Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Old Jun 17th 2014, 11:40 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by Oldsteel
Quick update here on my options. Spoke a few times to the advice line, Irish applications are dealt with in Liverpool and they sent an email to them to track the application and they said they would call us within 3 working days, which takes us to Wednesday and 6 working days left before we need to depart for USA. They also said processing time is now minimum 6 weeks (3 weeks was stated when we applied). Spoke to embassy in Dublin who said the 12 month extension can only be done if current passport is presented, so that is out as current passport is in Liverpool. They did offer to issue an ETD as other posts have suggested but on consultation with US embassy that would also require a US Visa to enter the US. The US Visa application process is tortuous, both would require visits to embassies, appointments and minimum 3 days processing time, needless to say also costs. ETD is £95. Route for stolen passport option from Belfast processing time would be too long (premium service not available currently). So only route is to prevail upon Liverpool when they call and hope for the best, otherwise reschedule vacation with some (limited) help in costs using travel insurance cover
I'm afraid that your summary of options (= 1) is correct. Now that the bu@@ers have your passport, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. To add insult to injury, the hapless Home Secretary announced completely facile measures to "ease" the situation, which only benefit people who have not yet applied (and therefore not lost their valuable document in the execrable system) and who are resident in the UK.

I regret that I have nothing but contempt for the current administration, to have allowed this to happen. It was hardly unforeseeable.
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Old Jun 17th 2014, 11:59 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by jamjax
Dear BritInParis;

May I ask why you used the Fast Track Service instead of the Premium service which for only a little more, £128, you would have had your passport back in four hours instead of mailing it?

You did not say if you had it mailed to Paris or somewhere in the UK.(Though I see now that you are not in Paris on your profile.)

May I ask if you used an out of UK address on your application?

Because of all of the adverse publicity about processing delays I just booked a one day return flight to London from Geneva on Tuesday, June 17th for an appointment at Globe House.

I am wondering if I should use a UK resident person for a counter signer, required for one of the photographs, or if I need to use an out of UK person since I live in France?

The chap on the phone for my appointment this morning was quite clear that even in person with my old passport I would need one photograph countersigned.

To be fair he was very polite and unstressed, I called 15 minutes before they are listed as opening in the morning and he was unbothered about the publicity saying that they expected a rush at this time of the year and had planned for it.....

According to the website you are supposed to use someone in your location a UK, EU, or USA passport holder, though better to use UK holder, some folks on here have used other nationality passport holders for countersigning.

I was figuring to use a UK person and an old address in the UK for the application....but I don't want to run into trouble since my passport expires on June 24th, and I have travel plans for a wedding on the 25th, and have my application kicked out of the 4 hour service window for something I won't be able to fix in a day. (Yes I am officially a dope for not checking my passport sooner, thought I had another year)

So am now wondering if I should just use my French address...though I prefer not to.

This all seems much more complicated than when I renewed it in London in person for the same day service ten years ago and I don't recall there being a requirement for a counter signer for a photo when I had my old passport in hand and two photographs.

I should ask if there is any other form of ID or confirmation of address is required when you pay to use the walk in 4 hour service.

It seems the rules are changing by the day and even since I looked at this last month.

Any information would be highly appreciated since I will have to fill out the form the same morning as my appointment, oddly enough you can't download a copy of the application to do it in person from either the Passport service or the Post Office they refer you to.

In the alternative has anyone heard how this one year extension for renewal of out of country applicants announced by Theresa May yesterday would work?

What is the Home Office doing about it?
After days of pressure, Home Secretary Theresa May has now announced a series of emergency measures to try to tackle the backlog - people renewing their UK passports from overseas will be given a 12-month extension to their existing passport. Those applying for passports overseas on behalf of their children will be given emergency travel documents.


BBC News - Passport delays - what you need to know

Passport Office to get 100 more staff to cope with backlog of applications | Politics | theguardian.com

How on earth would that work for someone trying to travel on an expired passport or is it only that you can renew it a year longer after it expires.
Jamjax, the key issue is not to take an application route, which will involve sending your passport to a regional office. None of the measures announced by the mendacious Home Secretary provide for any assistance to applicants from abroad who have been foolish enough to follow the rules laid out on the HMPO website.

