Just spotted this ... all the passports held by Britons overseas will have to be renewed in the UK from next year

October 20th, 2010 5:42

A passport service ‘without let or hindrance’?

By Chelsea Girl in China

There’s nothing like being told by an officious woman in Scotland that it is going to cost you at least £6 to ask her questions that will save her colleagues in Hong Kong from dealing with an incorrect passport renewal from China.

But if that seems taxing enough, news that all the passports held by Britons overseas will have to be renewed in the UK from next year, makes it seem like the tip of the iceberg.

There was a time when Britons in mainland China could go to the British Consulates in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou to renew their passports. Until I lived abroad, I never imagined I would fill a 32-page passport within 10 years. But once you live away, the visas and regular trips add up and most people, especially those who travel a lot with work, find themselves needing to renew their travel documents.

First the service was changed so that passports from mainland China were renewed in Beijing. Since May this year they have had to be sent to Hong Kong, the new ‘regional processing centre’. The British Consulates in mainland China have washed their hands of the service; hence it falls to someone at a call centre in the UK working for the ironically named Careline Services Limited, to offer assistance… at a price. Incidentally, one useful piece of information that you will not find explicitly stated on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website is that those living in China do not have to surrender their existing passports when they apply for a new one. Failing to know this would not only put you in jeopardy of losing your identification and visa in the post, but also of breaking Chinese law. It is a requirement that all foreigners carry their passports with them at all times.

On October 9, the FCO announced that from April 2011 the Identity & Passport Service (IPS), an agency of the Home Office, will assume responsibility for the provision of all regular British passports. The website says, “The reason for this change is that, from October 2010, new, more secure passports are being introduced in the United Kingdom, and it is simply not economical for these new documents to be produced overseas.”

The FCO implies that the UK is behind the times with what was an antiquated but convenient service: “The UK remains one of the few countries still printing passports in Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates overseas. This is expensive to do and transferring blank passports around the world presents great security risks.” Never mind the risk of identity theft for expats awaiting their new passports.

Time will tell how the centralised system will work, but if you are running out of pages or know that your passport will expire next year, you may be well advised to renew it now.

what do you guy's think ?

Article Link

TL :jap:

The US has been doing this for years. But you can still apply at any Embassy.

Nothing in that report says you must visit the UK to renew.

The position seems to be that over the next few years the regional centres will not be able to produce passports, and that printing and issuance will only occur in the UK to reduce alleged risk of blanks circulating. However, the applicant, on the basis of the FCO data will still be able to apply from abroad, having to pay the courier costs etc. and the new passport will be returned to them, or in some countries to the Embassy for collection, based on, presumably, the security situation for that location.

By the by, the US used to/still does? use a printing facility in Thailand for its biometric passports.

Regards

The E chip may be outsourced to Thailand as they are a major world supplier of such electronic items but the passport is not made here.

^ Stand corrected, it's the nomenclature of GPO [Government Printing Office] that threw my memory. The contract, ironically was originally held through Infineon [Germany] who outsourced it to Smartrac [Netherlands] and they to their facility here in Thailand. The electronic inlays are then, as you said shipped to the US for assembly into the passports, at either Washington or Mississippi.

Regards

Cannot get the problem. To renew a German passport is the same procedure. You go to any embassy, fill out the forms, show your current passport and that's it. The embassy will send all the paperwork to Germany, there your new passport will be made, sent back to the embassy and you'll go there to pick it up. The old passport will be marked "not valid". Waiting time is ~6 weeks. During this time you still have your valid dokument. What is the issue?

what do I think?

Another case of brits whinging. Seems to be a national passtime.

Man up and suck it in. It is only a passport application <deleted>.

Man up and suck it in. It is only a passport application <deleted>.

"Man up and suck it in"?

It is a no brainer make Visa stamps tiny tiny tiny, and all our Passports will last longer some take up a hole page stupid

Cannot get the problem. To renew a German passport is the same procedure. You go to any embassy, fill out the forms, show your current passport and that's it. The embassy will send all the paperwork to Germany, there your new passport will be made, sent back to the embassy and you'll go there to pick it up. The old passport will be marked "not valid". Waiting time is ~6 weeks. During this time you still have your valid dokument. What is the issue?

The issue is that you can no longer do this. YOU have to do (and pay for) the DHL mailing etc.

The annoyance, and it is ultimately no more than that, is the growth of the phrase 'To serve you better' which always translates, in any language, to 'We do less, you do more, and we increase our charges.'

Regards