Guidance

Returning documents on live applications: caseworker guidance

Published 4 February 2026

Version 15.0

His Majesty’s Passport Office guidance explaining how we return customer’s documents to them when the application is still live.

1. About: Returning documents on live applications

This guidance tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff about how we can return customer’s documents to them before we have made a final decision on their application.

1.1 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.

1.2 Publication

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

• version 15.0

• published for Home Office staff on 15 September 2025

1.3 Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated in the Return of documents during application processing section to explain a customer can request the return of documents by either a signed letter or an email.

2. How customers ask for their documents back

This section tells HM Passport Office staff about how a customer can ask us to return their documents before we make a final decision about their application.

We tell customers to contact HM Passport Office if they need us to return their original documents while we are dealing with their application.

Customers must ask for their documents to be returned:

• in writing and sign and date their request; or,

• in an email sent from the email address they supplied on their application

Any change of address must be dealt with using the Delivery addresses for passports and documents guidance.

If you are processing a paper application and receive a letter, you must check the signature matches the one shown on the paper form.

If you are processing an online application (which do not have a signature), in line with the Disclosure of Information guidance, you can accept the email is genuine if all the following apply:

• the email came from the:

  • customer, parent or third party who applied and have authorisation to do so

  • email address on the application

• the customer or parent gives the bar code or 3 pieces of information to confirm their identity

2.1 Customer wants their foreign passport to travel overseas

If a customer in the UK asks us to return their foreign passport so they can travel overseas, you must ask them if they:

• would like to upgrade their application (if they are eligible for an upgrade and the service is currently being offered)

• need the passport to travel for urgent government business or compassionate reasons

This is because we may be able to issue their British passport in time for their travel, meaning they will not need to use their foreign passport.

If the customer does not want (or is not eligible) to upgrade their application (or the service is not currently being offered), does not have urgent government business or compassionate reasons, or insists on having their foreign passport returned in order to travel out of the UK, you must tell them:

• they can choose to use their foreign passport to travel out of the UK

• they may not be able to use their foreign passport to return to the UK, even if they have been naturalised or registered as a British national

• they can consider applying for a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode which would allow them to return to the UK without permission, however, they would need pay a fee for it

• if they are overseas and cannot travel back to the UK using their foreign passport, they must contact the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office who may consider issuing an Emergency Travel Document

If the customer insists that we must return their foreign passport, you must use DAP: returning documents on live applications.

3. DAP: returning documents on live applications

This section tells HM Passport Office staff using Digital Application Processing (DAP) how to deal with a customer’s request to return their documents before we make a final decision about their application.

You, the examiner, may be able to return documents on a live application, if you are processing an application on Digital Application Processing (DAP).

If an application is with the Counter Fraud team, or you decide you need to refer the application to them, the Counter Fraud officer must decide whether to return the documents. Where we suspect or are investigating fraud, we will not return documents to the customer.

3.1 Customer requests return of documents: before validation

A customer may contact the Customer Services Management team (CSMT) to ask for their documents to be returned before they have been validated and scanned by our Document Handling Unit (DHU) staff.

We can only return documents to the customer when they have been validated by the DHU staff.

You, the CSMT staff, must:

1. Tell the customer they must ask for their documents to be returned by sending:

   • CSMT an email from the email address they supplied on their application. If the request is received by email we can only return the documents to the address on the application (see, Scanning and uploading customer documents); or,

   • a signed and dated letter by post, to the same address they used for their supporting documents

2. Select the Issue not listed: customer requests return of documents.

3. Add a case note on the application to explain the customer has requested the return of their documents and if they will make their request by post or email.

3.2 Return of documents during application processing

You may need to return documents during the processing of an application, if:

• the customer has asked for their documents back

• we need the customer to do something, for example, to get the name aligned on their foreign passport

If you, the examiner, tell the customer they must align the name on their foreign passport, you must return the document to allow them to do this. The customer does not need to request the return.

If a customer asks us to return their documents before we have made a final decision on their application, you must ask the customer to request this:

• in writing and sign and date their request; or,

• in an email sent from the email address they supplied on their application

Any change of address must be dealt with using the Delivery addresses for passports and documents guidance.

You must consider:

• if the customer needs the documents returning urgently (for example, if they send us a foreign passport but they need to travel before their new British passport is issued)

• what documents they have asked us to return and why they have asked for them

• if there are any fraud indicators on the application or the documents (for example, are they genuine documents)

• if we need the document returning to us to complete the application

If you need to cancel the customer’s old British passport before you issue a new one, you must ask the customer to return their passport to you before you complete their application.

When the documents have been returned to the customer, you can continue to examine the application in line with guidance, if:

• the documents are scanned and visible on Application Received Domain (ARD)

• you do not require the returned documents for any further action

If the customer returns the document to the DHU, it will be scanned, validated and uploaded to ARD as an additional document item. The status of the original document item will show as returned to the customer and this can not be changed.

3.3 DAP: how to return the customer’s documents

If you have no fraud concerns about the customer’s application or documents, you can return the customer’s documents on a live application using ARD. ARD will allow you to update the document handling instructions for each individual document that you would like to return to the customer.

To return a document to the customer, you must:

1. Decide if you need any of the documents returning to us before we can complete the application (for example, to cancel a British passport) and send letter 006 to the customer to explain.

2. Add a case note to any live task on DAP showing:
   • the customer’s request
   • the checks you made to confirm the request was genuine
   • your decision to return the documents (or not)

3. Select Request item on ARD.

4. Select Return to applicant.

5. Check where you are returning the documents to; if you are returning the documents to:

   • the address on the application, select Return to applicant

   • an alternative address, select Specify alternative address and enter the alternative address details

   • a Local Service address, select Specify alternative address and enter the address details and email the Local Service to tell them a document is being returned and ask them to contact the customer to arrange collection

6. Enter the reason the documents must be sent to the customer.

7. Select Send.

8. Check if the customer’s request for their documents is:

   • urgent; and must be completed within 4 hours (see steps 1 to 4 below)

   • non-urgent; and will be completed by the Scanning, Validation and Storage (SVS) operator team

If the customer’s request for their documents is urgent, you must also:

1. Access ARD and search for the document the customer has asked us to return.

2. Select the Item details and check the Location (the DHU location the document is stored in).

3. Send an email with the subject field marked Urgent document return request, to the Embedded Civil Servant (ECS) team, in the relevant DHU in:

   • Corby

   • Hemel Hempstead

4. In the request email, you must:

   • include the customer’s details and application reference number

   • tell the ECS which documents the customer has asked us to return urgently

The ECS team will arrange for the SVS operator to urgently retrieve the documents the customer has requested and return them to the address shown on ARD.