The one and only way to effect a passport renewal within any reasonable length of time is to go in person and pay the Fast Track premium. A colleague of mine has just done this and, despite being rebuffed several times for minor indiscretions (photographs which were, subjectively, not quite correct, black fibre-tip pen instead of ballpoint), walked away with a new passport.

As has been characteristic of this fiasco, the Home Secretary's measures are designed to do some headline-grabbing surface-scratching, but not address the core problem. Applicants for renewal from abroad, for example, can seek a one-year extension to their passport at an Embassy. I needed to renew mine, because I had run out of blank pages, so this would not have helped me.

The truly unforgivable aspect of this is that the British Government continues to demonstrate cavalier disregard for the welfare of its citizens abroad. HMPO gives itself six weeks to consider applications from outside the UK, double the time for domestic applications. There is no opportunity to achieve any acceleration unless you apply from the UK.

For many of us, the passport is the only means of personal identification foreign jurisdictions will accept. We need our passports now, for business travel, not once a year for holiday travel. But we are not Significant Voters, so our interests count for, well, zero.
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Old Jun 17th 2014, 12:58 pm
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by CharlesComb
I'm afraid that your summary of options (= 1) is correct. Now that the bu@@ers have your passport, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. To add insult to injury, the hapless Home Secretary announced completely facile measures to "ease" the situation, which only benefit people who have not yet applied (and therefore not lost their valuable document in the execrable system) and who are resident in the UK.

I regret that I have nothing but contempt for the current administration, to have allowed this to happen. It was hardly unforeseeable.
OK here is the latest. Read some other useful posts on TripAdvisor Air Travel Forum: Passport delays - TripAdvisor about dealing with the new passport call centre. The folks that answer the phone cant tell you the status of your application, so you need to ask them to put you through to the 'Process Centre'. Finally got through after about 5 calls yesterday, and the nice lady in Belfast (yes not Liverpool or Durham as we had previously been told) told us that my wife's passport had been 'reviewed' and was now awaiting 'approval'. All the documents are in order, BUT, here is the sting, 'approval' will take a Minimum of FOUR weeks! No apologies, just a matter of fact statement. When we asked what could be done to expedite the answer was ' .. nothing at all, you just have to wait, that's it ..'. We even asked if we went and camped in the Belfast office whether it would help and she said no, they have no contact with the public in their office. She was polite but firm, I suspect they have been trained on what to say and not to apologise just in case somebody sues them.
So at least knowing that we will not have the new passport in time, I have scheduled with the British Embassy in Dublin (who, by the way, could not have been more helpful/responsive) to issue an Emergency passport (only valid for one trip) at a cost of €120 and a 2 hour wait, and then on to the US embassy for them to issue a B1/B2 Visa (as you cant enter the USA on an Emergency Passport because it does not have an RFID chip) costing another €120. US embassy say that Visa delivery will be by courier within 3 days. So, fingers crossed and €250 lighter, we will be departing for San Francisco as planned on Friday 27th June

The new system is nothing short of a disgrace. Clearly, it is seriously under-resourced. I suspect political interference as the head of the Agency publicly stated last year they would be facing an additional 350,000 passport requests as a result of closing all the Embassy passport offices globally. He obviously didn't get the people he needed to handle the demand in the UK.
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Old Jun 17th 2014, 2:20 pm
  #289  
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by CharlesComb
Jamjax, the key issue is not to take an application route, which will involve sending your passport to a regional office. None of the measures announced by the mendacious Home Secretary provide for any assistance to applicants from abroad who have been foolish enough to follow the rules laid out on the HMPO website.

The one and only way to effect a passport renewal within any reasonable length of time is to go in person and pay the Fast Track premium. A colleague of mine has just done this and, despite being rebuffed several times for minor indiscretions (photographs which were, subjectively, not quite correct, black fibre-tip pen instead of ballpoint), walked away with a new passport.

