First passport advice!

[nodramallama20]

Hii, I know this is a strange place to look for advice but I'm hoping to come across someone who's been in a similar situation.

My partner is applying for his first British passport. He was born in 1991 & parents have never been married (although are still together). To prove his British nationality he needs to provide his mums birth certificate.

On his birth certificate is her name that we've always known her by. But on her birth certificate she has a different first name, the first name we've always known is her middle name and the same surname. - I hope that makes sense.

She hasn't changed her name by depol and it's not on any government given documents (I.e marriage certificate). She just didn't like her first name so has always gone by her middle name!

My question is, have you or anyone you known had a passport granted if the names have been different on the certificates?

Can he not just put the name as it shows on the birth certificate

But on his birth certificate is one name and on his mums is another. What I'm thinking will happen is they'll look at his mother's name on his certificate and see his mother's certificate is different and deny him the passport.

On his application he was going to write down her full official name. It's when they check the documents I'm worried about.

He's sending an application off anyway but I just thought I'd see if anybody else had a similar thing.

Ah right. I didn't realise it was different on his birth certificate. Maybe in the extra notes section he can explain that she uses her middle name as her first name

Does her birth certificate show her full name including middle name? Or he could phone the helpline and ask

I did call the advice line earlier but they were abit like 'urrrm I'm not really sure' 'can you hold a second' then he'd go off and come back a few times and didn't really know what to say to me!

Yeah it's her full name on hers so, for example hers says Sarah Nicole Smith but on my partners it says Nicole Smith. Putting it in the notes is a good idea.

My partner thinks me ringing puts them under pressure to not just say oh it'll be fine. Whereas if he sends it off and they just scan the documents and see basically the same name they'll approve it. I can't help but worry though!

Thank you for your advice

I thought all new passport applicants were called to appear in person at the passport office for an interview now

@M1dnightMadnesss they are but if you're denied after the application you don't get an interview

If you explain it in the additional notes section it should be fine. My mum recently got her first passport and got really panicky because she couldn't find a marriage certificate for her parents (not sure she even needed it tbh) but we popped a note on the form and sent off all the other documents they needed and all was fine.

All they're looking for really is proof you are who you say you are so something minor like his mum dropping a name shouldn't cause too much issue 😊 HTH

@MissYeti sorry I've only just seen your response! Unfortunately they didn't accept it. They asked for a proof of name change and gave a list of what they'd accept.

So we changed her name by deed poll in the end, we worried they wouldn't accept it because it was changed after his date of birth but we got a letter today for his interview so fingers crossed this is the last hurdle!

I know it's a scary world now but it just seems a bit ridiculous how complicated this has been, but never mind