To wonder why during my passport interview they asked me this...

[InTheFridge]

Had my Passport interview this week (waited 10 weeks for anyone wanting to know). Was a virtual interview where I was asked several questions which made sense to me; who I bank with, how long I've lived at current address etc.

He also asked the down stairs lay out of my house. I can't think why !

Does anyone know ?

Ah, right, thanks for the explanation. Didn't realise this happened.

does every adult have to have an interview now for a first passport? I didn't when I applied for my very first one in my mid 20s in the early 2000s just sent my birth certificate off and had photo counter signed and that was it.

So was I! I found the whole interview a bit creepy tbh😂

No. It's some random selection

You have to do an interview for a 1st adult passport????

Yes, if you've never had a child passport before

Once when there was an issue with my Credit card I had to speak to the fraud dept (genuine as I rang them) . They asked me to list my local schools and name the 2 parks closest to my house. They also asked which football team I supported and which supermarket I most often used.
It was very odd - they fired the questions at me really quickly too, presumably so I couldn’t look the info up or anything

Is it only if you were born British? Because none of the naturalised people I know had to do interviews

I was trying to remember what it was that had changed. I went abroad when I was younger but I remember being on my mums passport? You used to be able to go on a parents passport until a certain age.

I'm naturalised. I think the interview requirement came in about 11 years ago, not long before I got my first British passport.

How weird. I don't have kids so no idea what the school on my street is even called.

Well then they missed quite a few people🙈

It's not about whether or not you give a factually accurate answer, it's how you answer the question. They don't know the layout of your ground floor, but they'll probably have a good idea whether or not when you answer you are familiar with the layout of a typical UK home.

For anyone that naturalised the interview was part of the citizenship process. A second interview wasn't then required for the consequent passport (just the biometric appointment).

First adult passport.

But how would they know ?

Thank you, very informative

I got my first adult passport in 2013 and had an interview. They didn't ask my layout but then kept pronouncing my street name wrong to see if I corrected them

Eh !! So weird !

Yes, they asked me my nearest shops. I kinda understand that though, it's something that can be checked.

My downstairs layout (I thought couldn't be checked) but I guess with Google it can !

Ah.

Looks like they missed some fun!😂
We just did one naturalisation recently and there were no questions like that asked. I wonder if it's covid thing now

I got my first passport after I was given British citizenship about 5 years ago.

No interview whatsoever and I received it within a couple of weeks of making the application.

21yo DS1 has an adult passport. He didn't have an interview

I had one back in 2010 (dual national including British at birth). It was in person and the chap doing it explained that they were entirely happy that DelurkingAJ was entitled to a British passport but needed to check that I was in fact me. He also said it had historically been done on a risk basis…

And yes, it was because my first British passport was an adult one.

I never had my own passport as a child. I went abroad as a child and into my teens but back then you could be on a group passport (like going away with a school) or on my parents passport. I think I also had a card passport at some point in my 20's but that was only valid for one year.