Canada Dreams

hi

could some one tell us whats the best way to renew our childs uk passport, is there anywhere here in nova scotia, or do we down load forms and send it all off to the uk

many thanks

destinationnovascotia

You need to apply to the British embassy in Washington http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/help-fo...passport-forms

nikki dreaming

I recently did this, took about 3 weeks to come back.

Canada Dreams

great thanks

Canada Dreams

sorry but why washington

Zoe Bell

It used to be Ottawa but the US government doesn't trust the canadiand with such an important task now.

Quite why they should have a say in issuing British passports I don't know.

Tbh I can't quite remember the exact details but it did have something to do with the Anericans not being assured of the security of the process used in Canada and seeing as the passports might be used to cross the US border they felt they had the right to insist that they were processed in the US

Canada Dreams

that makes sense now, many thanks, we were thinking we had to do this through the uk route

many many thanks

JAJ

This is completely wrong.

The Canadians have had no involvement with issuing British passports. The Foreign Office decided to centralise all British passport issuance for the Americas in the British Embassy in Washington DC.

Although realistically, it's unlikely the passport service will improve unless the Home Office take it over and print everything in the UK. This is what other countries have done - embassies should normally not issue anything other than emergency travel documents.

Zoe Bell

Ok maybe I'm wrong but I thought I read something about political pressure from the us with regards to passports from various nations , especially those from visa waiver countries

JAJ

Security standards for passports in general are higher. In the past, standards at overseas embassies of many countries were relatively lax (handwritten passports instead of machine readable).

As a result many countries have consolidated passport issuing into larger offices. The only overseas Australian missions that issue full passports are London and Washington DC, for example. The USA has brought all passport issues for overseas Americans into one office in New Hampshire.

Zoe Bell

I do remember a friend of mine having issues travelling with his brittish passport that was issued by the consulate in Geneva

It wasn't machine readable as I recall , just had a blank space where the code should have been

JAJ

Non-machine readable = you need a U.S. tourist visa. Same goes for children on parent's passports.

Piff Poff

I sent my kids off about three weeks ago - still not got it back, I'm not expecting it anytime soon. The link that has been given has all the info required.