AIBU to be surprised that when you renew a British Passport, you have to send any passports off you have from other countries?

[PassportQuestionxoxo]

Just renewing British passport. In the last few years, have gained an Irish passport. I was surprised to find that in order to renew my British passport, I need to send my Irish passport to the British Passport office as well. The only alternative to sending off the Irish passport, is to do a colour photocopy of all the 30+ pages, which would be a massive task.
Is anyone else surprised by this or is it just me? I had thought that one of the advantages to having a second passport is that you can use it when the other one is not available. Yes, I know that I could photocopy the second passport if desperate, but what a faff, and why does the British Passport Office want my Irish passport anyway?

There are huge numbers of British people with dual nationality and known by various names. If the police or other authorities want to issue a border alert on your exit or entry they need to know how you might be travelling. What nationality and what name.
What additional information might be recorded on your other passport.
A person might be using a variation of the name they have in their other passport.
Should be OK to send in only the biodata page though.

@Blue278 but dual citizens exit on a British passport anyway. You can’t exit as a foreigner without an entry permit surely. If they travel to the UK on a foreign passport in a different name, I am not sure they know who you are unless you have declared it before? For example if a British citizen moved to Japan 30 years ago, and now travel in a Japanese passport, at what point was he supposed to have declared Japanese citizenship to the UK? I picked a non English country as an example as their passport is likely to be using a foreign name.

You're confusing withdrawing a passport and withdrawing citizenship. It's entirely possible to withdraw a passport, often for the purpose of restricting travel. The refusal/withdrawal of a passport does not remove the person's citizenship. Also - please don't advise people to "not be concerned about" matters of law. You're hardly going to be there to pick up the pieces if someone takes your advice and it goes wrong.

The normal way to travel as a dual citizen is to use your British passport to leave and enter the UK. You then use your other passport to enter and leave the other country. I visit my parents who live overseas and I have never renewed that passport and the last one expired 30 years ago. I have only renewed my ID card but I won’t bother if my parents didn’t ask me to. They feel strongly about it and I don’t.

Day to day, yes, but not in your passports. The UK will only issue a passport in the same name as your foreign passport. There’s limited exceptions for situations where e.g. your foreign passport issuing authority won’t accept a name change but you have to evidence it fully.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/names-aligning-names-on-foreign-documents/names-aligning-names-on-foreign-documents-accessible#:~:text=Customers%20must%20apply%20for%20a,may%20not%20be%20able%20to.

Oh gosh
I think when we renewed dc they ticked no for other nationality passport but I honestly can’t remember
wonder what happens if we find out subsequently and tell them

This is exactly what DH and the DC do when we travel in The EU, mostly to avoid queues.
To date I have gone through with them using my UK passport and its always been ok but with the changes coming I will probably have to go through seperately soon.
We were told to do it like that in Portugal as the majority of the group had EU passports and have done it ever since in a few EU countries.

Well we checked & dc didn’t say had another passport as had forgotten about it! So a dilemma
do we say anything or just leave it. Doesn’t really use it much. Older dc does but had already put that had another passport when British one needed renewal.

No, I'm not. I'm talking about the rules for withdrawing a passport, it's pretty hard to do and has to be justified and proportional.
You can't get your passport withdrawn because you failed to declare you also legally have another one.

Also, I didn't advise anyone not to be concerned. I said I wouldn't be concerned. I'm sure you can appreciate the difference.

You can have a British passport in your usual name and an Irish passport in the Irish version of your name, which can be quite different.

That's a cool way of doing it! Great idea. I've sent the passport itself to the passport office already this time though 😊

Well if you had read the thread, you would have realised that I have already sent the passport off, so I'm not sure of the value of your contribution!

I will pretend I did read the full thread and say that it is useful for anyone else in the same situation.

You’d open the passport and lay it flat on the printer, copying two pages at the same time. So 15 photocopies.

Massive???

I also found out about this very last minute when I was about to renew my son’s British passport for the first time. I had to delay the renewal as he needed his other passport for a holiday he had already planned. Which then meant he had to miss a family holiday when both passports were away (needed to get on with the renewal as needed the British passport for something specific).

I wouldn’t bother. When I renewed mine I just didn’t declare my Irish passport. It’s none of their business if I hold dual nationality as I am allowed to by law.

Being a dual national is of huge significance if you need assistance abroad, and there has to be a means for the UK to know your status.

When they send it back they also send back your photocopies.

I don't see the need for the British passport. I've let mine expire and travel on an Irish passport only.

Just doing my British passport and that is not the case.
my country of origin passport has to be in my maiden name and have just been told by the gov agency that my British one has to be and will be in my maiden name too.

Well that's legally incorrect. In Scotland (part of the UK) you can use any name you like.

Up to a point. In ordinary life you can use any name you like, provided it's not for the purposes of deception or fraud.

But you do have to have a name you use for all official purposes.

The name a customer must use in their passport
Customers must apply for their passport using the name they use for all official purposes. The name on a customer’s passport application must match the name on their UK or overseas supporting documents (for example, their birth certificate).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-names-we-use-in-passports-caseworker-guidance/names-the-names-we-use-in-passports#:~:text=The%20name%20a%20customer%20must,example%2C%20their%20birth%20certificate).

True, but there are lots of exceptions to that rule.

Well not official documents.
I have my citizenship ceremony this week and have just done all the documentation for my British Passport and can assure you that they ave insisted in both passports being in the same name…ie my maiden name.
All my other documents are in my married name.

Questions are not asked if you have children with different passports. I have travelled as a family of 4, each with a different nationality passport and other than amusement I did not encounter anything at any border control.