BristolUK

Okay, I guess there's truth in that.

But if it costs double to renew in Canada instead of the UK, maybe one is more likely to renew this way if one really is in Canada.

The Welshman

Do they still stamp your passport when you leave and enter UK or Canada?

BobbyBuilder

They don't stamp when you leave, but the airline check-in process does scan it which I'm sure retains tracking information. Also when you arrive in the UK, they scan your passport there. I guess the main concern here is if you send it to the UK for renewal, they will run it against their records and see your last entry was into Canada and not the UK at all. This would clearly arouse suspicion and probabally delay the whole process.... hhmmm yeh I think I may have just talked myself back into forking out the extra + doing it here

The Welshman

All they do in uk is wave you through. No clocking/swiping of passport

misplacedheidi

I travel on a UK passport. I landed in Birmingham in May and had to go through UK Border control. I was swiped and scrutinised. Everyone I saw was swiped.
Big brother is watching you!

FWIW and IMO if the website says that you must renew in Canada, do it. Even with PR status, they can still kick you out of the country. So why risk it?
The amount of money spent on getting here, getting PR etc is relatively small compared with the money and worry of sending a passport back to the UK.

adele

Returning into Newcastle from Norway on the (final) DFDS ferry 2 weeks ago I clearly saw the Immigration Officer in the Passport Control booth scan my UK passport and look at the screen before handing my passport back to me...I am sure they can see your movements!

JAJ

There will be nothing on the passport to indicate place of issue other than "FCO" which could be any overseas British mission. Plus maybe serial number.

To add to that, passports aren't stamped on leaving Canada and British passports are not normally stamped on entering the U.K.

Moreover, many countries do allow their citizens to send their passport renewals "home" and quite a few no longer issue any regular passports at overseas missions.

Selsame

Speaking as an ex immigration officer I wouldn't be overly bothered about obtaining a passport in the UK. However UK Customs are always on the lookout for passports in the mail and I'm fairly sure Canadian Border services do the same. This is to intercept bogus identities. It could cause you a problem if they intercepted your documents.

As for the comment about passports not being scanned. Well sorry to burst your bubble Welshman but the UKBA introduced passport scanning of all passports a couple of years back. You passport is also scanned when you leave the UK, not by UKBA, but by the carrier who's system links to UKBA so yes they do know when you come and go, but given the amount of traffic they are only interested in a limited number of people. On rare occasions they suspend swiping UK passports inbound, but only for example when demand is too high.

BTW we often encountered UK residents who held foreign passports. They were required to renew their leave to remain but as this costs £170 and takes months most of them didn't bother. They would carry around their expired passports containing the entry clearance. Back in the day we were allowed to transfer their conditions from the old one to the new for free. Unfortunately a number of immigration officers started exploiting this for financial gain amongst their immigrant friends so the government took away the option.

BristolUK

There are all kinds of indicators in passports. It could be something in the number that indicates where it's been issued. There is another number tucked away in my FCO issued passport. That could show it too.

There are other things that show up using special equipment that we don't know about.

I was on an anti fraud course once and immigration officials showed us a couple of things that were real eye openers. I can't tell you what because I'd have to kill you.

One thing was a red line that wasn't really a line at all.

But my main point is the passport holder may claim to have not left Canada while presenting a passport only issued to someone who was in the UK.

kastan

My passport runs out this November, but i cannot apply to take my citizenship test till next March.So if i apply to renew my UK passport for ten years,and then next year become a Canadian citizen.And I travel on my UK passport because i will still have roughly 9 years left on it,does this cause any problems when i return to Canada via a holiday in say France,because i am travelling on a UK passport but i am a Canadian citizen and live in Canada.

cornmatthew

You can certainly continue to hold your British passport after you become Canadian.

In principle, you can travel on it and use your certificate of citizenship to prove your status when you return to Canada.

You'd still be wise to get a Canadian passport, though. It's a lot quicker to replace if lost than a citizenship certificate, and won't confuse airlines that expect Canadians to travel on Canadian documents.

There's no need to give up your British passport when you do that; you can carry on using it for entry to the UK and for other countries (such as those in the EU) that offer smoother entry to British citizens.

JAJ

It is not illegal to mail/courier passports, except in certain countries (eg India).

JAJ

If they know all this, then they'll also know that it is perfectly ok to apply for a passport while visiting the United Kingdom.

MarkG

BTW, my new passport arrived back from Ottawa 12 days after we sent off the application.

BristolUK

Yes...but that was not my point. It is indeed okay to renew the passport while visiting the UK. But this passport holder may at some future point be returning to Canada and there may be issues as to whether he has maintained entitlement to PR status. When he claims to have resided in Canada for whatever period it looks a bit odd if he holds a passport that was issued while he was supposedly away from Canada.

Right from my 2nd post (nearly 30 posts back) I have clearly been suggesting that giving officials the impression you were outside of Canada on a particular date may look very odd and arouse suspicion when later on you claim you were not outside Canada on that date.

Remember that one must reside in Canada for minimum periods to maintain PR status. If Immigration officials conclude you were outside of Canada (because of the UK issued passport) then maybe that's no longer straightforward. And when you start contradicting that passport maybe you look a dit dodgy.

And if you broke rules to obtain that passport under false pretenses, then just what else might you mislead officials about?


Whether it's illegal to mail passports is not the point. Applying for a renewal using a method explicitly not allowed is the subject. If a passport goes missing or is intercepted, the issue at stake is the inappropriate method of renewal application, NOT the mailing of the passport.