Today I started the renewal process for my and my wife's UK passports as they are coming up to the 10 year date of issue. The passport office required me to send paper copies of all the pages (blank or not) of all the other valid passports I have.
1 I don't see what's in my other passports has to do with the UK passport office. I might accept that they might want to know what other nationalities I have, but not all the stamps and visas in those passports. That's none of their business. I strongly suspect that this information is going straight to one of the UK security agencies, without me being informed or having given my consent. I would contend that this is a major breach of GDPR as this limits the collection of personal information to that needed to carry out business.
2 Are the UK passport office still living in the stone age? I happen to have 2 other passports, Swiss and French, my wife has a Swiss passport. That was over 100 pages to photocopy, mostly blank pages. My French passport is completely empty. Has the UK passport office never heard of scanning? Having uploaded my passport photos, couldn't we have uploaded the passport pages? The packet I had to mail weighed nearly 500 g.
Lost my passport, filled in a form online, got someone to online verify my identity, five weeks later, new passport on its way.
I'll shortly become Swiss. Hopefully by the time it comes to renew the British passport, the system will be as streamlined as it is for single passport holders.
Anyway - nationality and having a passport are different things. So you don't need to deny you're Swiss. Just forget to tell them about your passport.
After Brexit GDPR doesn’t seem to apply anymore to the UK.
It might help in a minor way but if you have to copy multiple pages, scan them all first to a PDF app then set your printer to print double sided and with two pages per side. You then use much less paper.
You don't have to print one page per sheet, scan the passport and combine 4 pages per A4 sheet works, reducing the sheets by a quarter or more.
I don't think they care about your trips. It is more to be sure that you are using the same names for your other passports and you have not e.g. changed your name on the swiss passport. They need all pages as there could be mentions 'the person is also known as... '
From within the UK you have to physically send all foreign passports and they will get send back to you. From abroad they accept photocopies. Here is the an official explanation in these lines (thanks to Google):
Passports: Dual Nationality
Question for Home Office, tabled on 18 May 2021
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
To ask Her Majesty's Government why dual country nationals are required to send their original foreign passport to the Home Office when applying to renew their UK passport; and what consideration they have given to allowing those individuals to instead supply a certified copy.
Answered on 2 June 2021
Lord Greenhalgh
Where a dual national holds a passport issued by another country, HM Passport Office requires this to be provided in support of a British passport application as part of its range of checks to confirm the applicant’s identity and eligibility. This includes ensuring the British passport is issued in the same identity the holder uses for all official purposes.
We ask customers to send their original document to allow physical checks ensure it is genuine, and we can return it during the application process if requested. In countries where legal restrictions prevent a customer submitting their passport as part of their application, a ‘local service’ is in place to submit the application so officials can check the original document and send a copy to HM Passport Office in the UK.
I can’t help but feel the Foreign Office needs to be dismantled and be replaced by a more practical department. As they seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for the ordinary citizen.
The only land border the UK has with a foreign state is undocumented and unsupervised so if you have a doggy passport it’s not really a challenge to by pass the checks.
They have no passport control with Ireland and about 6m Irish passport holders live in the UK, people who are legally entitled to hold passports in two different names. Does anyone really expect the average Bobby to realize that Seamus Ó Murchadh and James Murphy is in fact the same person.
You should be grateful that British bureaucracy has increased its efficiency over the centuries - I imagine in "the colonies", you'd still have to submit the bumf in triplicate
I'll answer this, for my daughter (not a UK citizen). Her other two countries of citizenship require that she enter on the passport of that country if she is a citizen. She has the Swiss one because she lives here and it's convenient to use it for travel.
You realise you don't send the actual passports in apart from the expiring UK one - just photocopies. It adds to the postal charges - thus it would be cheaper for me to upload the PDF. We already have to upload the photograph.
Since Brexit, I make sure to travel out of CH showing the Swiss passport to the border guard, in to the UK on the UK passport, and from UK to CH, Swiss passport at all stages. For travel to (e.g.) the Netherlands, MrsNickAndBasel and NickAtBaselJnr took their Dutch passports - though it being Schengen we did not need to produce them anywhere, but there is always the chance you get some uppity jobsworth insisting.
My point was - one passport (the Swiss one) would have sufficed for all those occasions.
It used to be useful to have two passports when travelling to different countries where having a stamp for one country could prevent entry to another and that may still be the case.
There are a few other odd scenarios in long-duration travel when having two passports is useful - when entry visas have an expiry date and these visas can only be obtained in one's home country.
In normal circumstances, I would agree. However, since Brexit I have read of cases (too lazy to Google or find a link) of UK citizens with dual nationality being snarled up by UK immigration jobsworths when trying to enter the UK on the non-UK passport.
My main reasons to visit the UK these days are to spend time with my ageing dad since my mother died earlier this year - and honestly I prefer the path of least resistance when travelling.
[edit - sorry if you replied while I was typing this]
In regard to the Dutch passport, the Netherlands are very difficult about their citizens having more than one nationality - exceptions including being born in a country whose nationality you apply for, or being born to a parent of another nationality. We keep the Dutch passport going as NickatbaselJnr would risk losing Dutch nationality if it is not renewed. The UK one - well, you never know. The Swiss one as he was born here and it makes sense to have Swiss nationality to be fully integrated.
When he reaches adulthood, he can decide for himself which nationalities he keeps or not. Until then I'll not make the decision for him.