HairyScot

What a ramp this is.
The UK does not maintain any passport offices in New Zealand so the only facility is the online service.
This actually works quite well, but it is costly.
Cost of the passport plus courier delivery is £105, or $199.
However you have to return the old passport and according to NZ Post there is only one way to do this, and that is a service costing $101.
Now, you'd think at that price it would be an express service. Far from it.
I posted my old passport at an Auckland Post Shop at 11:10am on the 13th. of April. It departed Singapore at 8:23am today.
Tracking history :-
13/4/2022 11:13 Picked up Sunnynook
14/4/2022 04:33 Arrival at outbound depot Auckland Airport (17 hours later)
14/4/2022 11:10 Air Waybill produced
14/4/2022 16:48 Processed at facility New Zealand
14/4/2022 18:15 Processed at facility New Zealand
14/4/2022 19:34 Departed Facility New Zealand (another 15 hours)
15/4/2022 22:32 In transit Australia
16/4/2022 04:58 Arrival at sort depot Singapore (another 33.5 hours)
16/4/2022 05:58 Processed at facility Singapore
16/4/2022 06:16 Processed at facility Singapore
16/4/2022 07:18 Processed at facility Singapore
16/4/2022 08:23 Departed Facility Singapore (at least Singapore proved more efficient)
I'm sure one of the cheaper services would have been quicker.

Justcol

I renewed mine a few years ago.
sent it off to Liverpool in the special envelope provided and included the prepaid return envelope. From dropping it in at my local rural post office / chemist. The new one was back in my mail box 10 days later.
I don't see an issue with the service provided. It went half way round the world, was processed and a new one issued, then sent all the way back. Not really sure what you're expecting considering the current issues every supply / delivery service in the world is going through 🤔
The Singapore leg will simply have been being unloaded from one flight and waiting to be loaded onto the next. Not really a sign of greater efficiency, just a simpler process.
you might want to consider NZ citizenship, then there's no need to be complaining again in 10 years time when your new one is due for renewal

dfjordan

I think your info may be a little out of date now. I recently checked on how things were working as I read that nirmal processing if applying within the UK is about 10 weeks . The last time I renewed mine, I paid extra for a 4 hour service which was great. I see that is now out of the window. There seems to be a two day service for about £177 ! The problem appears to be the result of all those on work from home, that are refusing to return to work in their offices.

Pulaski

It's not that the UK has anything against New Zealand, the UK does not maintain passport offices anywhere other than the UK - all British passports applications are processed in the UK, and all British passports printed in the UK.

Justcol

According to my search results, the processing time is currently 22 days. That's nowhere near 10 weeks

Oh well, it is what it is.
it's not the fault of the UK govt or the passport office. We live in changing times and obviously things have changed. 🤷‍♂️

old.sparkles

Are you sure on that? I remember reading that they were being made else where, and Wikipedia lists this as Poland although the references say Franco-Dutch company - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britis...%20in%20Poland.

MidAtlantic

This CNN report also says they are printed in Poland, at least that was the case in 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/22/uk/br...ntl/index.html

That further explains why the new passport is sent separately from the old one.

Pulaski

Nope. I should have said "In one centralized location under the direction of the British government." and side-stepped the issue.

The relevant point I was making is that it's not just New Zealand - no matter where you live in the world these days, your British passport application is processed in the same location and is printed in the same location.

HairyScot

I have no complaint about the UK Passport Office and the 10 week wait. The mills of bureaucracy do grind slowly.

What puzzles me is that the UK Passport Office's fee for sending my new valid passport by courier is 19GBP (around NZ$40) while NZ Post requires that I pay NZ$100 to send an expired (and therefore useless) passport to the UK Passport Office, and that it takes a week to get there.

Pulaski

Maybe if you were mailing several thousand passports per week NZ post would give you a substantial discount too?

HairyScot

There are cheaper option which are just as secure and probably faster,

brits1

Our youngest (older son did this in Jan) has sent in his renewal for his British passport (he’s here in the uk) and they have told him there is a long wait …it did not help that he did not send in his Aus passport at the same time as requested!!!

LittleGreyCat

Just noting that there are continuing problems with delivery of new passports in the UK.
The service has been outsourced and it is proving difficult to track where the missing/delayed passports are.
The passport office is allegedly struggling at the moment.

Justcol

I'm guessing the UK is having the same problems as everyone else. Severe staff shortages due in whole or part to the pandemic. If there's no one available to do a job, the job is going to have to wait. That's life.

Pulaski

Some jobs are going to be done less e.g. shorter shop opening hours, restaurants not opening Monday-Wednesday, some are going to need to become more efficient e.g. supermarkets putting the entire box of product on the shelf, not emptying the box and stacking the contents on the shelf, and other jobs may cease to be done at all. Part of the adjustment to the labour shortage is likely to be higher pay, and therefore higher prices for the consumer.

In relation to passports, data entry and photo scan/upload has already largely been outsourced to the consumer.