As has been characteristic of this fiasco, the Home Secretary's measures are designed to do some headline-grabbing surface-scratching, but not address the core problem. Applicants for renewal from abroad, for example, can seek a one-year extension to their passport at an Embassy. I needed to renew mine, because I had run out of blank pages, so this would not have helped me.

The truly unforgivable aspect of this is that the British Government continues to demonstrate cavalier disregard for the welfare of its citizens abroad. HMPO gives itself six weeks to consider applications from outside the UK, double the time for domestic applications. There is no opportunity to achieve any acceleration unless you apply from the UK.

For many of us, the passport is the only means of personal identification foreign jurisdictions will accept. We need our passports now, for business travel, not once a year for holiday travel. But we are not Significant Voters, so our interests count for, well, zero.
What an excellent synopsis of the situation. I'd love to see it printed verbatim in national newspapers.
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Old Jun 17th 2014, 9:16 pm
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by CharlesComb
Jamjax, the key issue is not to take an application route, which will involve sending your passport to a regional office. None of the measures announced by the mendacious Home Secretary provide for any assistance to applicants from abroad who have been foolish enough to follow the rules laid out on the HMPO website.

The one and only way to effect a passport renewal within any reasonable length of time is to go in person and pay the Fast Track premium. A colleague of mine has just done this and, despite being rebuffed several times for minor indiscretions (photographs which were, subjectively, not quite correct, black fibre-tip pen instead of ballpoint), walked away with a new passport.

As has been characteristic of this fiasco, the Home Secretary's measures are designed to do some headline-grabbing surface-scratching, but not address the core problem. Applicants for renewal from abroad, for example, can seek a one-year extension to their passport at an Embassy. I needed to renew mine, because I had run out of blank pages, so this would not have helped me.

The truly unforgivable aspect of this is that the British Government continues to demonstrate cavalier disregard for the welfare of its citizens abroad. HMPO gives itself six weeks to consider applications from outside the UK, double the time for domestic applications. There is no opportunity to achieve any acceleration unless you apply from the UK.

For many of us, the passport is the only means of personal identification foreign jurisdictions will accept. We need our passports now, for business travel, not once a year for holiday travel. But we are not Significant Voters, so our interests count for, well, zero.
Dear CC;

Thank you for these trenchant comments.

My update is that I flew into London today to renew on the premium 4 hour service. I have to say that everyone from the door guards to the ushers and agents were entirely helpful polite, smiling and upbeat. When asked about the big problems and delays...they to a person said "oh that is just the media stirring things up about nothing."

It could not be easier to get there, take the Gatwick Express to Victoria, and it is half a block from Victoria Station...go out the exit next to platform 1, turn right and you are there in 3 minutes.

That said I did not get my passport...because they said it was damaged...I put it through the washer three years ago and have used it around the world without trouble. The photo and all details, numbers etc. were intact. I asked to have a manager look at it...and he said the same damaged.

The import of this is that it then takes them a 'week' to get it to you. But and this is a huge but for folks coming in from out of the country is that it can only be mailed to a UK address nothing outside of the UK. And you have to give them a UK phone number they can contact or text you at. They will not email to let you know when it is ready despite asking for your email on the form, they will only text you.

I was told that I could email them and enquire about the status of my application....or start hunting for it if it doesn't show up in a 'week'.

I used a friends address and we hope the post delivers it because it will have my name on it. We do have the same first name.

They were very patient and helpful about it, I explained I had to fly back that evening, that this was my third UK passport, I offered other gov't ID, they waited at the desk and told me how to fill out another form point by point.

I left on my other passport/dual national but that one does not permit me to live freely in the EU....and while I doubt it will be an issue...like you it is something I use all the time in travel and ID and I was very reluctant to not only part with my only EU ID but to not even be sure I would get another one if something else comes up.

