British emergency passports (also known as Emergency Travel Documents (ETD)) are issued by British diplomatic posts to British nationals

British nationality law

British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...

 and unrepresented European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and Commonwealth

Commonwealth citizen

A Commonwealth citizen, which replaces the former category of British subject, is generally a person who is a national of any country within the Commonwealth of Nations....

 citizens for the purpose of urgent travel overseas with a maximum validity of one year.

Eligibility

British nationals, as well as unrepresented European Union and Commonwealth citizens, who need to travel urgently and whose passport has expired, been lost or been stolen can be issued with a British emergency passport by a British foreign mission. However, for a British emergency passport to be issued to a non-British European Union or Commonwealth citizen, permission must first be obtained from the individual's home government.

Physical appearance

The following information appears on the biodata page:

• Photograph of the holder (digital image printed on page)
• Type (P)
• Code of Issuing State (GBR)
• Passport number
• Surname
• Given Names
• Nationality (the class of British nationality, such as "BRITISH CITIZEN" or "BRITISH OVERSEAS CITIZEN", or if issued on behalf of a Commonwealth country, "COMMONWEALTH CITIZEN")
• Date of birth
• Sex
• Place of birth (Only the city or town is listed, even if born outside the UK; places of birth in Wales are entered in Welsh
  Welsh language
  Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
  
   upon request )
• Date of issue
• Authority (FCO)
• Date of expiry
• Holder's Signature (digital image printed on page)
• Machine Readable Zone starting with P

Use

The emergency passport can be used to make a single or return journey to the UK or another country of residence, via a maximum of five transit countries.

The emergency passport is issued with a validity which is limited to the shortest time appropriate to the holder’s travel requirements whilst taking account of the transit and destination country requirements (for example, many countries require travel documents to have a minimum validity of six months).