Australian Passport Renewal

[david96]

Passport renewal 7 Feb 2008 Source "The Age" newspaper Melbourne.

Australians are increasingly travelling overseas, statistics reveal - and this means a surge in the number of passports issued.

While it's good news that new - or renewed - passports have 10 years' validity, much can change in a decade. The goalposts move. Rules are different.

Renewing a passport has become easier, insist passport officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. What's more, they add that for the minority of applicants who need to visit passport offices, waits have shortened in the past year because of improved queuing systems.

"People are often in and out in less than 15 minutes," a spokesman said.

But some people resist computerised change. They complain the process has become more difficult, even as officials maintain it is simpler and more streamlined.

Because the department's website (www.passports.gov.au) has been progressively updated in recent years and Australia Post's role has grown, few people need see the inside of a passport office.

Citing convenience, the passport office strongly encourages use of its automated online system. For instance, travellers can renew passports online.

Enter a valid passport number, answer a few questions aimed at confirming identity - and download an application form already filled in with information held by the passport office.

No computer? Telephone the Australian Passport Information Service on 13-12-32, answer the same questions and have a form, with much of the information already completed, put in the mail.

This form - whether downloaded or received by mail - is taken to an appointment you make at a post office. Applicants take along two photographs of a prescribed size.

New rules govern whether or not photographs are acceptable. Smiling isn't allowed, for example.

It's worth checking at a post office what these photo rules are - though most passport photographers are aware of updated regulations and take photographs in the correct format.

Applicants pay, usually at a post office, when the application is lodged (cash, EFTPOS or credit cards are accepted but not cheques): $200 per passport ($100 per child's document) for a 32-pager or $300 for a frequent traveller's 64-pager. But, if you're 75 or older, fees drop to $100 for a 32-pager and $150 for the frequent traveller's version.

New Australian passports have an ultra-thick, cardboard-like centre page. This is because, aside from being machine-readable, they contain an electronic chip with information about the holder.

Printed in bold type on the page are the words: "Do not stamp this page" and a request the holder "regard this document as you would any other portable electronic device by ensuring it does not become wet, folded or mutilated".

Passports are sent out by registered mail. Applications are generally turned around within 10 working days but for an extra $75 the passport office offers a priority service with two working days' turnaround.

The spokesman says most people who want this faster service, because of looming travel, opt to picking up their documents at a passport office.

Additional fees now apply as penalties for people who have had a passport lost or stolen: an extra $66 per document. If your record shows you've lost two it's $200. Lose three and it's a whopping $400. (These penalties are payable only once, not each time you renew.)

A colleague who recently renewed his passport told me he was informed at the post office that it would take "about 10 working days". But it arrived by registered mail after seven working days.

"I was very impressed," he said.

While routine renewals are relatively simple, applications for a first Australian passport can't be filed online - nor can renewals of passports that expired more than a year ago because these are regarded as new applications.

Forms for these must be picked up at a post office and lodged there too. As with renewals, these passports are sent by registered mail.

If a passport is lost or stolen overseas, full replacements are no longer issued by Australian diplomatic posts. Consular offices now issue only emergency passports - which are paid for - valid for one-way trips back to Australia.

Once back home, the person pays again for a fresh passport as well as the penalty for having the passport lost or stolen - even if this event is out of the victim's control.

This happened to me after my passport was stolen at gunpoint in Papua New Guinea - an event that proved, aside from the horror of the robbery, unpleasantly expensive.

If one of Australia's foreign missions advances emergency cash to a traveller, this must be paid back at a passport office before a new passport is issued.

A final word about validity: some countries don't admit visitors with passports expiring within six months or won't put visas in such documents. So, depending on your destinations, you may need to renew a little sooner than you think.

AAP

Note well the information if your passport is lost or stolen.

[david96]

For further information contact the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs / Passports

http://www.passports.gov.au/Web/index.aspx