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Courier names and costs - passport pain

Courier names and costs - passport pain

Old Apr 14th 2006, 10:52 pm
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Default Courier names and costs - passport pain

Now that the UK Passport agency has changed to the "Identity and Passport Service" which runs Charles Clarke's new (and hard fought against) stasi-style-identity-and-personal-tracking-database they've upped the cost of a passport as of this Friday coming 21/04/06 by a hefty whack to get it set up for biometrics (i.e. eventually you'll need to travel to a centre to get your iris scanned and your fingerprints taken ... but just now they only require a photo)

The upshot is that after blowing $44 on passport photos for the family which I KNEW wouldn't match up to the new bl**dy biometric requirements I need to get new ones done and Monday's a sodding holiday. Can anyone recommend a courier to get the renewal documents down to Canberra from the Gold Coast for Friday's deadline if I send them on Tuesday?
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Old Apr 14th 2006, 11:11 pm
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Default Re: Courier names and costs - passport pain

Originally Posted by CHnJ
Now that the UK Passport agency has changed to the "Identity and Passport Service" which runs Charles Clarke's new (and hard fought against) stasi-style-identity-and-personal-tracking-database they've upped the cost of a passport as of this Friday coming 21/04/06 by a hefty whack to get it set up for biometrics (i.e. eventually you'll need to travel to a centre to get your iris scanned and your fingerprints taken ... but just now they only require a photo)

The upshot is that after blowing $44 on passport photos for the family which I KNEW wouldn't match up to the new bl**dy biometric requirements I need to get new ones done and Monday's a sodding holiday. Can anyone recommend a courier to get the renewal documents down to Canberra from the Gold Coast for Friday's deadline if I send them on Tuesday?
OK ... calm now. Australia Post does a $6.50 next day delivery (TNT wanted $207!!!)
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Old Apr 15th 2006, 11:03 pm
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Default Re: Courier names and costs - passport pain

Originally Posted by CHnJ
Now that the UK Passport agency has changed to the "Identity and Passport Service" which runs Charles Clarke's new (and hard fought against) stasi-style-identity-and-personal-tracking-database they've upped the cost of a passport as of this Friday coming 21/04/06 by a hefty whack to get it set up for biometrics (i.e. eventually you'll need to travel to a centre to get your iris scanned and your fingerprints taken ... but just now they only require a photo)

The upshot is that after blowing $44 on passport photos for the family which I KNEW wouldn't match up to the new bl**dy biometric requirements I need to get new ones done and Monday's a sodding holiday. Can anyone recommend a courier to get the renewal documents down to Canberra from the Gold Coast for Friday's deadline if I send them on Tuesday?
If you are in Australia then you apply to the British High Commission for a passport, not the UK Passport Service.

The Foreign Office sets passports fees on a different schedule to UKPS, although they tend to move in line with each other. Check http://bhc.britaus.net for fees and photo specifications.

The US is pushing for biometric passports - if your passport is issued on or after 26 October 2006, it will need to be biometric in order to be eligible for the US visa waiver scheme. So 100% of British citizen passports issued from then will need to be biometric, otherwise there will be problems. At the moment in the UK, about 10% of new passports are biometric, from what I understand (it's random whether you get one or not).

Further changes down the line are going to be interviews for first time adult applicants for a British passport (like Australia has) and a possible reduction in the validity period of a British passport from 10 to 5 years.
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