British Passport - Issuing

Issuing

In the United Kingdom, British passports (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) are issued by the Identity and Passport Service. In conjunction with the Post Office, it is possible to submit most passport applications at a number of branches.

In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, British passports are issued by the Lieutenant-Governor.

In British overseas territories, British Overseas Territories Citizen passports are issued by the Governor of the territory, whilst British Citizen passport application are forwarded to the Passport Section of the appropriate Foreign Office mission covering the territory (e.g. the United States for all the Caribbean British Overseas Territories).

In Commonwealth and foreign countries, British passports are issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Passport Section of a British consulate, embassy, or High Commission. Since 2009, some British embassies do not themselves issue full passports (though quickly available emergency passports of limited validity are issued for one-way travel to the UK or to another part of the Commonwealth), and applications must be sent by the applicant to a centralised processing point; applications from Chile, for example, must be sent to UK Passport Service Centre for the Americas and Caribbean, Washington DC, USA. The FCO says: "In their 2006 report on consular services, the National Audit Office recommended limiting passport production to fewer locations to increase security and reduce expenditure". In other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, applications for British passports can be submitted in person at the counter in a number of post office branches. Passport book production is limited to the UK from 2010.

As of 2011 holders of the following categories of British nationality can apply for a British passport:

• British citizens (GBR)
• British Overseas Territories Citizens (GBD) (formerly British Dependent Territories Citizens)
• British Overseas citizens (GBO)
• British subjects (GBS)
• British protected persons (GBP)
• British Nationals (Overseas) (GBN)

The three-character codes appearing after each type of nationality above are the ISO/IEC 7501-1 machine-readable passport alpha-3 country codes of such British passports.

All British passports are issued in the exercise of discretion by Her Majesty's Government under the Royal Prerogative. In any event, discretion must be exercised reasonably and not on a whim, and even though there is no statute governing the issue of passports, such prerogative powers are susceptible to the normal processes of judicial review (Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service AC 374). The only exception applies to British Nationals (Overseas), who are entitled to hold a passport in that status (there is no discretion to refuse to issue a passport).

Since all British passports are issued in the name of Her Majesty, The Queen herself does not require a passport in order to travel abroad.

British citizens (except those solely connected to a Crown Dependency), British subjects with the right of abode and British Overseas Territories citizens from Gibraltar are UK nationals for the purposes of Community Law and are usually entitled to move freely within the European Economic Area and Switzerland with no more than a check on their identity and nationality at an external border of a Member State. In exceptional circumstances, entry may be refused on grounds of public policy, public security or public health.

The right of abode, i.e., the right to enter and live in the United Kingdom freely, is held by all British citizens automatically. It is also held by some British subjects and those other Commonwealth citizens who were patrials under the Immigration Act 1971.