renewal of British passport

[hoverfrog]

I know this has been covered before as I remember reading the question, but I'm getting absolute s**t out of the search facility - on the rare occasions it doesn't time out with a server error

I need to renew my daughter's passport, but as we've only been here for 6 months there is no-one I can ask to countersign the photos/application. What to do?

I've got all the pdf files from the website and I know I have to send them to the British embassy in Paris but I'm missing the all important countersignatory....

Hoverfrog

[opas]

I will try to answer, We renewed adult passports last year,after only being here a short while and did not need countersignatories. We applied for child passports in their own right,they had previously been included on both parent passports, and needed signatories. So assume that if the passport is for renewal,then signators are not required, BUT, to be on the safe side I should look on the Embassy website and phone them......things change so much.

Mrs O

[Will]

Mrs O is right, I've been told by the consulate in Paris that countersignatories are not required (despite what it says on the form) when renewing an adult passport, but I believe it's different for a child passport. Do talk to the consulate about your difficulty, I am sure there will be a way round it. The relevant FAQ is here: http://forums.livingfrance.com/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=271&MessageID=162781 

[Chrisb]

Hi there

We renewed our children's passports in April. I tried to phone the consulate several times, but was unable to ever speak to anyone who could answer the question about whether childrens' passports need countersigning, I kept getting transferred and then cut off!! In the end I sent the forms via registered post to someone in the UK who then countersigned the photos and sent them back to me. I then sent them to Paris and the new passports came back in about a week.

Regards

Chris

[Jo Taylor]

May I tag a related question on to this one?

If we're domiciled in France (we are), do we HAVE to renew through the Embassy, or can we apply to the UK? There appears to be a horrifying difference in price! Renewed last time through the Embassy (amazingly quick) but don't remember it being so expensive, and we've expired... Time is not important this tiime round.

Jo

[Teamedup]

They never used to be so expensive. The foreign office took over the service from the home office, or so they told me at the consulate and bumped up the price. If you are actually  in the UK then you can renew there by calling in, so an extra charge, but not as much as here. But if your are here, I believe that we have to do it via the consulate.

 

 

[Jo Taylor]

Thanks TU. I'll make a phone call and find out. 88€ from the embassy, UK visitors said it's still about £30 within the UK. Not quite as horrendously different as I thought but worth finding out!

Jo (don't know why my posts appear grey sometimes?!)

[Teamedup]

Are you sure about your prices?

 

Edit,

I had to look, and from what I could see, £42 in the UK and 107 euros at the consulate. We have three that fall at the same time, so it feels like a lot of money to us.

[Evianers]

Until recently I worked at the British Embassy in Bruxelles.

If you are resident in any country, you are duty bound to renew your passport ONLY in your country of residence. If you try to renew in the UK and they catch you, you will definitely get a big slap on the wrist. I know, I know, it is much more expensive outside the UK, that's the privilege we have of living abroad!

[Teamedup]

I'm sure that the consulate in Paris said that I could go and wait at a Passport Office in the UK and get it renewed though. Isn't that right?

[Miki]

And when I spoke to someone about it a few years ago, they said that the passport holder may use a temporary address, so..........how can it be illegal to offer Auntie's address or MIL to name but two legal addresses ?

Not sure that morals enter the equation, when it was well over double the price here last time we renewed them.

[Jo Taylor]

"I had to look, and from what I could see, £42 in the UK and 107 euros at the consulate. We have three that fall at the same time, so it feels like a lot of money to us."

That was the price on the downloaded form, unless it's changed in the last few weeks:

"3. The fee for a new 32 page passport is € 88.00 and for a 48 page passport € 105.00 payable by personal cheque in Euros drawn on a French bank account or by mandat-cash to the "BRITISH EMBASSY PARIS" for postal applications, and by cheque, cash or by most credit cards for personal applications"

I think I saw the 105€ cost first time of looking (!) but can't see us filling up more than 32 pages... managed just one stamp on the last one!

