British citizenship: caseworker guidance
Tells HM Passport Office staff how to deal with passport applications for customers that hold British citizenship.
Documents
Details
This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff:
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how a customer can have a claim to British citizenship
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how to check if a customer holds British citizenship
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what documents a customer needs to send to support their passport application
Updates to this page
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Guidance updated as detailed in section 'About: British citizenship'.
Update history
2026-05-26 15:20
This guidance has been updated. A full list of changes is in the document.
2025-06-13 15:49
Guidance updated as detailed in section ‘About: British citizenship’.
2024-10-09 10:20
This guidance has been updated throughout to explain: more about British nationality status; references to ‘foreign diplomat’ include a person with diplomatic privileges; how to check immigration reference numbers (unique application numbers (UAN) and global web form (GWF) numbers) on ATLAS to prove settlement claims; all decisions about establishing right of abode can be made within HM Passport Office.
2023-06-30 15:32
This guidance has been updated to remove references to applications being on hold for customers born to EEA parents between 1 January 1983 and 1 October 2000.
2023-04-17 11:49
The guidance has been updated to make it clear examiners can use the parents’ passport history on Main Index to confirm they were British citizens before their child’s birth if the child was born in the UK.
2023-03-20 14:56
First published.