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Original poster

Renewing passport, no UK address any more

27 replies

Shouldbedoing · 28/02/2023 17:46

A friend is travelling to UK soon to renew her British passport in person. She lives in Turkey. Trying to apply for the passport online they need her address and it must be a UK and secure address for posting back the passport. Now she's unsure what address to put on her In-Person application. She lives exclusively in Turkey. Can anyone advise, please?

OP posts:
Onnabugeisha · 28/02/2023 17:48

She should renew her passport via the British Embassy in Turkey. She cannot renew it while visiting here.

Original poster
Shouldbedoing · 28/02/2023 17:50

I believe there is a bar on sending British passports INTO Turkey at present

OP posts:
CatOnTheChair · 28/02/2023 17:54

I've just looked on the UKPA website, and it allowed me to say I was living in Turkey and wanted to renew from abroad.
It's not via the embassy, I don't think, just the online portal - at least it was for us not in Turkey.
Why do you think you can't get a passport into Turkey currently?

Can she use a family members address? A friend's address?

Onnabugeisha · 28/02/2023 17:54

She should call/contact them then for guidance. She can’t put a U.K. address in her application as she lives in Turkey.

Original poster
Shouldbedoing · 28/02/2023 18:01

Thanks
She's told me the no passport s into Turkey thing

OP posts:
KnickerlessParsons · 28/02/2023 18:06

Can she use a family members address? A friend's address?

Do you really think she should lie on a passport application? 🤔

Caspianberg · 28/02/2023 18:09

You don’t apply via embassy. We live overseas and just apply online for both renews and Ds first baby passport. We just do ‘overseas’ application option and use our local ‘foreign’ address.
it’s just online uk gov website

CatOnTheChair · 28/02/2023 18:10

KnickerlessParsons · 28/02/2023 18:06

Can she use a family members address? A friend's address?

Do you really think she should lie on a passport application? 🤔

Your passport doesn't contain your address.
I can't remember the exact wording, but I believe it asks you for your residential address (turkey) and postal address - certainly we didn't get our passports delivered to our house, they were delivered to DHs work - which was significantly more secure given where we were living!

Onnabugeisha · 28/02/2023 18:12

Caspianberg · 28/02/2023 18:09

You don’t apply via embassy. We live overseas and just apply online for both renews and Ds first baby passport. We just do ‘overseas’ application option and use our local ‘foreign’ address.
it’s just online uk gov website

That must be new then. Previously you did it online but the embassy processed the application and issued the passport. I do know for a fact that you have to put your local foreign address in though.

RoseThornside · 28/02/2023 18:13

She should be able to put her residential address (in Turkey) and her correspondence address in UK a friend or family member's house?). If not, can she have the passport delivered to the passport office and she collects it from there?

AllWorkYoPlait · 28/02/2023 18:16

Why would it not be delivered to Turkey?

I live in the Middle East and know plenty of people who apply online and have it sent straight here.

I always do mine in person with a same day appointment when I'm in the UK.

maddy68 · 28/02/2023 18:19

She can do it online. I don't live in the UK and I renewed mine online and it was sent to my overseas address

dementedpixie · 28/02/2023 18:20

@Shouldbedoing if she's doing the online premium in person service then they get the passport the same day so no need to post a passport anywhere.

dementedpixie · 28/02/2023 18:21

www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service apply online and then get the passport at the appointment

LadyGaGasPokerFace · 28/02/2023 18:22

My brother’s passport took under a week to sort. My dds was 10 days but needed a confirmation from someone that knows her as she’s under 12 (?)

HawthornLantern · 28/02/2023 18:23

If your friend applies for the fast processing option and collects in person and has a friend who is willing for their address to be used as the contact address then that will work. I did that last year. I'm not based in Turkey but I didn't want to trust to the post and long processing delays. I spoke to the passport office on the phone and they were content with what I was doing. They were mostly concerned with the risk that people would book an in person slot and not turn up. You can only book a slot a certain amount of time ahead if it is the same as last year.

