rossco76

Was really hoping some kind person on here might know if what we need to do is possible.

My Fiance and I have booked flights and accommodation for a week in Port Douglas and only remebered to check our passports last night...my Fiance's UK passport expired in May and we are supposed to be flying out on Friday!!

She has permanent NZ residency. what we are thinking of doing is getting her down to the British High Commission in Wellington on Monday (we're in Auckland) and seeing how quickly she can get a renewal done. Does anybody know how quickly they can do this?

I suppose the other thing we then need to sort out is transferring her NZ residency onto the new passport and also returning residents visa - again I just don't know how quickly NZ immigration will be able to do this?

If anybody out there has been in a similar situation or you have any knowledge that would help please please reply.

Many thanks.

rossco76

ANYONE??!!

dazal

Hi ya

Cant help you with the first bit i.e. getting the new passport from Wellington but I do know that once you do get your new passport you can get your PR stickers transferred within half an hour! I did it last week. All you do is go to the Immigration in Auckland which is just a bit passed Real Groovy Records, pay $40 and they will do it straight away for you. Its real easy and there are not that many people there.

Sorry dont know what happens in Wellington though as I just sent mine off. You most probably wont have time now but I know if you send them an email asking them questions they reply pretty much immediately.

Good luck

kiwi_child

BHC should be able to do an emergency fast service. I'd try and phone them first just to make sure your trip to welly isn't a waste. Also can you not contact the airline etc and tell them your predicament, and reschedule your trip? There is usually a fee of maybe $50 involved to do this, but you MUST notify them ASAP. I don't think you can alter your travel dates if you leave it to the last 24 hours.

A standard passport turnaround is in the region of 10-14 days plus time in mail. 3 weeks is a safe estimate to plan by.

birdynumnum

In Oz (presume same for NZ) it takes 20 working days from receipt of your application to process a UK passport - I'm doing it at the mo, so best allow a month - not much help to the op, hope you managed to sort it going in in person

rossco76

Thanks for your help, much appreciated. Last night I called the Passport office in the UK and they said that if I were in the UK they would be able to do it the same day so thought it may be possible here in NZ. I have a ticket booked to Wellington tomorrow so hope it doesn't turn out to be a waste of time, otherwise we will have to postpone the flights and lose the money for the accomodation as it's non refundable.

Worth a shot, so annoyed that we just didn't check it before we booked the tickets. Won't be making that mistake again in a hurry!!:curse:

Woodlea

Phone John Kenny at the British High Commission in Welly, 04 924 2899. He was very helpful with me, said I could courier passports up from Chch and they'd do them the same day and courier them back.

rossco76

Thanks Woodlea, will give him a call in the morning - fingers crossed