In recognition of their efforts during World War II, the Home Office announced on 19 May 2004 that all British Citizens born on or before 02/09/1929 would be eligible for gratis passports. For information and application forms, please contact:

UK Passport Service Iberia (Veterans)
British Consulate General
Torre Espacio
Paseo de la Castellana 259D
28046 Madrid

Please note that all applications from residents in Spain and Portugal must be sent to the British Consulate-General in Madrid.

Completed 04 application forms received in Madrid will be forwarded to the United Kingdom Passport Service office in Liverpool where they will be processed. On average the applications will take approximately 6-8 weeks to process. We strongly advise applicants to bear this time frame in mind when making any travel plans. If you choose not to wait, or you need to travel urgently, please see our section on applying for a UK passport in Spain or Portugal.

Applicants born on or before 02/09/1929 who have been issued with and have paid for new passports between 19 May and 18 October 2004 will be eligible for a refund. They should contact the British Consulate-General in Madrid for further details.

Applicants who need to travel urgently may still apply for a passport to be issued in Madrid but will have to pay the normal fee for the new passport. This will be treated as a standard application and processed within 10 working days of receipt.

The UK (04) forms must be requested from the British Consulate-General in Madrid as Veteran passports are issued in the UK and this is the only form accepted. Please provide your full Spanish, Portuguese or Andorran address, even though the 04 form asks you for a UK one. This is perfectly acceptable as the forms are sent via the British Consulate to the Passport Office in Liverpool.

Why can’t I download an application form from the website?

When we receive your completed application form we scan the details into our passport generating system. The scanning equipment we use is extremely sophisticated and responds to the specialist inks used to print the application forms.

An application form printed on a normal desktop printer run from a PC would not be able to match the precise scale and register of colours on the forms we print out. As a result our scanner would not recognise the data and your completed form would be unusable.

Why can’t the application process be done electronically?

This service is not available for a variety of reasons. At present most ordinary scanners are not able to send data that is accurate enough for the highly specialised equipment used by IPS. There is also an increased risk of fraud, especially identity theft, associated with the use of digital photos.

We are constantly researching ways to improve our service and to safely incorporate greater use of new technology for passport applications. We will keep you up to date on any new developments.