FYI if you have to go the damaged route, you need to remember all the details of your parents, birthplaces, and dates, etc. Plus you have to have a verified photo by someone who has known you for two years, with their passport number and info. They waived the photo requirement for me since I so clearly still look the same...odd since their argument was that since the sealing page on the back of the photo was damaged they would have to make sure it was me applying....daffy. I would have rather they insisted on the verification and waived the damage issue. As it happens my friend has a flat half a block from the Grove House Passport office....I could have fixed that in ten minutes.

They were adamant that I would have it in the mail in less than a week. Fingers crossed.

Other than that I would have been in and out in four hours. They even happily got me in two hours earlier than my appointment and I didn't wait a minute before I was at the passport officer's desk.

So I can whole heartedly recommend that if anyone with a straightforward passport renewal can get to London or one of the regional offices that they do so and pay the little bit more it costs. FYI they charged me
£103 for one week delivery instead of £124 for the 4 hour turnaround.

Good luck to everyone else.
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Old Jun 18th 2014, 7:24 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by Oldsteel
OK here is the latest. Read some other useful posts on TripAdvisor Air Travel Forum: Passport delays - TripAdvisor about dealing with the new passport call centre. The folks that answer the phone cant tell you the status of your application, so you need to ask them to put you through to the 'Process Centre'. Finally got through after about 5 calls yesterday, and the nice lady in Belfast (yes not Liverpool or Durham as we had previously been told) told us that my wife's passport had been 'reviewed' and was now awaiting 'approval'. All the documents are in order, BUT, here is the sting, 'approval' will take a Minimum of FOUR weeks! No apologies, just a matter of fact statement. When we asked what could be done to expedite the answer was ' .. nothing at all, you just have to wait, that's it ..'. We even asked if we went and camped in the Belfast office whether it would help and she said no, they have no contact with the public in their office. She was polite but firm, I suspect they have been trained on what to say and not to apologise just in case somebody sues them.
So at least knowing that we will not have the new passport in time, I have scheduled with the British Embassy in Dublin (who, by the way, could not have been more helpful/responsive) to issue an Emergency passport (only valid for one trip) at a cost of €120 and a 2 hour wait, and then on to the US embassy for them to issue a B1/B2 Visa (as you cant enter the USA on an Emergency Passport because it does not have an RFID chip) costing another €120. US embassy say that Visa delivery will be by courier within 3 days. So, fingers crossed and €250 lighter, we will be departing for San Francisco as planned on Friday 27th June

The new system is nothing short of a disgrace. Clearly, it is seriously under-resourced. I suspect political interference as the head of the Agency publicly stated last year they would be facing an additional 350,000 passport requests as a result of closing all the Embassy passport offices globally. He obviously didn't get the people he needed to handle the demand in the UK.
The Home Secretary has retreated behind the security veil, to claim that the process cannot be accelerated, because there is a substantial number of fraudulent passport applications. The delay will therefore not be addressed with anything more than a few defensive words, a few extra staff and the public parading of the inept Paul Pugh to appease the baying public.

But this excuse too has the whiff of bullsh1t about it. The most effective deterent to 90%-odd of the faudulaent applications is to invite the applicant for a personal interview. That this effective and efficient procedure (and very much appreciated by the diaspora for causing minimal risk and delay) was withdrawn from all Consular sections three years ago, necessitating a laborious desktop investigation instead, indicates further how detatched this administration is from reality.

But if renewal is now a centralised (and outsourced!) activity, it should involve little more than a background check on the applicant and a careful physical inspection of the passport itself, an altogether simpler task than a fresh application, which should indeed be done with greater care and attention.

Sadly, I think that nothing will be done to address this issue. The current Home Secretary (whilst she is still in the job - it's looking rocky for completely unrelated reasons) will do nothing too radical and will wait for the next crisis/excitement to overshadow this debacle. People soon forget.

After all, it's not the expats she is concerned about (we fall under the auspices of the Foreign Office) - it's the voting once-a-year-tourists she needs to win over and, when they've got their passports, they will completely forget about us poor schmucks still caught pants down outside of the UK.
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Old Jun 18th 2014, 7:55 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by jamjax
Dear CC;

Thank you for these trenchant comments.

