Wilma & co

We need to renew 2 of the kids passports. Been in NZ for 8 months but we need a countersignature from someone who has known us for 2 years or more - no one in NZ then! Do we have to send the forms back to Blighty, get a mate to sign them and then get them back here and submit them or is there an easier way? Have tried looking on the British High Commission website but no joy - have e-mailed them but may take forever for a reply!
Any ideas?

JAJ

You shouldn't need a countersignature for a passport renewal. And if you have been in NZ less than 2 years they should accept a countersignature from someone who has known you for less than 2 years.

If they don't, then you should immediately contact your Member of Parliament in Britain and ask that he or she intervene with the Foreign Office Minister.

You are a registered overseas elector - presumably?

Genesis

I think you will have to send them to the UK for signature..can be done really quickly if you need them back ASAP. Just send them to the UK by NZ's equivalent of registered/recorded and ask your UK contact to send them back the same way. Alas the passport people don't think of us peeps in far flung places who don't know anyone!!!!!!! Good luck.

Genesis

[QUOTE=JAJ;4898396]You shouldn't need a countersignature for a passport renewal. And if you have been in NZ less than 2 years they should accept a countersignature from someone who has known you for less than 2 years.

We needed the above..and we did not note that there was the proviso for having been in a foreign land for less than 2 years...good job if the above is available to you.]

Maz

I renewed my daughter's UK passport this Spring. What you wrote, JAJ, is not true. A professional person who has known the passport holder, either a Brit or a foreign national, must countersign. Same applied when I renewed my UK passport a couple of years ago, too. There's nothing to say that you get let off if you've been in the foreign country for fewer than two years. Absolutely no proviso for that. That's applying from the US, of course, but why would it be different for another country?

Wilma & co

Blimey - just had a reply from the passport office! (must be a slow day!)
Apparently they are willing to make allowances for people who have been in the country for less than 2 years, so we have to get the childrens teachers to countersign and enclose a letter explaining our circumstances.
Now just have to find the money to pay for it!

minky

I have just re newed my sons passport and we had only been here 9 months and we got his teacher to countersign.
Turnaround time about 2 weeks then had to send back to NZ immigration to have new pr visas put in.

lardyl

hiya - we're about to do the same. How much did the "high commission" charge for the child's passport renewal - was it $220?? Thanks, LL

helinuk

My son lost his passport when he was on his gap year in NZ in 2005 and had no trouble applying for a new one from the high com. ( cost him an arm and a leg) . The day the new one arrived in the post his friend turned up at the school he was working in and said " just found this in my car"! yes his old passport .

danny.f

Whoa there Chief!! Just lie like the hundreds of passports me and Don have signed for over the years!!

GP's will cost a bomb-me and Don knew you before we got here. Remember??

We will do it for nowt!!

Wilma & co

Aaahh, but you don't know the real reason we left the UK! Do you remember that big raid in Kent last year when £millions was nicked?... That's why we drive such a flash car and wear designer clothes

minky

I cost $227.40 with the courier fee and $40 to put the new visas in.

Lplate kiwis x4

Have just (in March) renewed my passport and didi not need a counter signature or to have photos signed!

brandn

Thats not quite right for the UK,
You dont need a counter signature if its a renewal, as long as the new picture can easily be distinguished as the same person as the one in the old passport. I did mine 10 days ago, no countersignature, and got it back this morning. So depends what the old and new passport pics look like

Maz

I did say that was in the US. It obviously is different if you're in the UK.