Strange letter from Passport Agency re: British passport application

Hmm....no I applied through the post office.  I didn't even realise there was an option to apply online!

But I did add the £3 for a recorded delivery return of all my documents.  I'm hoping they all arrive together. 

Online. No that's weird. It's an option that shouldn't be available to people applying for their first passport. The point being that no one officially has ever seen an image of you before. No I applied at the Post Office, who insisted that I redo the entire application since the tail of a t went out of the box.

Online. No that's weird. It's an option that shouldn't be available to people applying for their first passport. The point being that no one officially has ever seen an image of you before. No I applied at the Post Office, who insisted that I redo the entire application since the tail of a t went out of the box.

When you apply online it just fills in your application so you don't have to worry about letters going out of the box.  They send you the filled out application and your countersignatory fills out his information and signs the pictures.  I did my kids' applications online because I heard how anal they were about the boxes.  It isn't any different than using the Post Office.

Yes, I filled completed my application online last year, and they sent the printed version to me. Much prettier.

Got my UK passport today... no sign of any weird letter like Wishstar got.   

Congrats on the new passport!

Cheers!
The other thing is, with my passport application i was sent a 'supplementary info' sheet which asked me allsorts... like my bank account number, and my employer's details!!
I basically said 'f*ck that' and didnt fill it in...  i was thinking my passport application might be rejected, but it went through fine.

I wonder what the point of that supplementary info form was?  It was all definitely stuff that the passport agency does NOT need to know!

whazz-up with that! You mean you didn't get the sexual preference form as well?

The other thing is, with my passport application i was sent a 'supplementary info' sheet which asked me allsorts... like my bank account number, and my employer's details!!

That's really weird! Was this with an application form or in response to your application?

It was with the passport application form i received from the council registrar when i had my naturalisation ceremony...

It was with the passport application form i received from the council registrar when i had my naturalisation ceremony...

I received an application form with the bumf after my ceremony as well (in Northern Ireland) but certainly did not get asked for bank details.

This was a separate form? Did anything in the instructions refer to it? It's very strange and almost seems like a hardcopy version of phishing!

It's a brown and white form, entitled Supplementary Form, and it says on it: before the UKPS can issue a passport, we must verify your identity and require the following information to do this:

Then it asks for name, address , DOB (which are already on the application itself).  It then asks for your previous address!

Then it asks for your employer's name and telephone number, and finally, your bank account number and sort code!!

There is no reference to this form on the instruction leaflet, nor on their website.  So i just decided to skip it, and it apparently did no harm to skip it. 

When I applied for my US passport, my application came back unapproved, and I had to send back loads of info going back 5 years to verify my identity: bank records, apartment lease, insurance records, tax records, etc.
Perhaps the British are starting to get paranoid, too.

When I applied for my US passport, my application came back unapproved, and I had to send back loads of info going back 5 years to verify my identity: bank records, apartment lease, insurance records, tax records, etc.
Perhaps the British are starting to get paranoid, too.

I don't think that explains it. Proof of identity is one thing, bank account details and sort code are something else! I just registered to vote and was asked to provide proof of identity - I sent my O2 bill (with account number blanked out) and electric bill (ditto). No problem. This  is something really weird. I would think seriously about querying this with the passport agency.

Speaking of passports....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4379367.stm

Face-to-face interviews for all first time applicants starting next year.  Guess it's just as well I got mine last year!