Dan725

Good info

Ozzidoc

I must say, I do like having a Consular rep with a sense of humour

donna121

hi just wondering if anyone could give me some info

my fiance is living out in germany at the mo, till june, his passport has ran out, and i am tryiing to get it renewed for him, he is british, and skint lol, could anyone tell me if the 145 euro for a replacemant passport is the right price, as it is only £72 in the uk,

thanks

Manc

you'd be better off asking in the Europe section of this forum.

donna121

think i have it sorted, filled in the uk passport form online, with his details and my address, they send it back to me by post, i then send it to him in germany, he signs it, then sends it back to me with his old passport and i then send form, passport and fee (uk£72) back to passport office, they then send me his passport and i then send it to him, long way round but will save loads, lol, should work, been told by uk passport office to do it this way,

Deedee13

i knew it... just waited that little bit too long.. filling out the forms as we speak .BUGGER^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Deedee13

ok here we go and i know its been asked.. countersigning the passport photos. The kids look exactly the same as they do in their old passports do they still need countersigned???

Bob

in that case, no.

JayBowyer

Amazing how they can charge so much and then give so little. I can't believe they have Abtran take their calls either. It's enough to drive me completely to tears...

JAJ

If the Passport Office in Britain tried this it would lead to outrage and they couldn't get away with it.

But the Embassies don't have the same close oversight from MPs and the British media so can do pretty much whatever they like - there are a lot more problems with unreasonable demands for documentation, for example, in Embassies than would the case in the Passport Office.

chartreuse

You say that and, to be fair, recent postings here would seem to bear it out. But my experience, including getting LTR for SWMBO in Chicago, dealing with American Citizen Services in London and a whole bunch of work related stuff around the world, has been the opposite. I've made it a rule of thumb that you'll get better cooperation from your countrymen abroad than you will at home.

All of which leads me to wonder, is the passport thing in the USA a special case? If so, why and who needs to be hanged?

JAJ

I don't think it's unique because there are similar problems at the British High Commission in Canberra - premium rate numbers, slow service, unreasonable refusals without proper explanation, and so on.

Why? Because the Foreign Office can get away with it, the Embassies are far away from Britain, no media or MP scrutiny of their processes and decisions. Dean on this forum is helpful and the system certainly isn't his doing (he doesn't even work in the passport area, as far as I know) - the fact remains that he shouldn't even need to get involved in helping with this.

The ideal solution would be to take the overseas passport service away from the Foreign Office and just let everyone send applications to the Passport Office in Britain (which is part of the Home Office).

Other than that, the most immediate needs are:

1. If premium rate phone numbers are unacceptable in Britain, they are also unacceptable overseas.
2. Passports should cost the same no matter where they are applied for.
3. The rules, in terms of identity documentation required (including countersignatures), need to be published and should be broadly the same for an application submitted in Britain vs. overseas. And there needs to be a formal appeal process to deal with unreasonable refusals.

Deedee13

premium rate phone numbers suck. lets face it its an expensive pasttime.. and contact with the passport office is a needed expenditure. So were hanging in by our short and curlies... I think personally its disgusting And i know all the embassys use this service.

I understand the passports costing more. Afterall its the price u pay for not being in the uk. But its nothing that is going to be sorted out. it will just be accepted.

fatbrit

Would seem to be enough folks pissed off on to organize a lobbying effort for these very reasonable demands on this very forum. All it needs is a great leader to get it going.

chartreuse

Good idea, count me in.
What, like a community organiser? Where could we possibly find one of those in the USA?