New passport, any potential problems?
 

Recently had my new passport through, a few months early, and it has come with a new passport number.

Has any body here encountered any problems, for example, when you go to the bank or any where you may need your passport ie to pay for items with your card they may ask for your NIE No' or passport, where they check the number.

My new passport has a new number different to my old one.

Anything I should do?:confused:

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

When I recently received my new passport, I sent a scan of it to my bank manager, as I remember when my partner got a new passport and needed to collect new bank cards, it caused hassle as the passport number they had and his actual passport did not match. Our bank manager told me in Spain they keep the same number so this situation would not occur.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Yes UK passports change number every time renewed, it is normal. The Spanish cannot understand it as they use the same number for life.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Just keep your old passport in case you need it for proof anytime.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Good advice thanks:thumbup:

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

It`s even worse if you are female like my daughter and her name changed due to marriage, and they wanted ID for her passport delivery.
They wouldn`t except her husbands passport or any of her other ID as it had her old name on it and they sent it back to Madrid. wtf was going on there ?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

I never throw out any papers relating to my stay in Spain and scan everything and save it off the PC just in case. I do that because of bitter experience in the past.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

I have kept a record of our old passport numbers, but never had to use them.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

This is very important. Some documents like wills I think, require the old number. My solicitor told me it's very important not to throw away the old passport as you might need it later on.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Hello,

The British Consulates can issue a "Change of passport number Certificate" sometimes required in Spain, as Spanish nationals maintain the same ID number every time they renew their passports, whereas in the UK the number of the passport booklet changes on each renewal.

If you need more information on this certificate, you can use the Contact Us section on our web site:

http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/about...her-locations/

Thanks,

Fiona

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Mr & Mrs Fred Cancelled Passports
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...7180010A-1.jpg

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Is this another way of extracting money from us, or is it included in the exhorbitant new passport fees you charge us ? ;);)
Can you please give us a breakdown on the charges included in getting a passport from the embassy, it would be interesting to see why it costs so much more for us than those in the UK and soooo much more than the Spaniards pay for theirs.
TIA.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

As people on here are always saying we are not in the UK, and it's not Spanish,so why expect the passport charge to be the same as either UK mainland or Spain? It's only every ten years!

I know someone who is even prepared to throw away their UK citizenship over the price of a passport, how very, very sad and how very little their citizenship must mean to them. .

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Rubbish, a passport is a passport, exactly the same manufacture in each one.
Why should we have to pay double the price when applying in Spain ?
Remind me how much a Spanish passport is ?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

I actually don't care, I am not a Spaniard I am British, so the British passport charges apply to me.

I'm not saying it is not expensive. But I don't see what another country's passport price has to do with anything. Neither has the actual cost of producing it.

My husband countersigned a Jamaican passport once. It was such a relaxed affair, almost in the vein of 'yeah man, this is a picture of G'. Should I grizzle because there is a set form of words on a British passport? As far as I can see there is no reason why they should be the same.

Different countries, different rules (and charges).

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

That is the main problem, yes British charges apply, fair enough just tell me why I have to pay double the price of a normal British passport, just because I live in Spain.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Don't know the answer to that; they say it is to pay for the price of things like repatriation.

But you can get your UK passport renewed in the UK for the same price as any other UK person. I did it a couple of years ago. I rang the passport office first to find out how, they knew I was Spanish resident.

If you want it quickly you can go in person to a Passport office (which will cost slightly more, but no more than any other British citizen doing it this way), or if you have two weeks to spare you can just do it through the post to a valid UK address for the same charges as anyone else. They will 'forward-date' your passport for up to nine months, so if it expires in December 2012 and you renew it in June 2012, your expiry date will be December 2022.

Hope this helps.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Yeah thanks I knew that about being in the UK and doing it through the post office, but I can`t understand why we are not allowed to post it ourselves to the UK.
People say it is because of security, in case we are not who we say we are,
but really it is the same as posting to Madrid.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Why, next you will be saying stuff like 'It's so they can screw an extra fee out of us.'

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Who me, nah, it would be interesting to hear what Fiona is allowed to say on the subject though. ;);)

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Actually you are right, if we can post it in the UK, it is the same as posting it in Spain to Madrid.

......or is it, should we be able to do it by post from, e.g. Afghanistan?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

I just completely fail to understand why the hell I can't post it certificado to the UK, and have them post it back. OK, so they charge me a bit extra for postage, but why the hell should I get rogered ragged for the priviledge of keeping a few functionaries in work at the Madrid Embassy?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

That is a bit extreme :eek:

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Here is some explanation as to the fees from the British Embassy site.


http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/help-.../consular-fees

Aren't passport fees too high?

