My young adult son is a dual British and Australian citizen. He received his British certificate of registration last year, when I applied for him and he was granted British citizenship other than by descent, as I had adopted him under the Hague Convention when he was very young, while living in Australia. I am a British citizen by birth.

We were told at the ceremony to apply for the passport, which we duly have. However, my son has been advised that his passport application is on hold as he has to provide a written explanation and evidence as to why he is not applying for the passport from his country of birth, where he has not lived since he was adopted at 2 years old. We sent in his Australian issued birth certificate, Hague convention compliant NSW family court adoption certificate, a photocopy of his Australian passport and his NSW Photo ID card together with the passport application, so I am a bit bewildered as to how the passport office might think he would apply from his country of birth. Would it be enough for my son to handwrite a letter explaining the facts of his adoption with a listing of the evidence already supplied to them?

Secondly, the British citizen who confirmed his identity and who was good enough for the Home Office while processing his citizenship application, is not good enough for the Passport Office because I suspect her job is not on the list, even though she is a professional. The only people we know whose occupations are on the list are Australian citizens and if I understand correctly, my son will have to send a photocopy of their Australian passport to the UK, which I don't think they would accept out of security concerns (I don't blame them). Am I correct in thinking that I would have to photocopy their passport and what would you recommend I do if they decline?

I would welcome any thoughts and ideas.

I see that no one has any idea - so not just me then!

I got into touch with my son’s identity confirmation person and she actually met the criteria on two different options on the occupations list. So I messaged the passport office to ask why they declined to accept her and I got the reply she wasn’t listed at Companies House. I got onto the Companies House website and easily found her in 2 seconds. I copied the link and put in a request to resubmit her, including details of the professional body she belongs to as well. Really odd! I got a vague reply back that it “was down to the team”, making it sound like it depended on how they were feeling that day.

We sent off my son’s letter to explain why he hasn’t applied for his passport from his birth country, even though it’s obvious from all the other original papers we submitted. He has not lived there for 17 years and has dual Australian and British citizenship. He doesn’t even have citizenship in his birth country.

Incompetence, overworked or taken over by Reform supporters? We didn’t get this from the Home Office and applying for Australian passports was way easier, with any hiccups easily explained and understood.

I would suggest a combination of overwork, a staff member who hasn't come across the situation before, and the fact it is an unusual situation.

I've been on this forum more years than I care to remember and its new to me - as it also seems to be to everyone else,
Glad you got there in the end!

Thanks Pollyana I am going to go with inexperienced overworked staff member!

I concur with Pollyana, and with your agreement. Having worked in an office for 15+ years supervising various teams of clerks engaged in document review and report writing, covering generally mundane circumstances but with surprisingly frequent "one off" deviations into unusual circumstances, I can assure you that [1] it is impossible to train clerks in all possible, but sometimes extremely improbable variations to the standard set of circustances*, and [2] it is, based on my experience, also impossible to persuade clerks to recognise unusual circumstances and request additional help; instead they tend to produce reports which are vague, fanciful, or self-contradictory.

* Literally just two days I ago I was reviewing a report drafted by a colleague in London, with what was curiously non-specific terminology, which should have caused even a moderately inquisitive clerk to dig further into the underlying story. The report, as presented to me for my review and approval, cited a publication that described activities by "an illigitimate authority", and was written from the perspective of Argentina, though not published there. I immediately recognised what was going on - for the first time in my career I had found an instance of someone writing about a matter related to the Falkland Islands! So not something that would be covered by any routine training, even in the UK. I suspect, given the very short media interest in the Falklands, which tailed off very quickly after 1982, that anyone born after c1980 (so 45 today) likely has little or literally no awareness of what the Falkland Islands are, where they are, or what happened there in 1982.

It gave me some small feeling of worth in my job to have fixed the report, to an appropriate degree of accuracy and objectivity, having expunged all references to the "illigitimate authority", and briefed a couple of my managers on the topic.

Pulaski thanks for those thoughts. Interesting scenario with the Falklands, I was a kid when that happened and still remember that but it would rank as quite a minor conflict now!

Upon further reflection, I suspect the Passport Agency do know what it is but probably just want to check the facts and interpretation of it from my son’s point of view. Although international adoption isn’t that common, I can’t believe they haven’t come across it before. I have both UK and Australian friends who have gone down that path. The Home Office had their own set procedure for it when we registered my son’s citizenship, they knew exactly which documents had to be sent to them and Australia had issued us with all of them, as they follow The Hague Convention (an international accord to prevent trafficking and kidnap of children across borders).

Also, if I come across something I am not sure about in my work, I would ask my supervisor, as a first step. And if he doesn’t know, he would ask a specialist advisory body for our industry that has expertise such as lawyers and employment relations experts. I would be shocked if the passport agency didn’t have a helpdesk of specialists for unusual situations. I imagine the advice to request a written letter from my son would most likely have come from them? That’s my current hunch.
I hope it’s only a precaution for a first time passport and that he doesn’t get asked to do it again.

Did your son receive his passport?

We literally got his passport approval this afternoon thankfully. We did have to send a letter explaining why it wasn't convenient for my son to hop on a 9-hour flight to his birth country to apply for his passport from there. And as for the identity confirmation person, it seemed they weren't shifting on that even though she qualified according to two criteria on the website and I provided them with the information they said they couldn't locate. So, I just found another UK based childhood friend who had only met my son once and got her to do it and that worked.

I did wonder if maybe they had introduced AI into some of the passport processing as it was an odd question to ask.