Should the Passport Office have spotted my son's name was misspelt?

[Louise765]

Had my son’s first passport come back today and the his name has been spelt wrong. I have contacted the passport office and they are going to look into this. If this is my fault by spelling it wrong then i will have to pay for a new one. if it’s a mistake there end they will send a new one out. but to approve the application they needed my sons birth certificate which i sent off. Should have they printed his name the same as his birth certificate or questioned it if i did put his name in wrong?

Birth certificates get messed up too - my mum’s is. The passport office go off the form that you completed.

So they are going to fix it if it their mistake? Yes they should have failed the check but ifnit was a typo then harder to spot. Hopefully a quick and easy fix

Sorry, it's going to be an expensive mistake but it's probably your mistake which makes it your responsibility, not the Passport Office's.

If you think it's likely that you might make a mistake with a passport application, then there's always the option to pay for a checking service eg the one provided by the Post Office.

Tbh, there are a few spelling and punctuation mistakes in your post. I don't usually mention these on Mumsnet as it's generally rude and unnecessary but in your case, I think it's relevant as it suggests you might have made a mistake when filling out the form.

Contact the passport office, if it’s their error then it will be replaced for free. But as it’s a key point with the name being wrong it may still be free to correct, but either way a spelling error could cause him problems when using it

www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-resolving-errors-on-passports/how-to-correct-errors-on-passports-accessible

Well your comment is very rude and offered little help. Of course made sure to double check my son’s application. This was a quick post to get other people’s views and to see if any one had experienced this. Not for someone to check my wording like it’s an english paper. clearly it still made sense as others have replied with useful information.

Yep thanks for the pointing that out!

I think they should have spotted the discrepancy to be fair! Else what do they need the birth certificate for if you can just spell the name any old way and they approve it
and surely you’re very unlikely to be the one who made the mistake? Since it’s your child you know how it’s spelt. Whereas a stranger processing it could easily make a mistake

I would have expected them to issue the passport to match the birth cert if it's a first passport otherwise what's the point of providing it if you can put any name on the form. Hopefully they will correct it for you.

Not directly relevant to your post but I was reapplying for my son today. The photo was deemed poor as there were “reflections on his glasses”. Only he wasn’t wearing glasses!!! You need to double and triple check such applications.

DH has a hyphenated surname, at some point an error made his first name and middle name hyphenated on one of his documents (passport/driving licence). When he renewed the other the error got carried over. It’s still there now, more hassle to fix than live with apparently.

All I’m saying is if you aren’t good at spelling it’s possible you made a mistake and they aren’t liable for that.

This happened with DC2’s passport. A transcription/printing error on their part as I had filled in the form correctly and they had mixed up two letters (eg a name ending in “ie” changed to “ei”). I rang the helpline, they were apologetic but, despite the fact that it was only 10 days until we went on holiday, I had to return the passport with a covering letter and then wait for the new one to be reissued. With a 6wo baby and a toddler, that was the last thing I wanted to sort out but I also wanted to go on the holiday and which was booked for when DC2 was 8wo (would have been 10wo but he was 2 weeks late!).
I did always wonder if anyone immigration officials would have actually spotted the issue.

If you spelt it wrong on the application then it’s your fault. If they copied it wrong from the application that’s their fault.
I do believe they should have questioned the discrepancy but it’s reasonable that the person at faults pays to correct it.

This happened with my son's first passport. His middle name is Julius but his dad absentmindedly put the girl's name Julia on the form. I was really surprised as I expected the PO to raise a query as it didn't match the BC but they just printed it. We didn't bother to change it and his renewed passport after 5 years repeated the error (because we already had a flight booked to US which included middle names including Julia!) After 10 years he finally got a correct passport.

Did you apply on a paper form or an electronic one?
and if paper, did you use the check and send system at the post office?

My friends husband had a situation and basically he got his back with another man’s photo on it!

I actually did make a mistake in the spelling of DS’ name for his most recent passport (not his first passport). I noticed just as I submitted the form! I rang them the next day - very easy to get through - and explained and they corrected it there and then. The lady I spoke to said that they’d always query a replacement that was different to the previous passport. I’m surprised that they didn’t query a first passport application that was different to the birth certificate.

Yes, I would expect them to have picked that up even if it’s your mistake.

I can’t remember the exact story now but there was some issue when applying for my daughter’s UK passport. She is New Zealand-born and the issue was to do with her birth certificate recording the local authority as “place of birth” but another document recording the city as “place of birth”, and they obviously aren’t the same, and the UK passport office picked up that they didn’t match.

I cannot understand how this could happen? It's your child's name?! It has to be their mistake, surely, or I'd be doubting everything about myself!

Ithink a lot of it’s done electronically rather thsn proper checking by a person. My DS’ passport came back with a D instead of an O.They looked into it and apparently I just have shit handwriting ( paper form) and the computer misread and it wasn’t flagged. They replaced it for free though.

if it’s a mistake there end
Well you have misspelled a very common word and and failed to start your sentence with a capital so I highly doubt it’s their mistake.

Someone in our town who applied for her son and daughters passports on the same day got them back with the son's photo on the daughter's passport and vice versa! Better than a total stranger i suppose but ...

I work with someone called Mellisa- pronounced Mel-Lisa.

When her parents went to register her birth, that is how they'd mis-spelt Melissa, so yes, even parents don't always know how to spell their own child's name 😬

If they look at your application and the mistake is yours then yes it’s reasonable you pay for a new passport and vice versa if the error is there’s you shouldn’t be financially accountable

Amazing bow some people assume when they have no evidence 😑