Guidance

Deceased person's passports (accessible)

Updated 31 January 2025

Version 10.0

This guidance tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff what to do when customers tell us about the death of a passport holder

About: Deceased person’s passports

This guidance tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff how to cancel a passport or deal with a passport application if the customer has died.

This guidance makes reference to ‘death certificate’ and when it does, it means the original document. If the person dealing with the customer’s estate (financial business) cannot provide the original certificate, you must ask them to get an official copy from the issuing authority.

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 team.

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 team.

Publication

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

• version 10.0
• published for Home Office staff on 27 August 2024

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been reformatted (there are no guidance changes).

Deceased person’s passport: how customers report a death

This section tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff how we find out about the death of a customer and how we deal with the information.

Customers (the person reporting a death) must report the death of a passport holder (or intended passport holder) as soon as possible, so we can cancel their passport or current application. We must do this to help prevent the deceased person’s identity being used fraudulently.

Customers who are dealing with a deceased persons estate can tell us about the death by phoning the adviceline on 0300 222 000 or using one of the following services.

Tell Us Once service

The Tell Us Once (TUO) service allows a customer to report a passport holder’s death to HM Passport Office, without the need to send us the passport. The customer can complete TUO online or by phone. Registrars will help the customer use the online service.

TUO reports are dealt with by the Customer Service Liaison Team in Peterborough.

Death notification form

If the customer does not use the Tell Us Once service or they do not have the passport details available when they report a death with a registrar, the customer can:

• print a What to do when a British passport holder dies (D1) form from GOV.UK
• contact our customer adviceline and ask for a D1 form

If the passport has been lost or stolen, the customer must send CSMT:

• a death notification (D1) form
• a death certificate

CSMT will process the D1 form to cancel the passport.

Reporting a death overseas

When a death occurs outside of the UK, customers must deal with deceased passport holders at their nearest British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate.

For information on how the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office deals with a deceased person’s passport, see passport recovered overseas.

Death of a Windrush customer

If the deceased person was a Windrush customer, we can also find out about their death when we check UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) systems. Where UKVI have already seen the death certificate we will not need to see it again.

Deceased person’s passport: live application in progress

This section tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff how we deal with live applications when the intended passport holder dies.

If the application is still live (not yet withdrawn, failed or issued) we can refund the fee but the customer must provide us with the death certificate for the intended passport holder.

Customer is deceased: evidence required to withdraw the live application

Before you withdraw a live application for a customer who has died and refund the fee, the next of kin (for example partner, child, or parent) or person responsible for the estate must send us:

• evidence they are the next of kin or have responsibility for the estate (if they are not the next of kin)
• a signed and dated letter asking us to withdraw the application
• the original death certificate

The person who reports the death must show they are responsible for the estate by sending documents to show they:

• are the executor of the will
• have been appointed as administrator of the estate (if there is no will)
• are the person named on the death certificate as the informant

They can send us different types of evidence to show they are the next of kin and links them to the customer. This includes:

• birth or adoption certificates
• marriage or civil partnership certificates
• joint utility bills or bank statements
• statutory declarations

DAP: withdrawing a live application when customer is deceased

If we have a current (live) passport application and the intended passport holder has died, we can only currently deal with the application on AMS (Application Processing System).

If the application is on DAP (Digital Application Processing) and CSMT (Customer Service Management team) select the option Withdraw application – customer deceased, DAP will automatically transfer the application to AMS.

AMS: withdrawing a live application when customer is deceased

To deal with the application on AMS you must:

1. Send letter 449, to the intended passport holder’s address (or the address given by the person telling us about the death), to tell whoever opens the letter:
   • we are aware the intended passport holder has died
   • to let us know who is acting on the intended passport holder’s behalf
   • to send us the death certificate (if UKVI have not already seen it)
2. Add a case note to explain:
   • how you were told about the death (for example, through Tell Us Once, or through UKVI systems checks for Windrush customers)
   • the actions and decisions you made
   • whether UKVI systems show UKVI received the death certificate (for Windrush customers only)
3. Pigeon hole the application and wait for customer’s response.
4. Follow the withdrawal timescale in the Withdrawing passport applications guidance if we do not get a response from the customer (the person acting on the deceased person’s behalf).