My update is that I flew into London today to renew on the premium 4 hour service. I have to say that everyone from the door guards to the ushers and agents were entirely helpful polite, smiling and upbeat. When asked about the big problems and delays...they to a person said "oh that is just the media stirring things up about nothing."

It could not be easier to get there, take the Gatwick Express to Victoria, and it is half a block from Victoria Station...go out the exit next to platform 1, turn right and you are there in 3 minutes.

That said I did not get my passport...because they said it was damaged...I put it through the washer three years ago and have used it around the world without trouble. The photo and all details, numbers etc. were intact. I asked to have a manager look at it...and he said the same damaged.

The import of this is that it then takes them a 'week' to get it to you. But and this is a huge but for folks coming in from out of the country is that it can only be mailed to a UK address nothing outside of the UK. And you have to give them a UK phone number they can contact or text you at. They will not email to let you know when it is ready despite asking for your email on the form, they will only text you.

I was told that I could email them and enquire about the status of my application....or start hunting for it if it doesn't show up in a 'week'.

I used a friends address and we hope the post delivers it because it will have my name on it. We do have the same first name.

They were very patient and helpful about it, I explained I had to fly back that evening, that this was my third UK passport, I offered other gov't ID, they waited at the desk and told me how to fill out another form point by point.

I left on my other passport/dual national but that one does not permit me to live freely in the EU....and while I doubt it will be an issue...like you it is something I use all the time in travel and ID and I was very reluctant to not only part with my only EU ID but to not even be sure I would get another one if something else comes up.

FYI if you have to go the damaged route, you need to remember all the details of your parents, birthplaces, and dates, etc. Plus you have to have a verified photo by someone who has known you for two years, with their passport number and info. They waived the photo requirement for me since I so clearly still look the same...odd since their argument was that since the sealing page on the back of the photo was damaged they would have to make sure it was me applying....daffy. I would have rather they insisted on the verification and waived the damage issue. As it happens my friend has a flat half a block from the Grove House Passport office....I could have fixed that in ten minutes.

They were adamant that I would have it in the mail in less than a week. Fingers crossed.

Other than that I would have been in and out in four hours. They even happily got me in two hours earlier than my appointment and I didn't wait a minute before I was at the passport officer's desk.

So I can whole heartedly recommend that if anyone with a straightforward passport renewal can get to London or one of the regional offices that they do so and pay the little bit more it costs. FYI they charged me
£103 for one week delivery instead of £124 for the 4 hour turnaround.

Good luck to everyone else.

Dear Jamjax

I wish you well - my reading of the situation is that you took the best option and their obfuscation in the renewal process is some kind of perverse self-justification ("make sure you call in 15% of the Fast Track cases, boys and girls, in case we become known as the easy route").

I'm sorry - I'm slipping into cynicism. It's depressing to think that there is absolutely nothing I can do to retrieve, re-assign or in any way influence the sloth-like progress (or non-progress!) of my own passport.

I run a small professional practice servicing the commercial investment industry and the cost so far is one contract in a neighbouring non-Schengen country and one lost business development opportunity in another. Rashly, flights were bought a while ago but, frankly, this is small beer in comparison to the business damage.
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Old Jun 18th 2014, 8:45 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by jamjax
Dear CC;

Thank you for these trenchant comments.

My update is that I flew into London today to renew on the premium 4 hour service. I have to say that everyone from the door guards to the ushers and agents were entirely helpful polite, smiling and upbeat. When asked about the big problems and delays...they to a person said "oh that is just the media stirring things up about nothing."

It could not be easier to get there, take the Gatwick Express to Victoria, and it is half a block from Victoria Station...go out the exit next to platform 1, turn right and you are there in 3 minutes.

That said I did not get my passport...because they said it was damaged...I put it through the washer three years ago and have used it around the world without trouble. The photo and all details, numbers etc. were intact. I asked to have a manager look at it...and he said the same damaged.

