Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the safe and timely return of passports submitted to the Home Office by spouses of British citizens wishing to come to the UK.

Passports submitted by the spouses of British Citizens who are applying to come to the UK are usually held at an UKVI Decision Making Centre pending a decision being made.

The passports are stored securely and returned to customers directly by courier or via a Visa Application Centre at various locations overseas once the consideration process is completed. The transfer and transit of passports between Decision Making Centres and the Visa Applications Centres is closely monitored and records of each shipment move are kept.

There is also the opportunity where UKVI can assess applications from digital images of passports. However, the physical passport is required for UKVI to affix a vignette when a decision is made.

In most locations there is an option for customers to keep their passport until a decision has been made on their application with payment of an additional fee.