Jo

[Teamedup]

JoTaylor, you had better check with them before you apply.

This is the link I looked at and these fees are from 1st July 2005 and the prices are on page 2, the only ones I could see at around 89 euros was to amend an existing passport, so it looks like they have gone up and a lot.

 

 

http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/C10705.pdf

[Sallelesbelle]

Last time I needed to renew my passport, I did it in the UK at a main Post Office, paid a little (£4, I think) extra to 'fast-track' it - applied on Saturday and it arrived the following Thursday, at the friend's address I had given (getting to the Passport Office in London just wasn't going to be an option).  Didn't seem very complicated at all .....

 

[Jo Taylor]

[quote]JoTaylor, you had better check with them before you apply. This is the link I looked at and these fees are from 1st July 2005 and the prices are on page 2, the only ones I could see at around 89 eur...[/quote]

Thanks - it must have been just before that that I downloaded the forms!

Can't go to the UK to renew for obvious reasons - we need passports...

Jo

[maxsan]

Surely, if you don't put your real address on the application, does that not render the passport invalid?  If you say that you are resident in the Uk when applying for the passport, and in reality you are resident in France, that is surely making false representation of the facts.

[Val_2]

I posted my 20-year old daughter's passport off for renewal on Friday just gone. The cost was a euro cheque for 88€, plus two signed photos and all the completed form which she had to sign including a countersignature from an official,which our maire has always done for us. You are also asked to include an SAE with 5,80€ stamps on and a completed registered letter return to go on this envelope.

[Miki]

[quote]Surely, if you don't put your real address on the application, does that not render the passport invalid? If you say that you are resident in the Uk when applying for the passport, and in reality you...[/quote]

The basic main point of a passport is surely to ensure that the person in possession of such, is exactly who they say they are. So with that fact in mind and your photo and correct name on the passport...job done I believe.

Address, well what exactly does that count for ? You can change addresses anually (or be a permanent drifter, not against the law)but your name will no doubt remain the same. I think you will find it is not a big deal. There is a place at the back of a passport for anyone to give names of contacts in the possibilty of any emergency. Your name will, no doubt, be on record somewhere as to an address and, if one wants to be very strict, you are supposed to register with your Embassy etc when living in a "foreign" land but whoever does that in France ?

No, it is a mute point and one which I would think is not too often transgressed but if so done, is really not too awful, legality wise. The attempt to prove that you were acting illegally would not be worth the hassle, as I said you are legally who you said you were and that, is basically the bottom line. What is to say you were not actually going to live at the other address you gave on the application, it is after all only a temporary address (and they are 100%legal)you may be going to start a divorce, you are fed up with France, one can think of many reasons for doing so. No I do not think it is seen as a big deal.

[gaporter]

I picked up a renewal pack in the UK last month. It includes a new form. Which requires various info including home address. previous address telephone nos, Bank details etc. This form is for checking your identity. Supplying a temporary address here is nor going to help is it?

Gary Porter

[Teamedup]

Val2, please tell me where this 88euros thing is. I can only still find the 107 odd euros on the british consulate website? I am very confused about this now.

[Val_2]

Coincidence again. Received a letter from the Embassy yesterday morning asking for a further cheque for another 19€. making the current fee now 107€ for a 32-page passport. They were very appologetic and said their paperwork hadn't been changed recently, hence the letter we received.

[hoverfrog]

well I downloaded the forms, and ended up ringing the British Embassy in Paris (the out of hours answerphone message is just SOOOO plum-in mouth!!) who were very helpful. Apparently it's not that important to have a countersignatory for a renewal - although anyone will do, and they merely have to state their qualification/time they have known you. We 'used' the local bank manager, and if they interpreted his signature/etc then they are better at ciphers than we thought!

Daughter's passport duly arrived less than 2 weeks from application and now we can breathe a sigh of relief until some other family member needs a renewal

[Teamedup]

Sorry about that Val2, at least they seem to keep their internet site up to date.