Travel Document

Travel document

Home Office travel document allows non-UK nationals to travel outside the UK if they are not able to use or obtain a passport from their countries. Home office travel document can only be applied in certain special circumstances.

1

Eligibility for Travel Document

To obtain a travel document a person must be living in the UK for one of the following reasons:

  • a person has permission to stay as a refugee or stateless person
  • a person has humanitarian protection for a limited time after a failed asylum application
  • a person has discretionary leave for a limited time after a failed asylum application; or
  • a person has indefinite leave to remain.

It is necessary to know that a person must show that they have formally applied for and been unreasonably refused a passport by authorities in their country. People who have permission to be in the UK as a refugee or stateless person are exempt from this condition.

2

Types of travel documents

There are four different types of travel documents that a person can apply for, depending on their circumstances and their status in the UK:
1. If a person is a refugee, they can apply for a convention travel document

2. If a person is stateless, they can apply for a stateless person’s document

3. If a person is a non-UK citizen that wants to leave the UK and not come back, they can apply for a one-way document (also known as an IS137)

4. If a person has been refused a passport by their own country’s national authorities, they can apply for a certificate of travel.