Guidance

Date of birth (accessible version)

Updated 26 October 2022

Version 8.0

Guidance for HM Passport Office about the customer’s date of birth and how it must be shown on the passport and in our records.

About Date of birth

This guidance is for HM Passport Office staff and tells you:

• why recording the customer’s correct date of birth is important

• about the documents we accept to confirm a customer’s date of birth

• what to do if the customer wants to change their date of birth on their passport

Contacts

If you have any questions about the guidance and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the guidance has factual errors then email the Guidance & Quality, Operating Standards.

If you notice any formatting errors in this guidance (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the guidance then you can email the Guidance & Quality, Operating Standards.

Publication

Below is information on when this version of the guidance was published:

• version 8.0

• published for Home Office staff on 17 October 2022

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated to make it clear what evidence and checks are needed if the customer asks us to include a day and month of birth, on their passport, if their naturalisation or registration certificate only shows a year of birth.

Date of birth on the passport

This section tells HM Passport Office staff, how the customer’s date of birth is part of their identity, how it impacts nationality, entitlement to a passport and what you must do if the customer’s other identity documents show a different date of birth.

For passport purposes, the customer’s identity is defined by their biometrics (for example, facial image and fingerprints) as well as their biographical information, such as:

• name

• date of birth

• place (for example, town) and country of birth

• sex

HM Passport Office must make sure we record the customer’s date of birth correctly, so:

• we issue a passport to the rightful holder of the identity

• we correctly store the information on our records

• the customer can use the passport as a travel document and proof of identity, as shown in the Cabinet Office identity documents list

The date of birth we record must be shown on the customer’s document (for example, their birth or naturalisation certificate). The customer cannot choose a date to be recorded on their passport, if it is not shown on their core document.

We record the customer’s date of birth on the passport and in passport records (on Main Index).

Date of birth: nationality

The customer’s date of birth affects their nationality claim, as where and when they were born, affects which legislation applies to their claim to British nationality.

Any request for changes to the customer’s date of birth, will mean that you, the examiner, must re-establish the customer’s nationality claim.

Date of birth: entitlement

The customer’s date of birth is one of the pieces of information we check, during manual and automatic watchlist checks (that may result in a watchlist match). This helps us to decide if the customer is entitled to a passport.

Date of birth: consent

The customer’s date of birth may affect who can authorise or consent to the issue of a passport (for example, it can affect how we confirm parental responsibility for a child).

Date of birth: vulnerability

The customer’s date of birth may tell us if there are any potential vulnerability indicators that we must consider as part of their application. For example, if the passport application is for a child under 16 and there are safeguarding concerns about who has given consent.

Changing the date of birth

The customer may want to change their date of birth or there may be times when we need to do it (for example, when Home Office records have been updated and UK Visas and Immigration endorse (stamp) a naturalisation certificate).

Depending on the circumstances, the customer may need to give us evidence (of the change) and a new declaration.

Date of birth: documents we accept

This section tells HM Passport Office staff about the documents we accept to confirm a customer’s date of birth and what to do if the customer is unable to send in standard documents to confirm their date of birth.

The customer must tell us their date of birth, when they make a passport application.

Date of birth: standard documents

As documentary evidence of the customer’s date of birth (day, month, and year), you (the examiner) can accept the customer’s:

You must check the customer’s documents to confirm when they were born.

You can accept the date of birth on an application, if you can confirm it using the customer’s standard documents.

If the customer’s date of birth on their passport application is different to the one on any of their supporting documents (for example, their foreign passport), you must:

1. Ask them:

• why they have a different date of birth on their documents

• if they have tried to correct their date of birth on their documents (in cases when their date of birth on the document is incorrect)

• to send us any evidence they have that shows they have been unable to correct the date of birth on their document

2. Add a case note to show their response.

3. Refer the application to an Enhanced Application Checking (EAC) examiner or do additional checks on DAP (Digital Application Processing) if you have identity concerns.

4. Refer the application to Guidance and Quality, Operating Standards (through the Quality and Examination Support team). Guidance and Quality will let you know what to do next.

Date of birth: previous British passport

You can accept the date of birth if it’s shown on the customer’s British passport (unless this is an Old Blue passport).

If the customer’s old passport and application shows 1 January, you must not offer to change the date of birth (day and month). We may have issued it this way as their naturalisation or registration certificate showed their year of birth only. If their certificate did show year of birth only and the customer wants their passport to show a different date (day and month) of birth, you must tell them to provide evidence.

Date of birth: birth and adoption certificates

You must use the date of birth shown on the customer’s birth or adoption certificate (unless they have naturalised or registered).

If the customer wants their passport to show a different date of birth to the one on their birth or adoption certificate, you must tell them to get their certificate corrected.