It is more expensive and (memory is rusty) there is one point on the screen where it is not obvious what option you should choose and the "right" answer seems counterintuitive. But it's doable and I got my renewal just fine.

Oh for the days when we could go to an Embassy - but they've been gone for well over a decade...

notimagain · 28/02/2023 18:31

@Onnabugeisha

That must be new then. Previously you did it online but the embassy processed the application and issued the passport. I do know for a fact that you have to put your local foreign address in though.

The ability to renew via the local embassy got dropped quite a while back, can’t remember for sure but maybe the best part of ten years.

As you say the application is on line now and then the paperwork goes direct to/from the UK passport office (three week turnaround, door to door, when I did mine recently)

Original poster
Shouldbedoing · 28/02/2023 18:31

Thank you everyone.
We just wanted certainty that she could apply in her current residential address as the online form is misleading. Also reassuring that she will indeed leave the appointment at the passport office with a blue 😥 passport

OP posts:
manicthursday · 28/02/2023 18:40

I've done this for my daughter and used my parents address - I did the 1 week attending in person appointment when we were back in UK for a fortnight and they posted it back to my parents where I was resident (well staying) while making the application. A passport isn't tied to an address and I'm an anxious rule follower by nature, but nothing about the process made me feel like that was in any way dodgy.

Caspianberg · 28/02/2023 19:44

It must be 10+ years since it went via embassy.

My renewal recently went through online and took less than 10 days from sending old passport, them receiving and getting new one back. The online application had my own address not a uk one.

You don’t need anything signed now either ie passport photo, can be done remotely via face recognition on phone if needed.

Onnabugeisha · 28/02/2023 19:49

Caspianberg · 28/02/2023 19:44

It must be 10+ years since it went via embassy.

My renewal recently went through online and took less than 10 days from sending old passport, them receiving and getting new one back. The online application had my own address not a uk one.

You don’t need anything signed now either ie passport photo, can be done remotely via face recognition on phone if needed.

Close! I just checked my passport and it was renewed in 2014. I did it online and via the embassy.

HawthornLantern · 28/02/2023 20:56

Onnabugeisha You may not want to out yourself, but I am stunned there was an Embassy that could do this as late as 2014. UK Passports have been centralising back to the UK for a long time and I just missed my chance to use the US embassy in 2012 (by a matter of weeks, I was quite frustrated).

Onnabugeisha · 01/03/2023 08:23

HawthornLantern · 28/02/2023 20:56

Onnabugeisha You may not want to out yourself, but I am stunned there was an Embassy that could do this as late as 2014. UK Passports have been centralising back to the UK for a long time and I just missed my chance to use the US embassy in 2012 (by a matter of weeks, I was quite frustrated).

It might have been because I have more than one passport? I had to do application online and then post all my passports to the Embassy as part of the processing.

HawthornLantern · 01/03/2023 10:23

Onnabugeisha · Today 08:23

Ah - maybe so. All the same, why not ask you to send them all to the UK? At least you had domestic transactions and not the worry of a long distance where has my passport gone (or at least I hope it was better for you that way). I wonder what they will do at the next renewal.

AngryAndUnapologetic · 02/03/2023 15:19

To all those saying she can just do it online, that might not be possible. It depends where you live.

In Thailand we have to make an in-person appointment with a third party (not the embassy) that handles various embassy/consulate-type matters for several different countries. We complete the same forms you get on the .gov website, have to have a fellow Brit confirm identity etc, and use our Thai address. All docs are physically checked in-person, if you're sending copies the official signs that they have seen the original, and then everything is sealed in front of you and sent via DHL to the UK. You pay the third party company and the Passport Office confirm this via email a few days later. Everything is sent back to the third party and you either go in person to collect or send a designated person to do so on your behalf. You keep your old passport in the meantime, but must take it when you collect and then they snip the corner in front of you and return it. If you don't collect the new passport in so many weeks, they send it back to the UK.

I think passport applications from overseas vary a lot depending on where you live. I'm surprised the OP's friend can't find the right info in Turkey through expat groups, either online or in person; I'd be utterly lost without expat groups here to give up to date advice on things like this!