Hi Guys

I'm probably going to sound a bit disorganised and stupid but here goes, hope someone can advise -

I got residency in spain (a TIE card) in March '21. Now I just realised my UK passport expires this April. On going online to apply for my new british passport I realised they ask me where I'm resident, and also to send my old passport for the application. So I am wondering now if I was supposed to do something when I got residency in Spain i.e. tell some government office in the UK (not sure who) that I had residency in Spain... Now I'm not sure what happens when I go to apply for my new passport and hand in my old one and I guess they will say I've been living in Spain. Is this a problem? I just assumed with the scanning of passports these days they would know these things. But now I'm wondering if I could be in a lot of trouble for not making my situation clear.

It would be great to know of anyone whos been in a similar situation and can advise, or someone who knows about the situation regarding this.

Thanks in advance if anyone can help, it's all quite worrying!

James

Here's the list, I guess you could tell the tax office, the rest is fairly pointless after two years abroad assuming you're not close to retirement.

However Spain would probably quite like to know your new passport number, I guess you would need to use the same EX form as you used to get residency in the first place but tick the box to update details.

Thanks for the response.

So I wondered why when you're applying for the replacement UK passport they ask you what country you reside in, if it doesnt have implications...

I would absolutely file your P85 with HMRC and claim back whatever tax you are due. When I did this it prompted them to check my most recent tax years and I received several tax rebate cheques. Just make sure you give the correct date that you left the UK in March 2021.

Other than filing a P85 and potentially getting a tax refund, there are no negative consequences to not telling the British government where you going when you leave the UK, and in fact you are part of quite a crowd. The BBC posted an article some years ago, about the number of British citizens who had "disappeared" from the UK. IIRC the artical was published around 15-17 years ago (I can't now find it, though I think I linked to it once before here on BE), and reported that around 1,000,000 British citizens had left the UK between, IIRC 1980 and 2000 (I know the last date becuase I narrowly missed being covered as I left the UK in 2001). The government statistics office had no certain information about where they had gone, other than that they were no longer in the UK, and the profile of the missing people was predominantly young men (age under 40), with the writer of the article expressing disbelief that so many people, mostly young men, could have abandoned the UK. .... But as there isn't so much as a passport exit check, the British government lacks any data on where all these people went, and certainly not why they left.

If you Google, as I just did, <bbc.co.uk: million people leave UK> (without the < >, there have been several other more recent articles discussing very large population movements out of the UK in recent years, at least some of which are related to COVID. I would assume that HMRC and the Exchequer will have some statistics on how the numbers will affect income tax revenues, and eventually on how much state pension will have to be paid, but again the British government doesn't seem to know who left or where they went, though the general thought appears to be that many were previously inward migrants who had left again, and unconnected to COVID, I would guess that Brexit must have had something to do with that.

I'm resident and acquired a new passport in person from the London passport office over Christmas, rest assured it is nothing but a tick box and has no implications whatsoever.

I suppose if you were a wanted criminal it might but I'll assume that not to be the case!

For one thing, they need to know where to send the new passport!
You can read any forum on BE and you will find posts about applying for a new UK passport while living abroad. Thousands of us do it every year, nothing to worry about

Thanks for all of these helpful responses, and interesting to know about all the Brits who have left unofficially!

I didn't actually do a P85 because I still have a UK Ltd company and pay tax in the UK. I'm trying to work out what to do with that and living in Spain but I've received so many different opinions from Spanish legal people it seems very unclear. Some say I need to register for autonomo and get paid by the UK company, others say I just need to declare worldwide income at the end of the year since I'm contacted by my UK Ltd and all the work/clients are UK based... would be great to know if anyone has a trustworthy legal advisor they could recommend.

Okay now you seem to entering a more grey area. If you are a Spanish resident with a NLV you shouldnt be working in any sense. Secondly you are a Spanish tax resident not UK. Third your oversee assests should have been declared. You really need to look into this as after 2 years it might sound like you have been deliberately ignoring the law.

Yes sounds like you need to sort out your affairs but I don't see why you cannot renew your passport with the online application form but you need to be truthful about your Spanish residency so it can be legally processed and you receive a valid passport.

They need an address of course but it can be any you care to nominate, in my instance I was staying with my daughter in UK over Christmas so that's where I elected to have it delivered.

Clearly when applying for a new passport you can only nominate an address in the country in which you are applying - be that where you are resident or not - because without a passport it's pretty difficult to be anywhere else!!!!

Strictly speaking a new passport is supposed to be delivered to it's recipient in person but even if not it's illegal to be in possession of another persons passport so you couldn't have one sent to say a relative in UK and have them bring it out for you, if detected by border security it would be at risk of confiscation.

Please explain how you could receive an 'invalid' passport?

I meant you need to comply with the application rules and answer the questions truthfully.

So why introduce total red herrings like 'receive a valid passport'?

The business of HMPO is to issue passports, they do not give a fig about where you actually reside and the only address they ask for is your current one which, in the case of a non resident temporarily in UK (as I was) was my daughters.

See for yourself.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/462278/OS_Form_010.pdf

I beg to differ.

Your current address is the one at which you normally reside and that is the one which should be entered on the application, not one at which you are holidaying.

And if you live overseas, you're supposed to pay the appropriate fee for the issuing of a passport to an overseas resident, wherever you are at the time you make the application.