More on adoption & passports etc.

[lordna]

Why on earth did i say, on another thread, "no more immigration/passport paperwork"!!!!

My step daughter is off on a school trip to France in March and this requires both a British passport and EH1C health insurance card.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem BUT we have just completed her legal adoption so her surname has changed. I did think well that's ok she can travel under her old name but then as far as the NHS are concerned her name and NHS number has changed, so thought it best to get a new EH1C card in her new name.

So then we also need her British passport to be in her new Surname. So after several calls to the Passport help line an application was duly despached to the passport office along with her adoption certificate, British and Philippines passports.

Received a letter today worded as follows:-

" Thank you for your letter today setting out the circumstances of ******** change of name. You sent a foreigh passport as evidence to support this application. However the name shown on the foreign passport is different from the the name on the passport application. For security purposes, it is our policy that a British passport will not be issued to you if you hold a passport (British or foreign) identity document or travel document in a different name.

For us to issue a passport in the name of ******************* 'new surname' you would need to change the name shown on the foreign passport , or be able to show that an application has been made to the relevant authorities to change this.

If both parents have legal responsibility, a child's name may not legally be changed without the permission of every person with parental responsibility, or the permission of the Court. As it is clear from the information you have provided that you both have parental responsibilty, please send us a letter from your children's other parent giving their permission to the change of name. They should sign and date the letter and include their relationship to the children.

If you need your documents returned to facilitate this, please request this in writing and supply a secure royal mail envelope for delivery."

So today, i have requested they return her passports and adoption certificate so i can then pursue getting her name changed in her Philippine passport. However, from what i can gather, i will need to fill in an adoption form at the Phil embassy which i am assuming will result in a change to her NSO birth details before a new Philippine passport will be issued.

What a mess! They didn't ask me to send in her Biometric residence permit or oath of alliegance which of course are also in her old name. Anybody got any ideas?

[Jenky]

Hello Lordna.

It looks to me like the UK Passport agency may have changed their rules.

You wrote that you sent them a British and Filipino passport and an adoption cert. So am I right in assuming that your daughter already has a British Passport in her old surname? Also she also has a Filipino passport in the same name and you want to get the name changed on the British passport to reflect her adopted name and they wont do it because they want the name changed in the Filipino passport first?

If so why do you need to submit to them the Filipino passport at all? Surely you can just apply for a new BP under the change of name section. Then all you would need to supply to the passport office would be the old BP as evidence of British nationality and the adoption paper to show that her surname has now legally changed from that on her existing BP. To my mind the Filipino passport is irrelevant and is complicating your application. But things may have changed so I may be mistaken.

I tried once to change my step daughters surname on her Filipino passport to mine as it had her fathers surname on it. I was told that it cannot practically be done unless I adopted her in the Philippines which an attorney told me would take a long long time and a lot of money.

[lordna]

Hello Lordna.

It looks to me like the UK Passport agency may have changed their rules.

You wrote that you sent them a British and Filipino passport and an adoption cert. So am I right in assuming that your daughter already has a British Passport in her old surname? Also she also has a Filipino passport in the same name and you want to get the name changed on the British passport to reflect her adopted name and they wont do it because they want the name changed in the Filipino passport first?

If so why do you need to submit to them the Filipino passport at all? Surely you can just apply for a new BP under the change of name section. Then all you would need to supply to the passport office would be the old BP as evidence of British nationality and the adoption paper to show that her surname has now legally changed from that on her existing BP. To my mind the Filipino passport is irrelevant and is complicating your application. But things may have changed so I may be mistaken.

I tried once to change my step daughters surname on her Filipino passport to mine as it had her fathers surname on it. I was told that it cannot practically be done unless I adopted her in the Philippines which an attorney told me would take a long long time and a lot of money.

The only reason i sent in the Philippine passport is they did ask to supply ALL passports, British or Foreign, on the application form.

I am hoping now that they will return her British passport uncancelled so she can use that for the school trip as it seems unlikely that getting her adoption recognised by the Philippine embassy AND getting them to reissue her Philippine passport can be done in time to get the British one issued.