Travel Documents | ICS Legal
A travel document is a document used for travel if you are not able to obtain a document from your country of nationality. Do not apply for a Home Office travel document if you have changed your personal details as your application will be refused. You can only apply to the Home Office for a travel document in certain special circumstances. There are 4 types of travel documents, depending on your circumstances and your status in the UK.
Call ICS Legal today on 0207 237 3388 and we can explain which type of travel document you would be required to apply for. If you wish to get some initial legal advice, click here to complete this.
We charge for our services, and our consultation charge is £60 on the telephone. If you would like us to make a formal submission as a one-off, our fee would be £120. Further costs may apply.
For most of these travel documents, you must be legally resident in the UK and have permission to stay here for at least 6 months after the date when you make your application.
The Home Office has issued biometric travel documents since 17 March 2008, but existing travel documents can continue to be used until they expire. The biometric travel document has a new design and security features including a tamper-proof biometric chip. The chip contains the holder's personal details (name, nationality, sex, place and date of birth, and signature) as shown on page 31 of the document. No other personal information is included on the chip. The applicant's scanned photograph is the 'biometric' element of the document.
Biometric residence permits
From 29 February 2012 anyone applying for a Home Office travel document must also apply for a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) if they do not already hold one.
How do you qualify for a home office travel document?
To qualify for a Home Office travel document other than a one-way travel document, you must be lawfully resident and present in the UK in one of the eligible groups.
Who qualifies for a home office travel document?
There are five groups. The first two are listed immediately below.
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A refugee who has been granted asylum. If you have been recognised as a refugee under the terms of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status Of Refugees, you may apply for a Convention Travel Document (blue).
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A stateless person. If you have been recognised as a stateless person under the terms of the 1954 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, you may apply for a Stateless Person’s Document (red).
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The other three groups are at c., d. and e. Please note that if you are in any of these particular groups, you must provide either: documentary evidence that you have applied to your national authorities for a passport or travel document, and that your application has been formally and unreasonably refused.
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Or, an acceptable written explanation with any relevant documentary evidence as to why you cannot or should not have to provide such evidence.
The groups subject to these requirements are:
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A person is granted humanitarian protection for a limited period following a refused asylum claim. You may apply for a Certificate of Travel (black).
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A person is granted indefinite leave to remain. You may apply for a Certificate of Travel (black).
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A person is granted discretionary leave for a limited period following a refused asylum claim. You may apply for a Certificate of Travel (black).
One-way travel document
If you are in the UK and are not British, you may apply for a one-way document. Your immigration status is not relevant for such an application but you must provide evidence of your identity. You do not need to apply for a BRP if applying for a one-way document.
Which type of document should you apply for?
You should apply for the appropriate document for the group to which you belong among. The table below sets out the Home Office status letters and documents most frequently-issued to persons who may qualify for a Home Office travel document.
Which countries can you travel to with a Home Office travel document?
Convention Travel Documents (blue) will normally be valid for travel to all countries except those from which asylum was sought and/or your country of origin. Stateless Person’s Documents (red) will normally be valid for travel to all countries. Certificate of Travel (black) will normally be valid for all countries except those from which asylum was sought and/or your country of origin.
However, countries that are party to the Schengen agreement, along with the Republic of South Africa, will not usually accept a Home Office Certificate of Travel as a valid travel document. Before applying for a Home Office travel document, you should check with the embassy of the country to which you wish to travel that they will accept the document.
Children
It is not possible for children to be included in the travel document of their parent or guardian. Children who wish to hold a travel document should apply on a separate application form. If they are aged under 16, they may apply for a child’s document. If they are aged 16 or over, they must apply for an adult document.
Children should normally travel on a British passport if they were born in the United Kingdom:
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to a parent who was settled in this country on the date of the child’s birth, or
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to a parent who was a British citizen on the date of the child’s birth.
Lost or stolen travel documents
If you are applying to replace a lost or stolen travel document, you must provide a police report and crime reference number, together with full details of the circumstances of the loss or theft. Home Office may need to make enquiries before we can issue a replacement and these may sometimes take a while to resolve. The checks made before issuing a travel document are necessary to prevent the misuse of identities.
Call us today on 0207 237 3388 for some initial legal advice or if you need help on the travel document application.
Related FAQ's
Our speciality lies in the field of Immigration, Nationality and EU Law, so it means we always are dealing with this side of the law. We are able to support you in making a correct decision, avoid delays on your case, save money and time, not forgetting the stress of any doubts with your application.
There are many routes available to come to the UK, extend or switch, some of them do not allow extension or even switching. Knowing what is right can be a difficult task and this is why we are here. Simple task of not using the prescribed forms can mean your application is invalid, which means if you have no valid stay, you would have to return back and there is no appeal rights.
Our initial consultations are a chargeable service. We initially discuss the requirements of the application to ensure you meet the requirements and have the documentation required at hand for the submission. It gives you an opportunity to meet us and ask questions.
Each case will be checked thoroughly, everything will be cross referenced so guidelines are met and we will also add our legal document which would outline the Immigration Rules and how the client has satisfied the rules. We use documents that are used by Home Office case workers, so we know exactly what they would look for in your case.
The most important fact is that law constantly changes, policy guidelines and requirements are always changing, so it is best that you always use specialised services to support you. We never compromise our services, our fees remain very competitive but our expertise is at the very highest standard.
We place our clients first, so when you sign the customer care letter and we go through your case file, and we believe that the case would not be successful, we will terminate the agreement and return your documents. We will also provide alternative solutions with no added costs. We also have a cancellation period should you feel you want to withdraw your file.
Please note that all cases cannot be guaranteed as circumstances depends and whether you met guidelines, however the Home Office caseworker can still refuse cases on the balance of probabilities and other factors. Our job would be to prepare your case in the best possible way.
1) You contact us through e-mail or phone.
2) We take some basic information, we ask some relevant questions to understand the type of query and what type of support is required.
3) Your case then gets passed to a case worker.
4) Case Worker would contact you to set up an initial meeting.
5) You attend a consultation, an action plan is drawn up and we find out whether ICS Legal can support your case. A report would be sent where there is a requirement to outline what was discussed and what to do next.
6) You authorise us to be your legal representative by signing our customer care letter.
7) We will then start to request documents and information about your case this will build up your case pack.
8) We will then write our legal report and use Home Office caseworker’s documents to ensure everything has been checked and all requirement have been met.
9) Where possible we will go through every aspect of your case before case submission.
10) We will continue to update you throughout the case life cycle .