Guidance

Deceased person's passports (accessible)

Published 6 October 2022

Version 7.0

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 & 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 7.0

• published for Home Office staff on 7 November 2021

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated with minor formatting changes.

When the customer is deceased

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 can tell us that a passport holder pr intended passport holder (where there is a current application open) has died, by:

• phoning the passport adviceline (0300 222 0000)

• using the Tell Us Once Service

• filling in a paper Death Notification (D1) form

• contacting the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (if the passport holder is not in the United Kingdom)

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.

Intended passport holder died during application process

If the intended passport holder has died, we must deal with the application on the AMS system so we can refund the fee. If the application is on Digital Application Processing (DAP), you must transfer it to AMS.

To deal with the application you must:

1. Send AMS letter 449, to the intended passport holders address (or the address given by the person telling us about the death), to tell whoever opens the letter:

• that 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 we receive the customer’s death certificate

Before we issue a refund, the customer must provide us with a death certificate for the intended passport holder. If we have not yet withdrawn, failed or issued the passport application, we can refund the fee.

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. Check Main Index (MI) for the most recent passport record. If the most recent passport is:

• still valid on MI 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 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 Main Index passport record to show:

• the application number you withdrew

• you received the death certificate

When you have fully case noted the application and cancelled any records on MI 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 to the customer.

Customer is deceased: we have completed the passport application process

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 received after the passport application process is complete.

How customers report a death to HM Passport Office

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

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.

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 on Main Index 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.