To ask has anyone else received one

[123rd]

Just opened my returned old passport( got my new one too- no EU anymore) and this was attached... my name does begin with an M...but I wasn't born overseas.
Do the passport application staff normally put little notes on passport?
How funny?

I really don't get the ominous interpretations of the note.

What is worrying about the wording? Am I missing something?

Looks like someone had to take their kid to work one day and gave them a stack of post it’s to keep busy!

Amazing

To be honest it looks exactly like the sort of thing I'd doodle on a post-it if a colleague rang me and I needed to take a note down. And then the little boat while they bang on about something unrelated. But I'd usually scrap the note afterward to make sure it didn't wind up going anywhere it shouldn't...

But it says "M Born Overseas" doesn't it? I doubt that's meant in a nice way

Or just a category used in sorting passports for processing. You would need to do different verification checks if the person doesn't have a British birth certificate. But now I see what AgathaVanHelsing was getting at... I think she suggesting in light of the Windrush scandal that passports are being singled out for extra checks.

I really don’t understand how “born overseas” could be rude or sinister. Ds was born overseas but is British, and that didn’t seem to cause the passport office any problems. Sadly he didn’t get a passport with a cute post it note on it though!

I can imagine if they have to sort passports into various piles, they end up sticking a post or note on them, or from taking notes during a phone call. Poor post it note has clearly got bored of life and made a break for freedom

Poor post it note has clearly got bored of life and made a break for freedom

Possibly in hopes of sailing overseas! The clue is in the help me take me home note.

I think it stands for “male, born overseas” and was probably from another passport, and has stuck to yours.

I don't think the wording is sinister. British nationality law is quite nuanced and the place of birth of both the passport holder and their parent does matter in some circumstances (e.g. a person born to a British parent overseas is a British citizen by descent, and cannot usually pass British nationality to any of their own children if they are also born overseas).

I suspect it was probably a doodle whilst the caseworker was on the phone discussing a case, and it got stuck to yours!

I phoned the Durham passport office for a query about a year ago and spoke to a very jovial man with a Canadian accent. He was almost chortling down the phone!

So either they’re so overworked they’ve turned giddy or (more likely) they’re laughing all the way to the bank with all the extra work from people asking about new passports.

Thinking it's sinister is conspiracy theory territory! It's just a little note from a pile of applications/an application that needed checks for citizenship surely?

It means mother born overseas. It’s just a method of categorisation to ensure it is dealt with by the right team. It must have accidentally got attached to your old passport OP.

but the main thing is: are the blue ones available yet?

Maybe the M is a seagull

@elburro

Thanks for solving the mystery!!

Not very exciting though! ;)