Guidance

Deceased person's passports (accessible)

Updated 4 September 2025

Version 13.0

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 13.0
• published for Home Office staff on 13 June 2025

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated to:

• tell Digital Application Processing (DAP) examiners how to deal with an application when a person has contacted us to tell us the customer has died during the application process
• tell Digital Application Processing (DAP) examiners how to get a Withdraw application because applicant deceased task added to an application, if we find out about the death of a customer by post or outbound phone call
• remove reference to the Application Management System (AMS)

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) and the customer has died, we can refund the fee to the customer’s next of kin or person responsible for the estate.

The person telling us about the death of the customer must provide us with the death certificate and evidence they are the customer’s next of kin or person responsible for the estate.

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
  • 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

This section tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff how to withdraw a live application using Digital Application Processing (DAP) when the intended passport holder dies during the application process.

A person may contact us by phone, or by sending us a death certificate and supporting letter, to tell us that a customer has died during the passport application process.

If the person has contacted us by phone, the contact centre will:

• tell them what evidence they need to send us
• create a Withdraw application because applicant deceased task on Digital Application Processing (DAP)

If you, the examiner, attempt to contact the customer by phone and find out the customer is deceased, you must:

1. Tell the person who is dealing with the customer’s estate what evidence they need to send us.

2. Put the customer’s application on hold.

3. Send an email to the DAP Change Release team:

• with the subject ‘Withdraw application because applicant deceased’
• asking for a Withdraw application because applicant deceased task to be created on the application

If the person has contacted us by sending a death certificate and supporting letter, you must:

1. Put the customer’s application on hold.

2. Send an email to the DAP Change Release team:

• with the subject ‘Withdraw application because applicant deceased’
• asking for a Withdraw application because applicant deceased task to be created on the application

When the DAP Change Release team receive the request to create the Withdraw application because applicant deceased task, they will update the application and send you an email to confirm the request has been actioned.

When the Withdraw application because applicant deceased task has been created, you must continue to deal with the application in line with this guidance.

Death certificate and evidence received

If you have received the customer’s death certificate and evidence of the person responsible for their estate, you must:

1. Check the evidence of the person telling us they are responsible for the estate.

2. Check the death certificate:

• relates to the customer
• is an original, or an official copy from the issuing authority and check Knowledge Base, if you need to compare it to UK or overseas examples

After checking the evidence provided, if you:

• think the evidence is not genuine, see Concerns about the death certificate or evidence received
• find the customer is not deceased see, Customer is not deceased

If you are content the evidence is genuine, you must:

1. Update ARD (Application Receive Domain) document handling instructions, to tell the Document Handling Unit (DHU) to physically cancel any British passports provided with the application in the customer’s name.

2. Update the addressee and document delivery address details in DAP to return the customer’s supporting documents to the person acting on the customer’s behalf.

3. Arrange a refund of the application fee to the person dealing with the customer’s estate, using the off-system manual refund process.

4. Complete the Withdraw application because applicant deceased DAP task, by selecting the Withdraw application option.

5. Add a case note to record:

• you have received and checked the death certificate and evidence
• you have completed the refund
• the details of the person dealing with the customer’s estate on their behalf

6. Select Save.

When you have selected the Withdraw application option, DAP will automatically:

• electronically cancel the old passport on our passport records as Holder deceased
• return all documents (including old, cancelled passports) to the address held
• not send any final communications to the customer

Concerns about the death certificate or evidence received

If you have received a death certificate or evidence of the person responsible for their estate and you think the document is not genuine, you must:

1. Select the Refer for investigation option on the Withdraw application because applicant deceased task.

2. Select Save.

3. Not continue to examine the application.

Customer is not deceased

If you have received a response to our request for the death certificate and it confirms the customer is not deceased (for example, the death report was made maliciously by a third party), you must:

1. Select the Clear this task option on the Withdraw application because applicant deceased task.

2. Add a case note to confirm the customer is not deceased.

3. Select Save.

4. Continue to examine the application in line with guidance.

Death certificate and evidence not yet received

You must attempt to contact the person who reported the death by phone, to tell them they need to send us:

• the customer’s death certificate
• evidence they are responsible for dealing with the customer’s estate

Where you are unable to contact the person by phone, you must:

1. Send letter 449 from your team mailbox using the offline process, to the customer’s address (or the address given by the person telling us about the death), to tell the recipient:

• we are aware the customer has died
• to let us know who is acting on the customer’s behalf and provide the evidence of this
• to send us the death certificate

2. Put the application on hold.

You must allow the person acting on the customer’s behalf six weeks to respond to our letter. You must send manual reminders throughout this time.

No response from the person dealing with the customer’s estate

If you have not received a response to the letter sent to the person dealing with the customer’s estate after six weeks, you must:

1. Select I cannot do this application.

2. Select the Unable to contact next of kin reason.

DAP will then automatically rerun checks and create an Unable to contact next of kin task. You must:

1. Access the Unable to contact next of kin task.

2. Select the Withdraw application option.

3. Add a case note to confirm you have been unable to contact the next of kin.

4. Select Save.

The application will then be withdrawn on DAP, due to loss of contact. The customer’s documents will automatically sent to long term storage.

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.

You must also check Digital Application Processing (DAP) for any live applications if you have received a D1 form, so we do not issue a passport in error.

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.