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My eight-year-old was refused a UK passport

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June 23, 2026 · 1:32 PM
My eight-year-old was refused a UK passport

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All the same documents were submitted to the passport office for three children but one was refused. Photograph: mundissima/Alamy

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All the same documents were submitted to the passport office for three children but one was refused. Photograph: mundissima/Alamy

Consumer championsConsumer affairs

My eight-year-old was refused a UK passport

The Passport Office accepted applications for my two other children but refused the youngest with exactly the same documents

Anna Tims

Tue 23 Jun 2026 02.00 EDT Last modified on Tue 23 Jun 2026 07.32 EDT

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I****am a Briton living in Switzerland and my three children are British and Swiss nationals.

When we found outvia the Guardianthat dual nationals, who live overseas, are now required to hold a British passport in order to enter the UK, we set about applying, so the children can continue to visit their English relatives.

More than three months later we find ourselves in a nightmare with HM Passport Office (HMPO).

We have provided all of the documents asked for, including three different birth certificates for each child (British, Swiss and a certified translation), we have spent countless hours on online helplines, and spent close to £800 on fees, translations and postage – to no avail in the case of our youngest child. His application has been refuseddespite the fact his siblings’ were accepted on the strength of thesame documents.

We now have to send antenatal records of his birth eight years ago, as well as our passports valid at the time of his conception**. Those passports have long since expired and been replaced.**

We are taking the children to visit their grandmother in England in July, but it looks as though my son will be barred entry****into his homeland.

KCG,Unterseen

The new rules came into force on 25 February and have led to UK nationals being stranded abroad, to families being split up at airports, and to expats being unable to attend weddings or sickbeds in their homeland. Those who don’t have a British passport must fork out £589 for a “certificate of entitlement”.

It seems bonkers that your Swiss wife, not a dual national, can travel to the UK on her Swiss passport with a £16 electronic travel authorisation, while your son can’t.

In lieu of your son’s Swiss birth certificate, which HMPO unaccountably refused to accept, it requested, among other things, a sequence of original photos of him with both parents from birth until now.

When I questioned HMPO about its refusal of documents accepted for your two other children, it suddenly messaged you to say the passport had been printed. It did not reply to my request for a comment.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.

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Comments (539)

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Comments (539)

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Guardian Pick

I’ve just been through this process of getting redundant UK passports for three of my children who already have French passports. The process was awful, with photos rejected, documents requested one at a time as they progressed. The cost is quite high added to which all the registered international postal costs for each document. Finally my daughter has long double-barrelled middle names that were too long for a UK passport but fitted on a Fre…

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Designatron6 hours ago

89

Guardian Pick

My 84 yr old sister lives in the US, having been married to a US citizen till his death and has dual nationality. She has tend to use her US passport to visit us, as renewing her UK one has always been more of an effort.In order to visit us this year with my niece and great nephew who are US citizens, she has had to pay £100+ to renew her UK passport online via the Home Office, with photocopies of every page of her US passport, and a suitable …

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cajrichards6 hours ago

70

Guardian Pick

I’ve just been through this process of getting redundant UK passports for three of my children who already have French passports. The process was awful, with photos rejected, documents requested one at a time as they progressed. The cost is quite high added to which all the registered international postal costs for each document. Finally my daughter has long double-barrelled middle names that were too long for a UK passport but fitted on a Fre…

Jump to comment

Designatron6 hours ago

89

Guardian Pick

My 84 yr old sister lives in the US, having been married to a US citizen till his death and has dual nationality. She has tend to use her US passport to visit us, as renewing her UK one has always been more of an effort.In order to visit us this year with my niece and great nephew who are US citizens, she has had to pay £100+ to renew her UK passport online via the Home Office, with photocopies of every page of her US passport, and a suitable …

Jump to comment

cajrichards6 hours ago

70

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