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I am a Turkish citizen who has been living in Bangladesh since 2010. I have residence and work permit and proper visa on my passport in order to stay in Bangladesh legally. I did apply for visit visa for the UK through the VAC (VFS Global, Dhaka) on 6th July 2017 and on 31st July 2017, I have received back a pack from the VAC with additional letters inside but the passport, stating that my travel document is invalid.

My passport was renewed by Turkish Embassy in Dhaka on 31st March 2015, and with validity for ten years. Accordingly, I have visas on it, staying legally in Bangladesh with a work permit, and traveled to Germany, Netherlands in March 2017, India in May 2017 and USA in June 2017 for an official purpose from where I returned to Bangladesh just before 12 days of submitting the passport for a visa at UK VAC.

How did they decide that my passport was invalid? If we assume that my passport was invalid what is the next action to be taken by British High Commission? They didn't submit my passport back,where is it and where can I get it back from? I badly need answers of these questions.

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    Please upload a scan of your rejection notice, with any personal information blacked out.
    – DJClayworth
    Aug 16, 2017 at 17:24
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    I did necessary edition on the text and added the refusal letter. Right now, I don't have my passport in my hand so I am stateless in Bangladesh. I am wondering whether British High Commission has legal right to give my passport to anyone else. If they made a mistake by violating human rights and international rules, I definitely will go to court and disclose this scandal.Because it is my right to get the passport back even though it is invalid for them.
    – Fatih Mollaalioğlu
    Aug 17, 2017 at 18:22
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    You're not stateless. You're only stateless if you actually lost your nationality. You just simply don't have your passport. That's a problem, but it's nowhere near the same problem as being stateless. It appears the most likely explanation is that your passport got misplaced somewhere in the process.
    – Zach Lipton
    Aug 17, 2017 at 18:36
  • Passports belong to the state, in your case Turkey. If Turkey told the High Commission to send your passport to them, the High Commission is obliged to do it.
    – Gayot Fow
    Aug 18, 2017 at 4:26

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It looks like you're misreading the refusal letter. It does not say, "the travel document you provided is invalid". It merely says, "you did not provide a valid travel document".

Since they do not write anyting about any problem with a travel document, the most likely interpretation is that the application contained no travel document at all (neither valid nor invalid) when the ECO processed it. If you're sure that you actually submitted a passport to VFS, either VFS or the consular post itself must have lost it.

(Even if the consulate did think a provided passport was counterfeit, they wouldn't take it upon themselves to seize and destroy it -- that is a law enforcement task which diplomatic representations are not empowered to. You would be hearing from the fraud division of the local police, rather than getting a refusal letter from the consulate).

What you need to do now is:

  1. Report the passport as stolen/lost with the local police ASAP. Get a reciept.

  2. Get in contact with the nearest Turkish consular representation to get a new passport issued. If you need to travel soon, it may be an option to get a temporary travel document issued faster than a full passport.

  3. If, after getting delayed by all of this, you still have plans to go to the UK, you must reapply with the new passport.

  4. You should consider complaining to the British consulate about them losing your passport. They won't be able to magically conjure it up, of course, but they'll want to know about such happenings such that they can detect if there's a pattern of passports going missing from the VAC. If they find your story credible they may even decide to waive the application fee when you re-apply.

  5. The price of a new passport is, unfortunately, probably on you. If you have household insurance, check if it covers the loss. If not, and you're angry enough to spend (probably) more time than it's worth at the end, seek legal advice locally about whether you can realistically go after VFS for the loss.

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  • This is unfortunate. I would hate to see an embassy lose my passport.
    – user58558
    Aug 18, 2017 at 9:21
  • @greatone An embassy didn't lose the passport, it was lost by the non-governmental for-profit company VFS.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Sep 1, 2018 at 21:23

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