FBR success - complicated process - long story
Hello all. Hope you are all well wherever you are in the world.
Finally approved after a gruelling 18 months since submitting. So, my grandfather moved to England during WW2 as a child and during this time, decided to use a different middle name and remove the E from his surname.
I had evidence to prove that this was the same person as the DOBs aligned and thankfully he was well known to the police so we had lots of records of this name being used but also interchangeable with birth name and some other random ones (fair enough if you wanna avoid the police like).
Anyway, application was submitted March 2025 and in December 2025 I had the email for more documents as they could not prove that the two persons were the same, just on the records provided and a covering statement of the name uses. Since December, I’ve had to find more evidence of the names and even had to go through the coroners office to get the official post mortem report, burial records etc. I then had to submit for certificate changes for my mother’s birth and marriage to have his name registered as a formerly known as ‘birth name’.
These were initially rejected by the GRO because they also stated that they could not prove that it was the same person. After I’d gathered all the additional documents listed above and badgered them to see the pattern based on the DOB (also found newspaper articles of the crimes which said other names, again not helpful but proof of changes throughout lifetime), they accepted and these were processed in July 2026.
During this I’ve fallen pregnant so to add further pressure to myself, I’ve had that weighing over me.
I submitted the new corrected documents and these were received 05/08/26 and sent to urgent email for expected parents with my MATB1.
Approved 11/08/26!
Thank you all who have contributed on this group and supported me with this. It’s been hard graft not gonna lie!
I’m just letting others know that this may have been a one off as some people have been authorised with name discrepancies and a covering letter on many occasions, however I am thinking they becoming more stricter (rightly so) of ensuring that official documents are correct, rather than just a letter or an affidavit saying so.
Just to be mindful and if you have evidence and can apply for a correction, to do so to save yourself time, effort and tears!
GRMA, sláinte agus slán go deo!
Onto the passport!