Cancelling a British Passport for a Deceased Person

[HEM]

This does not fit under "German Bureaucracy" since its British Bureaucracy...

Hopefully the evil day is still some way off but I'm updating a list of "ToDo" items for my wife / chidren for when the time comes.
One items to add is that of cancelling my British passport.

I've searched of course but all I found seems to cover the case of someone passing away whilst on a short-term (eg vacation) visit "abroad".
In my case I have a residence permit for Germany & am here long-term & will probably be disposed of here.
If I cannot fathom this out how will my (German) wife manage?

Has anyone been through this procedure & can relate the actions?

[Kerfuffle]

I am dealing with similar issues here, not sure whether a link is allowed? https://www.argolifeandlegacy.co.uk/pos ... 0passport.

You can cancel a British passport by accessing www.gov.uk and completing form D1 - What to do when a British passport holder dies. It is a simple document to complete. Just fill in the details of the person who has died and your details, as the person cancelling the passport. For security purposes, it is important you cut the top right hand corner off the passport before sending it to H M Passport Office for cancellation.

Passports are sentimental and the Passport Office will return the cancelled document to you to retain.

In my case it was not necessary as my husband let his British passport expire and opted for a German passport only.

[alma.freya]

This page was essential when my parents died*:
https://www.gov.uk/when-someone-dies

What to do if someone dies abroad :
https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/death- ... 600e2a2b7a

Tell Us Once
https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organi ... ll-us-once

Tell Us Once is a service that lets you report a death to most government organisations in one go.
...
Passport Office - to cancel a British passport

They died in the UK but I'm sure this page will prove useful for those who survive you.

[HEM]

Where did you find Form D1 under www.gov.uk?

I went there & searched for "Form D1" & got articles about Driving lecences & Director's conduct.

Tell us once cannot be used if the person was living abroad permamently (which I am).

[Kerfuffle]

Where did you find Form D1 under www.gov.uk?

I went there & searched for "Form D1" & got articles about Driving lecences & Director's conduct.

Tell us once cannot be used if the person was living abroad permamently (which I am).

Try this https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... te-history

[editorL]

I am dealing with similar issues here, not sure whether a link is allowed?

Sure it is. We hope you'll get answers that'll help you.

[HEM]

Try this https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... te-history

That works. Interesting that they use Open Document Format.
Opened OK in my Apache OpenOffice Writer even if the layout looked a bit skewed.

[Kerfuffle]

Try this https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... te-history

That works. Interesting that they use Open Document Format.
Opened OK in my Apache OpenOffice Writer even if the layout looked a bit skewed.

Great news, I had also dealings with the British consulate and they were very friendly, so if your wife gets stuck, the consulate will help her. She needs to use the option of British sitizen needs help when using ringing in. Once I got to talk to someone, they were very kind. On a personal note, I think it is great that you are organizing as much admin now, it sure will be helpful in the hopefully distant future.

[HEM]

On a personal note, I think it is great that you are organizing as much admin now, it sure will be helpful in the hopefully distant future.

One important action is to make a list of your Internet presences (including username & passwords) so that your next-of-kin can cancel.
You think you only have a couple of e-mail addresses? Amazon, Luftansa, Eurowings, EasyJet, online banking & suddenly the list is long.

[bethannbitt]

On a personal note, I think it is great that you are organizing as much admin now, it sure will be helpful in the hopefully distant future.

One important action is to make a list of your Internet presences (including username & passwords) so that your next-of-kin can cancel.
You think you only have a couple of e-mail addresses? Amazon, Luftansa, Eurowings, EasyJet, online banking & suddenly the list is long.

We have done that just in case one of us suddenly gets sick or has an accident. Here’s a true story that forced me to confront reality:
3,5 years ago my sister, age 58 and in a 42-year relationship, filed for divorce following my former BIL’s latest very mean spirited affair. He didn’t want the divorce and dragged his feet on releasing financial just to make her life miserable. And 18 months later, , through no fault of his own, he was in a terrible accident! After 8 tortuous days on life support and a brain scan showing zip, the family was finally able to pull the plug. Needless to say, it was awful for each of us in our own way to process this event. Despite his transgressions he didn’t deserve what happened, but many folks were angry with him.

My sister, at 60, became a widow, cuz one can’t divorce a dead person, and she inherited everything, no questions asked (CA, community property state). The fight was just,, over! Thankfully, my nephew somehow knew his dad’s laptop and phone PWs and the code to his storage unit with family heirlooms. Without these it would have taken my sister much longer to reconstruct things and begin to reorganize her financials, and all this during a highly emotional time.

The story is much sadder and more complex than I’ve described and jarred us all. My BIL, in the family since age 16, had many redeeming qualities, but his dark side really took over eventually. One gift, among many, that he left all of us though was realizing how important it is to have easy access to like HEM is working on. November 2nd was the 2 year anniversary of his death.

[GaryC]

I have been writing, and keeping updated, a now 55-page document telling the survivor on the first death and the executors on the second death a whole load of necessary stuff. It is full of text, links to the www and links to documents on my computer/cloud. This is from the UK perspective but ranges from the Tell us once process mentioned above, to where to find details of bank/savings/credit card accounts, when to tell the banks (our bank said to hold off telling them as the credit card will be cancelled as well as bank accounts as soon as they are informed of the death and that may not be desirable if the survivor is an authorised cardholder), inheritance tax and transfer of unused allowances from the fist-deceased on the second death, wills, how to deal with UK ISAs as the survivor can invest the whole value of the deceased's ISAs into a new ISA, final tax returns for the deceased, tax returns for executors, what pensions we have and how to claim any survivor pensions, not to mention utilities, computers, life insurance, online presences and so on as already mentioned above.

The importance of doing this was highlighted when a friend's husband died quickly in his 60s. He had done all of the tech and financial stuff and she was left completely lost at a time when she was struggling anyway. I offered to help her navigate the maze and discovered how difficult is was to track things down. Both he and she had personal domain names and email hosting. One day her email, that she was using to correspond with financial institutions etc about the estate, stopped working as an unknown bill had not been paid. It took a long time to track down that there were 4 providers for domains and email and she missed the renewal for her email. We got it sorted but that was not the last surprise of this nature, e.g. her MS 365 Family subscription also ran out and we had no idea at that point which email address it was linked to!

Anyway, it made me realise that when I am gone, there will be a massive task for my wife, or kids if I go second, to pick up to sort everything out, as I too and the financial/techie in the partnership, so I set-about creating said document. I was surprised to discover how often it needs updating with things like changing tax allowances, the list of investments/savings as accounts are opened and closed to chase interest rates, and new things that come into the household, or are discarded and no longer need documenting.

I would recommend everyone to create something like this to help those who are left to pick up the pieces, whenever that may happen.

[Fraufruit]

It's beginning to look like canceling the passport of the deceased is the least important thing.

[GaryC]

Very true...

[HEM]

I have been writing, and keeping updated, a now 55-page document ...

My "HEM-EOL" document has just spilled over to the 4th page...

I had done the initial version some years ago but have recently added the stuff around British Passport & German residence permit.

[LeonG]

When my dad died, we never bothered to cancel his passport. What happens if you don't?

What we did have to do was to put all utilities, property tax, subscriptions etc. in my mom's name as well as figure out pension issues.

[kiplette]

No, we didn't do that for my Dad, now you mention it. No point, really, since it's only valid for one person who is now deceased.