Why is the price of a passport more when it's from an Embassy?

[YaddahYaddahYaddah]

Bit gob-smacked really ?161 to get a new passport which is £77.50!!!

Is this normal for embassies? Or is the one in Dublin just joining in with the vibe of the country and ripping the British resident here off?

(that's the vibe of ripping off not ripping off British in particular!)

I am well aware of this thanks natation. I live opposite the Malaysian High Commission and the British High Commission is very close by too! Was just being lazy - I did refer to High Commission in one of my earlier posts I think but embassy is shorter!

Just call it a British Mission - especially as not all Consulates are co-located with the main Mission, and not all are visa or passport issuing.

I must have been thinking of longer-stay Aussies. No problem on entering on a second nationality passport if no visa is needed (and I'm thinking as much here of whether the airlines will carry you, rather than the finer points of immigration law).

As OP stated her quoted local overseas price equated to £77.50, then for her the advice that this is exactly the same as the within UK price still stands. Other European posters are quoting the same euro price, but getting a different sterling: I wonder if the discrepancy can be down to exchange rate variations in the interval since the prices were last set?

The OP was meaning that they had to pay ?161 (£143) from abroad instead of £77.50 for the same passport isssued in the UK, so almost double the price. And the ?161 charge you pay from the European passport issuing centres eg Paris and Duesseldorf does not include the postage charges which, unless you live nearby and can drop off and pick the passport, have to be paid for and there is no choice of courrier company. This courrier company is supposed to hand deliver your passport, but in Belgium, many people report the courrier company are just dropping the packages into the local postage system and making a profit on the lesser an less secure service of local postage.

Overseas expats/ non-residents can renew their passports whilst on a UK flying visit. You have to make an appt at a passport office and use their Express 4-hour service (£129.50). The appts can only be made 2 weeks out.

When you phone for the appt, you need to give them a UK address but they don't care whose it is - I used my parents and was completely open that I live in Switzerland and was just popping in for the passport renewal. They use that address to post out a confirmation letter with your appt date - it's not needed for posting the passport, because you pick that up after the 4 hour processing.

Hubby did this process a month or so back, and I'm coming over to the UK next week to do mine. He was asked on the phone to bring proof of our Swiss address but wasn't then asked for it on the day; I wasn't even told to bring anything apart from passport, completed form, 2 photos and the money (but have added a utility bill just in case). It's not necessary to get the photos endorsed if it's a straightforward renewal and you still look roughly the same as the previous pic.

The London passport office has all the forms and photo booths there, if you want to be sure that it's the right sort of pic for the new requirements (overseas photo booths are not always set up correctly for UK passport pics). I imagine the other offices have these too.

well I got it anyway (could have got an Irish passport for ?80 as i qualify)

I went in and on the day it was slightly cheaper (?151)

I might think differently in 10 years!!!

I renewed my DD's UK passports whilst over on a 2 week holiday. You have to phone exactly 2 weeks in advance of the day you want the appointment. I got my mum to get the application forms for me and I used her address. They only require a UK address for posting the passports. I didn't use the same day service and the appointment was bang on schedule and took 10 minutes. The passports arrived at my mums 2 days later. I did this in peak holiday time, so it should be quieter this time of year.