jdr

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.

scampicat

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.

jdr

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.

bil

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

jdr

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

scampicat

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?

bil

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?

missile

That is a bit extreme

scampicat

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.

bil

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?

scampicat

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?

bil

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

jdr

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.

bil

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?

jackytoo

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.