Date of birth: naturalisation and registration certificates

You must use the date of birth (day, month and year) shown on the customer’s naturalisation or registration certificate.

If the naturalisation or registration certificate shows a different date of birth to the one on their birth certificate or foreign passport, you must use the date of birth shown on the naturalisation or registration certificate. This is so that Home Office records are consistent.

If the customer wants their passport to show a different date of birth to the one on their naturalisation or registration certificate, you must tell them to contact UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to change the certificate. We will not change the date of birth on the passport, until they do (unless the certificate does not show the day and month).

Naturalisation and registration certificate show 1 January

UKVI will issue the certificate with a day and month of birth of 1 January together with a year of birth, if they are unable to establish a correct day and month of birth for the customer.

If the certificate shows 1 January, we must show this on the passport.

Naturalisation and registration certificate: birth year only

Before October 1986, UKVI issued certificates with a year of birth only, if they were unable to establish a day and month of birth.

If the certificate only shows the year of the customer’s birth, you must:

• check any other documents that the customer sent (they may show the customer is using a day and month of birth for other official purposes)

• ask the customer to send evidence of their day and month of birth (if they are using a specific day and month)

• use 1 January, if the customer is not using another day and month of birth (for example, if their other documents show 1 January or do not show a specific day and month)

• use the year of birth shown on the certificate

• not tell UKVI about the day and month you use (as they are unable to update records for naturalisations or registrations that happened before 1987)

Date of birth: standard documents not available

If the customer’s birth has not been registered, you can accept alternative evidence of the customer’s birth information (including their date of birth).

If the customer cannot give you standard documents, you must refer to the standard documents are not available or Crisis guidance.

Checking the date of birth

This section tells HM Passport Office staff how the date of birth is recorded on the system (when the customer sends us their passport application) and how to check the date of birth is correct on the system. It includes what to do if you make a change to the customer’s date of birth.

Digital Customer Service (DCS) lets the customer provide their date of birth as they complete the application online. It is shown in the ‘date of birth’ field on the Application Management System (AMS) or Digital Application Processing (DAP).

If the customer applies using a paper application form, they will provide their date of birth as free text.

You must make sure that you record the date of birth correctly, when examining applications on AMS or DAP.

How to check the date of birth

You must check the date of birth the customer provides is correct, on:

• all applications on AMS

• applications on DAP, if you are presented with a task

If you make a change to the date of birth

If you make any changes to the date of birth the customer provides, you must add a case note and include:

• the reason why (for example, the customer made an error when they sent their application)

• what evidence you have seen

Unless the customer made an obvious error when they sent in their application, if you are changing the date of birth from the one the customer gave us, you must:

• contact them by phone, email or in writing, to tell them you are changing the date of birth (see withdrawing passport applications if you don’t get a reply)

• give them the opportunity to withdraw their application if they do not want you to change it

• add a case note to record your actions and decisions, with reasons

If you are processing the application on AMS and change the date of birth (or the application has been transferred from DAP), you must check if the change means the customer has moved from being a child to adult, or adult to child. If they have, you must:

• change the service type (adult or child)

• check the fee paid and issue a refund or ask for the additional fee if necessary

• check you are correctly issuing a 5 or 10 year passport, depending on whether the customer has turned 16

This is because AMS does not automatically recognise if the customer has moved from being a child or adult, or adult to child, when you change the date of birth.

If you are processing the application on DAP and change the date of birth so the customer moves from being a child to adult, or adult to child, DAP will automatically transfer the application to AMS. This is because we will need to issue a refund or ask for an extra fee, and you cannot do this yet on DAP.

Date of birth is different to documents

When the customer tells us their date of birth, this may be different to the date of birth shown on their documents.

Sometimes, this may be because the customer has entered their date of birth incorrectly when then send us their application. The difference may:

• be an obvious error which you, the examiner can correct without contacting the customer

• need to contact the customer to confirm the date of birth, if it is not clear whether the customer has made an error, or we have (for example, on the old passport)

Customer made an obvious error

In some cases, an error may be obvious, such as transposing a number or entering an incorrect number, for example the customer’s date of birth is shown as:

• 12/03/1892, when their document shows 12/03/1982 (because it is clear the customer is not over 100 years old)

• 12/23/1966 when their document shows 23/12/1966 (because there are only 12 months)

If the customer has transposed a number or entered an incorrect number, you must:

1. Check the customer’s date of birth against the document provided.

2. Correct the date of birth on the system.

3. Add a case note to record your actions and decisions.

4. Not contact the customer to inform them that you have corrected the date of birth.

Customer or HM Passport Office made a possible error

The date of birth entered on the application may not match the date shown on the customer’s old passport or other supporting documents. For example, the date of birth entered on the application shows:

• 12/03/1940 but the date on the old passport shows 12/03/1941

• 03/12/1966 but the old passport shows 12/03/1966

You, the examiner, must not assume the customer has entered the date in error and correct it, as the old passport may have been issued with an error.

