Passport Renewal - Should I Let it Expire?
Soldato
I have countersigned my ex’s nephew and nieces passports. I worked for a bank at the time (unsure if my position was suitable to countersign).
I don’t think the passport office have the resources or time to check countersigners. Never got any communication from passport office nor did my employer. All three got passports in 2.5 weeks. This was 2006.
Know people countersigning passports who aren’t in these positions listed on the govt website and still got passports. One told me she signed herself as a local govt officer
Is that it? Rock up with old Passport, jobs a good'un? That's great service if so.
Edit: Do you send my old passport back for that?
It's probably rammed with anti-counterfeit/security measures.
Soldato
Yes we send it all. The passport office get the application instantly and the old passport next working day. We are advising tho that it can take up to 10 weeks for your new one to get to you.
![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
Caporegime
Does that work for Brits living abroad or does it need to be customer present? My UK passport ran out a year or two ago and while its mostly useless compared to my NZ one it would be a nice to have.
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Jan 2010
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My first passport photo was so bad that a customs woman actually burst out laughing when she saw it. Most unprofessional.
Caporegime
Post it immediately.
Providing the passport office will post to your address abroad then I don't see why not.
With the photo code my application was online and I sent the old passport in the post, received the new passport within 3 working days.
If in doubt, Brits living abroad should speak to the embassy/consulate
Soldato
I renewed mine when I lived in Germany by sending it to the consulate (in Duesseldorf if I remembers). They sent me a new one and my old one back with the corner clipped off.
£75 for a document that costs a couple of £ to make, that's socialism in action.
Even if the passport expires, it doesn't matter to most organisations, only if you're opening a bank account or something similar do they care. I even got a job with the local government on an expired passport!
Even if the passport expires, it doesn't matter to most organisations, only if you're opening a bank account or something similar do they care. I even got a job with the local government on an expired passport!
How much did the hardware in your sig. "cost to make" compared to how much you paid for it?
This is a joke right? Comparing a taxpayer funded operation selling essential documents to a private enterprise selling luxury goods, I am truly lost for words.
No joke, I'm highlighting the "cost to make" something isn't the only cost involved.
No it isn't, but a private company has a right to charge a profit, a government doesn't because we already are forced to pay huge amounts for it. So it's comparing apples to oranges.
I have seen nothing to justify the £75 passport renewal fee.
If anything we should have free passports given that the government mandates their use for other government things like driver's licences.
Do the government make a profit on passport fees? This is a few years old but I assume the same principles still apply: Breakdown of Passport Costs
Based on that document it looks like it!
Production & Personalisation of Book £10.79
Delivery £3.30
The rest of the costs are vague and dubious "administration" and "application processing" costs.
Yes I'm sure it costs £60 for 1 billionth of a second cpu time on the server, or do they have someone on minimum wage spend 12 hours manually processing the passport application?
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It has no basis in reality but crack on if you want to believe the only costs involved are those of producing the physical book, the postage and a nanosecond of computer time.
There is no basis in reality for believing it actually costs the government £60 to process a renewal. Even when challenged with an FOI request the government can't produce a breakdown of costs to defend their pricing, all they are doing is updating the photo!
This is all besides the point though, it should be included in citizenship regardless of costs as we pay tax for this, a lifelong valid passport issued at birth with simple photo updates required every 10 years or so.
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