The import of this is that it then takes them a 'week' to get it to you. But and this is a huge but for folks coming in from out of the country is that it can only be mailed to a UK address nothing outside of the UK. And you have to give them a UK phone number they can contact or text you at. They will not email to let you know when it is ready despite asking for your email on the form, they will only text you.

I was told that I could email them and enquire about the status of my application....or start hunting for it if it doesn't show up in a 'week'.

I used a friends address and we hope the post delivers it because it will have my name on it. We do have the same first name.

They were very patient and helpful about it, I explained I had to fly back that evening, that this was my third UK passport, I offered other gov't ID, they waited at the desk and told me how to fill out another form point by point.

I left on my other passport/dual national but that one does not permit me to live freely in the EU....and while I doubt it will be an issue...like you it is something I use all the time in travel and ID and I was very reluctant to not only part with my only EU ID but to not even be sure I would get another one if something else comes up.

FYI if you have to go the damaged route, you need to remember all the details of your parents, birthplaces, and dates, etc. Plus you have to have a verified photo by someone who has known you for two years, with their passport number and info. They waived the photo requirement for me since I so clearly still look the same...odd since their argument was that since the sealing page on the back of the photo was damaged they would have to make sure it was me applying....daffy. I would have rather they insisted on the verification and waived the damage issue. As it happens my friend has a flat half a block from the Grove House Passport office....I could have fixed that in ten minutes.

They were adamant that I would have it in the mail in less than a week. Fingers crossed.

Other than that I would have been in and out in four hours. They even happily got me in two hours earlier than my appointment and I didn't wait a minute before I was at the passport officer's desk.

So I can whole heartedly recommend that if anyone with a straightforward passport renewal can get to London or one of the regional offices that they do so and pay the little bit more it costs. FYI they charged me
£103 for one week delivery instead of £124 for the 4 hour turnaround.

Good luck to everyone else.
Jamjax. Did you need a UK address? Are they mailing your PP to you expat address? Last time I used this service I had to provide evidence of a UK address. Thanks.
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Old Jun 18th 2014, 11:44 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by 37100
Jamjax. Did you need a UK address? Are they mailing your PP to you expat address? Last time I used this service I had to provide evidence of a UK address. Thanks.
37100?

They will only accept a UK address they were very clear about that, I asked about having it sent to France, and they will only put your name on it, so be careful to make sure a friend/relative will alert the postman.

I was surprised but I did not have to supply evidence of a UK address.
So can't say if that is standard now or not

But this is only if there is a delay.

My neighbor used his B&B address when he did a 4 hour turn around.

I wish I had thought of this at the time but in the notes on renewing it is possible to have another person pick up a passport at the office where one applied for a renewal, if they have the receipt with the Application Number on it. As I said my mate lives across the street from the passport office so it might have speeded things up.


https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently


Another person can go to your appointment and collect your passport if you’re unable to (as long as you’re in the UK at the time). They must bring:

their own ID, eg passport, driving licence or a utility bill issued within the last 3 months
a signed and dated letter from you naming the person and giving them permission (if the application is for a child, the person who signed section 9 of the form must sign this permission letter)
They must also take the application receipt if they’re collecting your passport. The cashier issues the receipt when they accept the passport application.



It appears from a close reading of this that another person can go to the passport office and make the application and pick it up when it is ready.
What is not clear is how you or they prove that you are in the UK.

I should add here that when I booked the appointment on the phone they warned me that my passport might be considered damaged...since I had used it for three years without a problem and in and out of the UK I foolishly assumed it would be fine with the Passport office since immigration officers had always waved me through.

Sounds like someone could start a very lucrative business...and in fact there must be services that do this.

Good luck

CC;

Sorry to hear about the negative impact on your business good luck.

I have to agree that trotting out the security trope for every government situation is as tiresome as it is misleading.

"You can't handle the truth!" from a Few Good Men comes to mind as a blanket justification for nearly everything governments don't want to have looked into.

That said it is only my own procrastination and not listening to the perfect advice from the helpline that put me in this pickle.

As my wife helpfully noted I have "known for ten years exactly when this would expire....." She is a journalist...