You must:

1. Phone the customer using the details provided on the application (being mindful of any time differences).

2. Confirm the correct date of birth with the customer.

3. Ask them to send you evidence of the correct date of birth if we don’t have this with the application or in our records (and follow change from the document provided or how to correct errors on passports, if necessary).

4. Correct the date of birth on the system if required.

5. Add a case note to record your actions and decisions.

You must ask the customer to send you evidence if:

• they tell you a different date of birth to the one shown in their old passport, for example, their birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration certificate

• they tell you their date of birth is incorrect on their, birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration certificate

Date of birth: change from the document provided

This section tells HM Passport Office staff when we will change the date of birth from the one shown in the customer’s standard documents.

If the customer’s old passport or our passport records had an error in the date of birth, you must make sure that their new passport is correct.

If we made the error and you have seen evidence of the correct date of birth, you can make the change without asking the customer for a new application declaration. For example, if you deal with a passport returned to HM Passport Office due to an error.

If we have not seen evidence of the correct date of birth or you decide that the date of birth is not clear, you must ask the customer for evidence of their date of birth.

Changing year of birth or 1 January to a different date

The customer’s previous passport may show their year of birth only, or the day and month as 1 January, if their naturalisation or registration certificate only shows the year of birth. If the day and month is blank in the old passport or the customer requests a different day and month, they must:

• send us their naturalisation or registration certificate, to confirm that it shows year of birth only

• get the certificate changed (if the certificate shows a day and month)

• send us evidence of their day and month of birth (if the certificate shows year of birth only)

Change to birth or adoption certificate

If the customer tells us their date of birth is incorrect on their birth or adoption certificate, you must tell them to apply to the correct birth registration authority to replace it. The authority (for example, the General Register Office) will need evidence of the original error before they update their records.

For overseas applications, you must ask the customer if they can provide additional officially issued documents to confirm their date of birth.

If the customer cannot get the certificate changed, you must tell them that you will issue their passport using the date of birth shown on the certificate.

Change to a naturalisation or registration certificate

If the customer does not accept the date of birth shown on their naturalisation or registration certificate, they must apply to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) to change it. UKVI will:

• check the evidence the customer sends them, to decide if they can accept the date of birth

• add an endorsement (stamp) to the certificate, to confirm if they officially accept the date of birth

You can find examples of acceptable UKVI endorsements on naturalisation or registration certificates in the Naturalisation certificates guidance.

You can accept a change to the date of birth, only if UKVI have officially accepted it. You must not accept a change to the date of birth, if UKVI do not officially accept it.

Evidence needed to confirm day and month of birth

We must use the year of birth shown on the certificate if the customer’s nationality certificate shows a year of birth only.,

However we may be able to include a day and month of birth if the customer sends us evidence of their day and month of birth and we are satisfied they are using the claimed date for all official purposes.

You must:

1. Complete a watchlist check, using all combinations of the customer’s name and dates of birth they provide (refer to the warnings and matches guidance for any watchlist results you find).

2. Check all previous passports on Main Index (MI) and select ‘view application’, to check the customer’s previous application case notes, for:

• previous names

• changes to date of birth

3. Complete watchlist and MI checks again, if you find any undeclared names or dates of birth during the searches (refer to the warnings and matches guidance for any watchlist results you find).

4. Add a case note to record the results of your checks.

5. Contact the customer and ask them to send evidence that they use their claimed date of birth for all official purposes and pigeon hole the application until they reply (see withdrawing passport applications if you don’t get a reply).

6. Check the evidence the customer sends, to decide if you can accept the new date of birth.

7. Keep a permanent record of the documents the customer sends to change their date of birth, by scanning copies of them on to the system.

8. Add a case note on the customer’s current application, to record the information and your decisions.

9. Make sure that you:

• cancel all previous passports on MI

• add a passport note to MI on all historical passport records belonging to the customer, to record the new date of birth

The customer must send all the following evidence:

• a statutory declaration that confirms the date of birth they use, and are known to use with public bodies and financial institutions

• two pieces of evidence from different organisations, that show the date of birth, and that were issued within the last 2 years or be valid identity documents (for example, a driving licence). Examples of the documents the customer can send are:

  • documents from the Department of Work and Pensions (for example, the Pension Service)

  • National Health Service medical card

  • documents from their local authority showing a date of birth (for example pensioners bus pass, voters registration card or foreigner residence card)

  • documents from government departments in the UK or abroad (for example a driving licence or foreign passport)