A 10 year full adult passport costs £128 (or €152) which means it only costs you around £1 (or € 1.25) per month. As well as being a valuable identity document, a British passport gives you access to a far-reaching network of consular support, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, and when in possession of appropriate visas it ables you to travel freely across international borders.

Is demand for Consular services in Spain increasing?

According to INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica) in 2008 the numbers of British nationals registered as resident in Spain increased by 28% from the number registered in 2006. There are an estimated 1.1 million British Nationals living in Spain. About 17 million visits are made by British nationals to Spain each year. In 2007-8 the Consulates in Spain issued over 6,000 emergency passports, mostly to British Nationals on holiday, a 15% increase on 2006-7. In 2008, the Consulate General in Madrid issued nearly 22,000 passports, a 5% increase on 2007.

Why do you charge for these services?

If we did not charge for these services the costs would have to be met from direct taxation. The British tax payer would be funding a service that the majority would not benefit from and the majority of customers overseas receiving this service would not even be paying a British tax.

The money charged for a full passport is spent on 3 areas:

1) Passport issuing element - covers the cost of issuing passports overseas
2) Consular Premium element - covers the cost of providing consular assistance/help to British nationals who find themselves in difficulty overseas
3) Emergency Consular Premium element - covers the extraordinary consular costs arising from disasters overseas that affect British Nationals. This is retained in an emergency fund held by the Treasury.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Basically it's an aditional tax on those of us overseas to help fund the Embassy. Anyone think like me that if any UK nationals need help and support from the embassies, it will be more likely to be holiday makers who presumably don't pay any additional taxes towards the embassies abroad?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Maybe, but I do agree with their stance that it should not come out of general taxation. Who else is going to pay if we Brits abroad don't?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

So expats should be the ones paying? Why not tax all passport holders then and have the same price for all?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

That sounds better, after all if you hold a passport then you are obviously going to travel and may need the services.
As you say Bil it is more likely that people who do not live here will need the Embassy more than people who live here.
Mind you I did have to use the Embassy myself through no fault of my own when they lost my pension papers twice and had to do it on line especial for the third attempt. ;);)

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

So basically they caused the screwup that required you to use them.

I repeat. Since HOLIDAYMAKERS are the ones most likely to need embassy help. why the FRIG are we having to pay more than them?

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

Holidaymakers are probably the largest users but residents use the consulate a lot...registering births, marriages etc. People die and it is the role of the consulate to trace next of kin etc. Then there are all the resident drug dealers who get arrested.

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

I had to renew my Spanish passport in the Spanish Consulate in London about 5 years ago. It will last for 10 years as I'm "mature" now. It was more expensive than in Spain (keeping in mind that prices will normally to go up when we are talking about something that only needs to be renewed every 5-10 years). Also, it's more expensive to get a new one if the current one is lost, than if we are simply talking about renewing an out of date passport, just as it happens in Spain.

I was about to travel to America, so I needed my passport; for the UE we have our DNI. I understand that issuing a passport abroad is more expensive than doing so in your own country, so no problem with that, but I discovered that the system is both silly and illegal!

I lost it, but they wouldn't give me a new one unless I gave them a good reason why I couldn't present the old one. Silly thing: I couldn't say that it was misplaced; they would only give me a new one if I showed them a police report saying that it was stolen. :ohmy:

So, I had to go and report to the Police that somebody stole my bag with my passport among other things. Ridiculous, I actually had to lie to the policewoman for 15 minutes, inventing a silly story to explain why I couldn't give any details of who had taken my bag with only a tenner and few personal things as well as my passport, and of course without any force against me so it wasn't a serious crime, the bag simply disappeared. The look she gave me! Many Spanish and Italian people went there to give false reports to get a paper for their close Embassies, as that is the only way they can get a new passport if they have lost it.

Stupid system, and I felt terrible as I actually committed a crime, I am a Lawyer!!! :thumbdown: They issued the new one in about a week, same time as in Spain.

Do you have this kind of problem in your Embassy/Consulate if you simply lose your passport?

About never changing our DNI, passport, SS numbers and surnames, etc... I am very happy with that, many thanks. I will never understand why a woman is first her father's and then her husband's, never herself. We pass our surnames (father's and mother's) to our kids, so we never lose our identity and can recall our ascendants. We only accept name changes when there is a good reason, for instance that we get a silly combination of names and surnames that offends people or can traumatize the poor guy carrying them. :thumbsup:

I remember having to investigate the ID of a woman who married 4 times, changing her surname is each marriage and then deciding to change her name and surname again simply because she wanted to. Nightmare, it took me ages!!! :rofl:

Re: New passport, any potential problems?
 

friend of mine works at a Passport Office, more than 50% are of Asian origin, on certain holy days the office is almost empty.
one was caught dropping passports in bulk out of the toilet window. They still don't know how many actually disappeared, and although she never came back there was no report in the local press about any criminal action either.