It seems unlikely that anyone reading this forum would be in a position to avail themselves of it but I noticed that the Passport office will add up to 9 months to your passport expiration if you apply early. ie whatever time is left on your passport up to nine months will be added to a new passport.

So I should have sent it in in November. mea culpa.

Will drop a note here when and if I get my new passport.

Good luck to everyone and to myself
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Old Jun 18th 2014, 2:07 pm
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by CharlesComb

But this excuse too has the whiff of bullsh1t about it. The most effective deterent to 90%-odd of the faudulaent applications is to invite the applicant for a personal interview. That this effective and efficient procedure (and very much appreciated by the diaspora for causing minimal risk and delay) was withdrawn from all Consular sections three years ago, necessitating a laborious desktop investigation instead, indicates further how detatched this administration is from reality.

Here in China all applicants for a first passport must now go for an interview at the UK Visa office. Hopefully that will speed up applications and take pressure away from the UK passport offices back home. Makes common sense to perform interviews in the country of application. Sadly nothing the GOV ever does has any common sense attached to it.
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Old Jun 19th 2014, 12:03 pm
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Oldsteel, I'm glad that the Dublin embassy has been helpful and responsive. The Manila embassy has been next to useless. We e-mailed 4 times before we got a response (also wrote on their Facebook page) and called twice. When we called an automated message basically said if we weren't in prison, hospitalised or dead, they wouldn't help us, referred us to their website and then cut the call off! Absolutely disgraceful, it seems they are paid to be glorified salesmen to get the money into the UK and nothing else.

So today after over a week of waiting, we receive a nonsense response from the embassy blathering on about emergency travel documents and not addressing the questions we actually asked. We have to leave the Philippines on 13th July and are waiting for our renewed passport (which we have run out of pages, 7 years early!) to be returned from the UK. An ETD as we understand it wouldn't be any good because you have to return to a country you have residency in - in our case, the UK and we have no plans to go back there.

So we are completely stuck! I agree with CharlesComb, as soon as the UK residents have been sorted with their passports the furore will die down and we, the British citizens overseas will still be in the same situation. But you know, we are out of sight, out of mind!
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Old Jun 19th 2014, 11:15 pm
  #297  
 
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by jamjax
Dear BritInParis;

May I ask why you used the Fast Track Service instead of the Premium service which for only a little more, £128, you would have had your passport back in four hours instead of mailing it?

You did not say if you had it mailed to Paris or somewhere in the UK.(Though I see now that you are not in Paris on your profile.)

May I ask if you used an out of UK address on your application?

Because of all of the adverse publicity about processing delays I just booked a one day return flight to London from Geneva on Tuesday, June 17th for an appointment at Globe House.

I am wondering if I should use a UK resident person for a counter signer, required for one of the photographs, or if I need to use an out of UK person since I live in France?

The chap on the phone for my appointment this morning was quite clear that even in person with my old passport I would need one photograph countersigned.

To be fair he was very polite and unstressed, I called 15 minutes before they are listed as opening in the morning and he was unbothered about the publicity saying that they expected a rush at this time of the year and had planned for it.....

According to the website you are supposed to use someone in your location a UK, EU, or USA passport holder, though better to use UK holder, some folks on here have used other nationality passport holders for countersigning.

I was figuring to use a UK person and an old address in the UK for the application....but I don't want to run into trouble since my passport expires on June 24th, and I have travel plans for a wedding on the 25th, and have my application kicked out of the 4 hour service window for something I won't be able to fix in a day. (Yes I am officially a dope for not checking my passport sooner, thought I had another year)

So am now wondering if I should just use my French address...though I prefer not to.

This all seems much more complicated than when I renewed it in London in person for the same day service ten years ago and I don't recall there being a requirement for a counter signer for a photo when I had my old passport in hand and two photographs.

I should ask if there is any other form of ID or confirmation of address is required when you pay to use the walk in 4 hour service.

It seems the rules are changing by the day and even since I looked at this last month.

Any information would be highly appreciated since I will have to fill out the form the same morning as my appointment, oddly enough you can't download a copy of the application to do it in person from either the Passport service or the Post Office they refer you to.

