hungryhorace

It looks like the current passport debacle is turning into a full blown crises back home:
Passport backlog: Theresa May promises more staff amid fears of security lapses - Telegraph

What none in the media are pointing out is that the real cause is not the 'economic upturn', but rather the removal of British Consulate's abroad handling passport requests. Now ALL expat applications are being sent directly back home, resulting in an application level the agency probably hasn't experienced before.

Honestly. The current administration are so inept they make the last one look almost competent.

Bob

Aye, Mike posted a thread on this in the Lounge, with some amusing twitter snippets from the muppet in question.

It's amazing they didn't consider there being a huge back log of applications if every single consulate stopped processing and having those applications sent to the UK....they must have had some kind of idea how many passports get processed abroad each summer...

lansbury

Not another passport thread.

If people used their brains and didn't wait until the last minute to renew there wouldn't be this problem, which happens to some degree most years. Mine expired in September 2014, I sent in back in February and got it back in 3 weeks.

robin1234

Mine expires June 2015. I think I'll be in England for an extended period over the winter, so I plan to make an appointment at one of the passport offices and do the renewal in person. You pay more for a quick turnaround time, but I don't fancy sending a sheaf of documents by mail to another continent and then having to wait weeks or months.

Sally Redux

You don't have to send any documents for a renewal, as I remember.

There have been blips in the past with the old system, my husband had a really long wait once, which was a problem for him because he travels so much it's hard to find a window to renew.

hungryhorace

Correct. Apart from HM Government requesting any other passports, which is outrageous and I certainly won't be complying with.

Steve_

I think it's probably to your advantage for them to know if you hold other citizenships, say you lose one passport, they have a record you're a citizen, rather than a visitor.

But there's no way I would send in other passports.

Steve_

I thought there was only one in the UK, the UKPA office in Peterborough.

Steve_

So we can expect the UK to sign up to the Schengen Agreement immediately then, thus removing the need for most of these people to have a passport?

I always find the British attitude towards passports quite strange, because say if you live in Germany and want to go to Spain on holiday, you don't need a passport. If I want to go to the US, I can use my NEXUS card.

Even the US has a passport card as most countries in the western hemisphere don't stamp passports so the book isn't needed.

What is the British fascination with this red booklet?

hungryhorace

..and London, Durham, Liverpool and Newport.

mikelincs

I suspect that people in the UK have got used to a very quick service, and so have jusst applied at the time they normally would, and what they didn't realise that the UK offices have taken on the job of renewing from everywhere in the world, so there is a backlog, as Mr Brokenshire said, we've had more applications this year than in any of the previous 12 years.. of course you have muppet, you told all British citizens, no matter where they lived, to renew via the UK, to saave money.. now you are having to put on extra staff to get rid of the backlog. Shows a remarkable lack of planning, even for politicians

BritInParis

Given that popular public opinion holds that the UK already has an "open borders" policy thanks to the EU I can't see signing up for Schengen is going to happen any time soon. In any case you should still take your passport or national identity card if you leave your own country even with Schengen in place as most EU countries require you to carry ID with you.

Identity cards were the first thing that the Coalition government scrapped when they came into power for number of reasons; cost, civil liberties, etc.. Many European countries are comfortable with the idea of carrying around identity papers due to recent history. For the same reason many British people are not.

And Belfast and Glasgow.

Quite.

hungryhorace

The Telegraph has let the cat out of the bag. British Ambassadors warned months ago that the new centralised system would result in chaos. The 'increased economic activity' line is now being shown for the total pigswill it is.

Passport backlog: British diplomats warned of crisis at high-level meeting - Telegraph

Steve_

Such as? And does it have to be a passport? Doesn't a DL to the european directive standards suffice?

As I recall the main reason Thatcher didn't want to sign up to Schengen was because she wanted to maintain border controls in Ireland, which are long gone now anyway. An illegal immigrant coming over from France is still an illegal immigrant and Schengen doesn't rule out those sorts of inspections of smugglers, etc.

I don't understand the purpose of the booklet though, the UK could issue a passport card, it would be more convenient.

Even if you travel outside the EU and Schengen Area, it would come in handy, say you only use your British passport when you enter the EU because you're a dual citizen, you would only need the card.

BritInParis

I've lived in France and Germany but I would always take my passport when crossing into another EU country and I'll tell you an anecdote as to why.

I was travelling on a train from Paris to Cologne. At the German border the German police boarded at one end and walked the length of the train eyeballing each passenger. They then made their way back down the train and asked for the passports of anyone who they thought suspicious. A spot of racial profiling going on as I - Anglo-Saxon, male and wearing a suit - was ignored but the two teenage girls of Middle Eastern appearance sat in the seats in front of me were questioned. They were obviously wealthy and had various designer shopping bags, presumably from a shopping expedition to the Netherlands. The police asked for their passports to which their sole reply was, "Only Arabic, only Arabic". Next thing you know they were put in handcuffs and held in the vestibule until we reached Cologne where they were frogmarched off the train. As I got off I saw that about a dozen others (mostly non-white) had also been detained. So much for Schengen.

The Common Travel Area was in place long before Thatcher's time. An illegal immigrant will ignore any restrictions just as any criminal would ignore the law but that's no more reason to join Schengen than to legalise burglary.

I can't see the point in having a card that's only good for the EU if you already possess a perfectly good booklet that covers the world.