When you receive the death certificate, you (the examiner) must:

1. Check the death certificate is the original, or an official copy from the issuing authority, and:
   • check Knowledgebase, if you need to compare it to UK or overseas examples
   • refer to the Counter Fraud team, if you think the document is not genuine
2. Scan all documents the customer provides as a permanent record on the system.

If the deceased person already held British passports, you must also:

1. Physically cancel any British passport belonging to the deceased that came with the application.
2. Search passport records for the most recent passport. If the most recent passport is:
   • still valid on our passport records and it came with the application, you must cancel it electronically as ‘holder deceased’
   • lost or stolen and is already cancelled, you must make sure you link the Lost or Stolen (LS) record to the application
   • lost or stolen and is not already cancelled, you must search for an LS record or create one to cancel the passport (you must cancel it as ‘other, holder deceased’
3. Add a passport note to any passport application record to show:
   • the application number you withdrew
   • you received the death certificate

When you have fully case noted the application and cancelled the passport or application record you must:

1. Refund the fee to the person dealing with the deceased’s estate.
2. Withdraw the application.
3. Return any original supporting documents and the death certificate to the customer.

Deceased person’s passport: we have completed the passport application process

This section tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff how we deal with completed applications when the intended passport holder dies.

If we have completed the passport application (issued, withdrawn, or failed) our service is complete and must be paid for. After we issue a passport, we will not provide a refund. The customer must check with the deceased person’s life or travel insurance to ask if they will cover this cost.

You must send any correspondence about a deceased passport holder to the Customer Service Management team (CSMT), if we receive it after the passport application process is complete.

Dealing with death notification forms

This section tells HM Passport Office staff working in the Customer Service Management team (CSMT) how to deal with passports, death certificates and death notifications (D1) sent to us by customers.

If a customer has not used the Tell Us Once service to tell us a passport holder has died, they must complete a death notification (D1) form. The D1 form tells them to:

• snip the top right-hand corner of the passport
• send it and the passport (or death certificate if the passport was lost or stolen) to the CSMT) in Southport.

If the customer sends a passport (or death certificate) to CSMT

When you, the CSMT officer, receive a notification of a deceased passport holder, you must:

1. Check the death certificate is the original, or an official copy from the issuing authority, and:
   • check Knowledge base, if you need to compare it to UK or overseas examples
   • refer to the Counter Fraud team, if you think the document is not genuine
2. Check the details on the death notification form and passport match.
   • if the details match, you must cancel the passport record as ‘holder deceased’
   • if the details don’t match, you must contact the person named on the D1 form to confirm the details
3. Add a passport note, which records:
   • the date of death
   • what documents you received from the customer (for example, passport, death certificate, D1 form)
   • if we destroyed the passport or returned it to the sender
4. Send an acknowledgement letter to the customer after we cancel the passport and return the death certificate (or passport, if they ask us) by:
   • Royal Mail (if the customer is in the UK)
   • secure delivery (if the customer is overseas)
5. Keep paper D1 forms in secure storage for 12 months for audit purposes.
6. Securely destroy the passport (if the customer has not asked us to return it).

If the D1 form confirms the passport is lost or stolen, you must:

• scan the D1 form and death certificate
• add a passport note to explain:
  • the customer confirmed the passport is lost or stolen
  • the customer has sent the original death certificate (if they sent the original or an official copy from the issuing authority)
• send it by email to the Lost Stolen and Recovered (LSR) team, confirming the customer’s name, date of birth and passport number

The LSR team can accept the email from CSMT as confirmation the passport is lost or stolen.

You must wait until the LSR team have confirmed they have cancelled the passport, before you send the acknowledgment letter and documents back to the customer.

If the customer does not send the passport (or death certificate) to CSMT

If we receive a D1 form from a customer but they do not include a passport or death certificate, you will need to contact them to ask for the death certificate and to confirm if the passport, is:

• in their possession
• lost
• stolen

If the customer confirms they have the passport, you must ask them to send it to HM Passport Office Southport for cancellation. The customer must tell us if they want us to return the passport or destroy it.

If they tell us the passport has been lost or stolen, you must ask the customer to send the death certificate to us. When the death certificate is received you must:

• scan the D1 form and death certificate
• add a passport note to explain the customer confirmed the passport is lost or stolen
• send the scans of the documents by email to the LSR team (you must include the customer name, date of birth and passport number in the email).

You must keep paper D1 forms in secure storage for 12 months for audit purposes.