In the alternative has anyone heard how this one year extension for renewal of out of country applicants announced by Theresa May yesterday would work?

What is the Home Office doing about it?
After days of pressure, Home Secretary Theresa May has now announced a series of emergency measures to try to tackle the backlog - people renewing their UK passports from overseas will be given a 12-month extension to their existing passport. Those applying for passports overseas on behalf of their children will be given emergency travel documents.


BBC News - Passport delays - what you need to know

Passport Office to get 100 more staff to cope with backlog of applications | Politics | theguardian.com

How on earth would that work for someone trying to travel on an expired passport or is it only that you can renew it a year longer after it expires.
Belated follow-up but I cheated because I live in London and pass through Victoria station on the way to work. The Fast Track service was more than fast enough for me and more convenient as I didn't have to go to Globe House twice. With my shiny new passport I was able to use the automatic ePassport gates at LHR on my return. The ordinary EU queue was actually shorter but the experience was a novelty I wanted to enjoyed.

Things finally seem to be getting back on track. August is traditionally the quietest time of the year for passport applications so I would expect things to be back to normal by September.
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Old Jun 19th 2014, 11:28 pm
  #298  
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by CharlesComb

The truly unforgivable aspect of this is that the British Government continues to demonstrate cavalier disregard for the welfare of its citizens abroad. HMPO gives itself six weeks to consider applications from outside the UK, double the time for domestic applications. There is no opportunity to achieve any acceleration unless you apply from the UK.

For many of us, the passport is the only means of personal identification foreign jurisdictions will accept. We need our passports now, for business travel, not once a year for holiday travel. But we are not Significant Voters, so our interests count for, well, zero.
You are a net migration number.

They prefer you stay the way you are. Out.
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Old Jun 20th 2014, 4:44 am
  #299  
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Originally Posted by BritInParis

Things finally seem to be getting back on track. August is traditionally the quietest time of the year for passport applications so I would expect things to be back to normal by September.

The Fast Track service has not, I understand, been affected by the staffing issues in regional offices and has always lived up to its name.

The conventional system may or may not be back to normal by September, but that it little comfort for those of us stuck in it and waiting daily for news.
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Old Jun 20th 2014, 8:11 am
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Default Re: Experience of renewing UK passport from overseas

Interesting posts from CharlesComb and Jamjax, and Rebecajao you are right, we are indeed just a net migration number. It is clear that ex-pats are being de-prioritised in favour of MP and media-accessible UK residents during this pressure period in the Passport Agency.
After the nice lady in the Belfast office advised us Monday that my wife's passport would be a 'minimum' of 4 weeks to be approved, we were left with no choice but the ETD/Visa route. We are just back from a 2-day trip to Dublin where we collected an ETD (or Emergency Passport), and then the following day attended the US visa interview at the US embassy. Couldn't get it done in a day because the US embassy appointments are all at 8am in the morning (and you have to get the ETD first)!
Anyway pleased that all are approved and expect courier delivery of said ETD with Visa stamp on Monday/Tuesday next week from the US embassy. Staff at both embassies were pleasant, understanding and pleased to take our money. All in all, trip, fees, overnight in Dublin (we are 3.5 hr drive away) I am probably €500 down, but better that than cancelling or curtailing our trip. I wonder just how much this whole fiasco has cost individuals and companies out there? And all underpinned by the classic exclusion-clause 'advice' from HMPO which states 'do not book your travel until you receive your new passport' or words to that effect. Come on guys, how out of touch are you with the way travel works these days??
I did check on my travel insurance, and it would appear there is cover for cancellation for circumstances beyond your control.

The ETD is only valid for a single trip. So planned trip to Spain on 29th July is the next milestone, on the passport office's advice the earliest the new passport will arrive is the 15th July, which will be a 9-week turnaround. But I have little confidence in that date and will be chasing again prior to that. And my advice to anyone in similar situation is don't believe anything the call-centre agent tells you, always ask to be put through to the progress centre.
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