UK2toUSA

Hi All,

I was talking to someone in office who told me that if you have British passport and you live abroad you MUST keep visiting UK at least once in 3 years so as to avoid UK government confiscating your passport – I think it cannot be true can you please share your inputs.

Also what happens if one losses his/her passport in USA and want to apply for new one – what is process of it?

Kindly provide your inputs on above -

Best Regards

Pulaski

Er, complete and utter bö11ocks!

I can't remember ever reading such twaddle on BE, and that is saying something!

Either they were pulling your leg, or had confused the holding of a British passport (which is of course a life long right and irrevocable if you were born a British citizen, with the possible exception of if you are a dual national and involved in terrorism, such as ISIS/ ISIL/ Daesh, and even naturalized citizens can't lose their citizenship without being involved in something like terrorism) with the right of certain foreigners to reside in the UK, e.g. foreign spouses, who can lose their "indefinite right to remain" if they are out of the UK for more than two years.

If you need to renew your passport, or replace a lost one, you just apply on line. At the moment it takes about 2-3 weeks to send in the photos and any papers and receive it back in the US.

sir_eccles

Hang on, there's someone at the door...

vikingsail

My response to this is that the next time you are at the water cooler you carefully introduce this fact based story...

Did you know that the teabags without a string and small paper label attached are the 'pre-swung' variety. They come that way so you can conveniently use them straight out of the box. Much like wine needs to mature tea needs to be aerated. The tea bags you see often sold in the USA with a string attached are not pre-swung. Thus one needs to carefully open and swing in a circular motion about 10 tens to introduce air into the bag before making tea.

I have successfully introduced this concept into many US workplaces over the last 18 years. The culmination, where I barely held my own mouthful of tea down was when I walked into a conference room to hear this explanation and demonstration being reexplained to an attentive audience.

BritInParis

As already mentioned by Pulaski that is completely untrue. British citizenship is retained for life unless revoked by the Home Secretary if you obtained it fraudulently or it is considered to be 'conducive to the public good' which usually means you've joined ISIS.

Non-British citizens who hold Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK and reside elsewhere for more than two years automatically lose their ILR status in the UK which maybe where the rumour started.

If you lose your British passport whilst abroad then you just complete the same application online as you would do normally except that you also complete Form LS01 which reports your passport lost or stolen.

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

Asg123

No, as has been said above, if you're a British citizen this is not necessary. But if you're a UK resident (non-citizen) you have to be very careful not to be outside the country for over 2 years, because whereas a US green card holder who loses his residence, as long as he has close family who are US citizens, can get back to the US, a UK resident can't.

UK2toUSA

Thanks all for your inputs.. i just wanted to get confirmation from you all and in peace now.

TimFountain

But the UK government is slowly limiting voting and other activities to citizens who are no longer in the UK, such as the recent EU Brexit CF on expat voting and the 15 year "out of the country" limit to expats who wish to vote in general elections. Both complete BS IMHO and yes, I have been out of the UK for more than 15 years now. Still I have other reasons not to vote that have nothing to do with the UK and more to do with what the US government says about that activity.

Pulaski

What does the US government say about "that activity"?

Nutmegger

I've been gone a lot more than 15 years and feel that I have given up any right to influence the government, at any level, of a country that is no longer my home.

Guindalf

I had precisely zero interest in politics when I lived in England and loved the time I only had a green card. That meant a legit reason NOT to get involved in political discussions as I couldn't vote anyway!

Now, as a USC, I CAN vote and I now have to decide between a moron or a bigger moron!


I know that I'll probably vote for one of the independents so I can say "Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him/her"!!!

mikelincs

The UK has promised, in this Parliament, to remove the 15 year limit, so all expats would have the right to vote.

BritInParis

Actually the reverse is true - this government is looking to remove the long standing time limit on expat voting. The Conservatives were elected on a manifesto to remove the 15 year limit in this Parliament.

I'd echo Pulaski's question - what does the US government say about British expats voting?

rpjs

I think the limit used to be a lot shorter, five or ten years. I think it was Major's govt that made it 15. Tories like ex-pats to have the vote as they think we're more likey to vote for them.

Well for LPRs if it's voting in the US, probably they'd be unhappy as almost all franchises here require citizenship. I can't see they'd give a flying wotsit about non-USC expats voting in their home countries' elections.

They used to be upset with naturalised citizens voting in home country elections and tried to take away US citizenship for doing so, but SCOTUS ruled in Afroyim v. Rusk that that was unconstitutional.

Pulaski

So that was 1967, which sounds like it was part of what led the US to give up on formally objecting to dual citizenship, which IIRC came along just a very few years later.