cardboard type envelopes, or you've got back standard A4 paper envelope/s? Generally they are using paper envelopes.
- And have they also gone & folded the Naturalisation Certificate in half by any chance? it sometimes happen they are folded in half or even more. But don't waste sending them a strong return envelope, they won't use them .... 1000s of passport are produced each week and tracking return envelopes is an additional work step ....

[Zrl100]

Hello,
Thanks for your reply. Very helpful, however I'm not fully resolved in my mind. Its my fault, I wrote too long a post perhaps. I also have a query about how my name & surname is written in my old cancelled Indian passport.

The HM Passport Office have asked me to send them my -
1. Naturalisation certificate (which is fine)
2. The passport used to enter the UK &
3. Any current or expired passports from other countries that haven't been 'cancelled'.

So I need to send all passports that have not been 'cancelled' (usually stamped cancelled) and clipped on the corners, this is different to just an expired passport, in addition to your current passport. Right?

1. My question is should I post my 'cancelled' passport (clipped on the corners & stamped cancelled in 2015 well before it was due to actually expire in 2019) but was used when i first entered the UK well before 2011, along with my current passport & naturalisation certificate?

2. The other reason i'm a little apprehensive about sending in my old 'cancelled' Indian passport is how my name is written in it, ie on the passport photo page it just says Name - where my First Name & Surname is written/showing together. There is no separate heading saing Surname where you would have your actual 'surname' written. There is an empty row/space below but it's blank. I hope that makes sense. This is a well known issue with old Indian passports & many people in the forums have highlighted this issue before.

- So my old cancelled Indian passport was issued in 1999 with 20 years validity, so would have exired in 2019. I think it's the standard 10 yrs now. They no longer do the 20 yrs thing.

- In 1999, in India the authorities were still filling in the passport photo page by hand, and not typed in by a computer. And these passports were not machine readable. They would have a sort of lamination so the hand written stuff couldn't be tampered with if that makes sense.

- This is the passport 'I first entered the UK with' & has also my ILR stamp (which I know is irrelevant for the passport office, they're not looking to see the stamp), only first entered the UK bit, right?

- Luckily, I upgraded to a Machine Readable proper Indian Passport in 2015, valid for 10yrs till 2025 making this my Current Passport and my name issue was sorted too, where my name is written/showing correctly on the passport photo page. There is a row with my First Name - 'actual first name' & another row saying Surname - 'actual surname', all how it should be. My Naturalisation Certificate is also showing my Name as - *Surname* & First Name in that order. So it matches perfectly with my Current Indian Passport.

- So, my worry is should sending in my old 'cancelled' passport with the way it's showing my name cause any issues at the UK passport office? It should'nt right? Coz my name is showing correctly in my Current Indian passport since 2015? What do you guys say, shall I send this cancelled passport in? Coz i dont want them coming back in a week saying, more docus required, send us the passport you first entered the UK, delaying my British Passport Application. Any mods would like to comment?

As always I'm grateful to you all for you help, thank you!

[contorted_svy]

If passports have been cancelled (corner clipped off) no need to send it. Only uncancelled ones.