All passports being processed through the UK now

[ComradeJing]

Hope this is helpful for someone as we were nearly caught out with DD 18 months ago and we will be caught out with DC2.

As I'm sure most expats know it used to be that you applied for new or renewed passports through your local embassy or consulate and they did your new one which usually meant getting it back very quickly. At some point in 2010 you then had to apply to a regional centre who would do the knew one. I think there are about 7 regional centres so for the far east everyone had to apply to HK.

Now you apply to your regional centre but your passport is sent from the UK. Which means much longer processing times. Be aware if applying for new passports now!

New passports for DC are 6 weeks minimum. They said the same thing when we applied for DDs passport in HK but it still came back within a week. We've been told by HK that this sort of speed will not happen any more and to expect the sort of delays that you usually see when applying from the UK.

Hope that's helpful to someone!

If you are going to the UK consider using the one day or one week service for a renewal. The difference in cost was minimal when I got my DD's new passport last year and the saving in hassle was considerable.

I renewed mine in March and it went via Hong Kong to the UK and was back in under four weeks - faster than I expected.
However, you are correct expect a first passport to take much longer.

Thanks for he heads up. Going to get new dd's photos on Monday and proceed straight to passport office ( via Starbucks of course) as we're off to Bali at Christmas and don't want to risk leaving it too late

Thanks for the info. I need to check DD's passports, when I renewed mine last year it had to go to Washingon and I hadn't realised it's changed since then. Took about three months to get my renewal sorted and delivered, mostly due to local postal service.

Comrade , the info is appreciated as we will have to be thinking about ds's in the next twelve or so months .

Glad it's helpful :)

We were so used to just popping to the Beijing Embassy that I wasn't even going to bother checking online how to do it. It was only by chance that I did so. As long as you check with your local embassy website then you'll be fine - and expect it to take longer than it used to!

I renewed mine from new Zealand. It went to the uk. The whole thing took less than a fortnight. Very impressed.

Adorabell, I'm sure Washington DC was planned as the regional centre for the whole of the Americas, well that's what I read was the plans, so you should be in luck.

Also don't forget that you allowed to travel back to the UK on an expired passport. You only need a valid one to leave the UK.

Also read the whole of the embassy's website.
I read on the embassy's website until it said it will be processed in Paris so look at their website and didn't read the part where it said it has to be sent back to the embassy. This was complicated by the fact that the embassy didn't send it back to me as they said they would.

Kladdkaka, you can't board a plane with an expired British passport I believe. You can travel by ferry and at a juxtaposed port, if you're willing to sit down and wait for your passport to be verified and have that expired passport retained, then yes you can do it, at a non juxtaposed port, it will probably take even longer. I'm not saying any more than that.

Yes you can. I know this because I flew back to the UK in June with my daughter on expired passports and renewed them in the UK before flying back. The only difference was that everyone who looked at it reminded us that it was expired and we wouldn't be able to return with it.

Should add, we rang the embassy to check before we travelled and they said yes we could.

Depends entirely upon which port you are travelling through and the procedure on meeting officialdom is to retain the passport.

helpful thread thanks. I think the option of getting them done when you are in the UK on holiday is a good one

Getting them done on holiday in the UK is fine... unless you need a visa for the country you're returning to!

Thanks for that, Comrade - good to know. I thought it was bad enough that there is no British passport renewal facility left in Australia, it's moved to NZ - but if it's gone to the UK, well. Actually, it might get there and back quicker - post from here to the UK takes ~4days, it takes longer than that to get to Queensland (from NSW) - ~6days! Dunno about NZ, don't have anyone to post to there.

But still, useful to know. I'm probably going to renew DS's UK passport when we're back next year - it will be a few months early but they should tack that on to the expiry, shouldn't they? Still? He doesn't really need it because he has an Aussie one as well but I'd prefer him to have it.

Even if you need a visa it is still OK. Carry the old passport with the visa in and show that.

We are in the US and renewed a GB passport last year, it took ages, it sat on a desk in Washington for 4 weeks before they even started processing, we ended up having to get the embassy to expedite. Also, if you have a valid visa in an expired passport you just need to travel with the new passport and the passport with the visa in it.

Thumbwitch, looks like an Australian UK passport is a well travelled one then, first go to an Australia Post outlet, gets posted to Wellington, gets posted to UK, gets processed, now does it go back to Wellington or do you think the passport misses NZL out on its way back to OZ! Wow!!!

natation, I don't know! that would be daft wouldn't it - but possible! I also don't know if I could just bypass NZ altogether and send it straight to the UK - but all in all I think I'll just do it while I'm there (safer).

At least the British Embassy don't require you to pick the passport up in person, which the Irish Embassy in Sydney does (DH is Irish-Australian, so has both - they made him go and fetch it so they could confirm he was him)