Renewing a British Passport

[Quillan]

Just done mine, use the following link.

http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1059132503646

Don't send your stuff to a regional consular as they only send it to Paris anyway and it takes longer, mine took about 6 weeks regardless of what they claim. Other than the time there were no problems at all.

[opas]

Could be the time of year as I renewed mine and the childrens earlier in the year.....took 4 days!

Make sure you check all the details,they had spelt our youngest daughters surname wrong(we all have the same one) despite having birth certs and my old passport

[Quillan]

I would not have thought the end of September was busy but there you go. I think it is more likely it was delayed because I sent it to the regional ofice in Marseille, it then went to Paris, back to Marseille then to me.

[neutralzone<EM>Lets not <STRONG>bitch!<STRONG><EM>]

[quote]Could be the time of year as I renewed mine and the childrens earlier in the year.....took 4 days! Make sure you check all the details,they had spelt our youngest daughters surname wrong(we all have...[/quote]

Same here! Couldn't believe how fast it was!

[Will]

Same here. Because I can't really afford to be without mine for more than a couple of weeks I arranged to collect it from the consulate in Paris a few days after posting the application. No problems. Although the Paris consulate will try all it can to get applications processed quickly in cases of urgency, it's probably as well to allow plenty of time if you can just in case, particularly if you are going via one of the other British Consulate offices in France.

[Alan]

Mine took 6 days; back in june. I have since got married and have been told I need to change my passport or get it up dated? however I cant see in the passport that it states that you are married or single. dont fancy paying another 80 odd euros to amend it now

[jxedwards]

Myself and wife are now 1 year and 2 weeks into our happy marriage. My wife did not change her name on her passport immediately and this led to several minor problems. I booked a holiday and insurance in her married name but this did not match her passport!!! Likewise if you have to produce your passport for ID purposes and names do not match it could be a nuisance.

Secondly I travel a lot internationally with my work and frequently require visas. This requires my passport to be surrended to various embassies for the inclusion of these visas. I have 2 British passports the second obtained by submitting a letter from my employer stating that a second passport is required to prevent my international travel from being restricted.

I know this is not typical but fopr anyone travelling a lot even within Europe a second passport is a definate advantage.

[Tourangelle]

It's surely only a nuisance if your documents don't match.  When I got married last year I decided I didn't want to change my name.  In France you always keep your maiden name anyway, you never actually change it you just have the right to use your husband's.  When I came to renew my passport this year I went to the local consulate, where they told me tick the box to say I am married but to put down the name I use.  Simple and straightforward, I thought.  It took about 3 weeks

Jane

[Coral]

It's nice to know I am not the only one to have to deal with errors in a passport.

Many years ago in Iraq my husband had his passport renewed. They got his date of birth wrong - swopped the day and month - and shortened the name of the place of birth. No birth cert. so they wouldn't change it back. When he passed away last year with the exception of his name, none of the details on his passport, birth cert. and death cert matched.

The place of birth had been Forest Hill which had been changed to Lewisham and then to Sydenham .

What a problem!

Luckily being a packrat, I had kept all our passports and the Embassy here in Tokyo came up trumps. One of the under-secretaries supplied me with 5 signed copies of explanation free of charge. But LOL they had spelt Forest in three different ways and as for Sydenham (!!!!!). The Japanese authorities decided not to trouble themselves.

Coral - soon to be in Ariege - I hope

[Pierre ZFP]

I had the misfortune to lose my passport here in Luxembourg, where I'm working at the moment. The British consulate were very helpful and fixed me up with a new one in no time.  They would have processed the application for the next day but fortunately it was not that urgent.  It cost me 88 euros though - not sure how that compares with the UK.  I learnt 2 lessons. (apart from 'Don't lose your passport) The first thing is that I could have gone anywhere in Europe EXCEPT for the UK! and the second, and most important, is to always take a photocopy of your passport with you - and keep it separate from your passport (I had done this and it was a BIG help) - just in case you lose it

[Teamedup]

Pierre, I didn't think that we could be refused entry as british citizens to the UK if we had lost our passports. I admit that it may be difficult to get on a boat or flight without one, but once we got home so to speak, I didn't think that they could refuse.

Also, I've never applied to a regional consulate for a passport, or any other certificates. I never imagined that they would do other than pass them onto Paris anyway, thus delaying the process.

 

And that price, well it used to be pretty much comparible to the price in the UK as this service was run by the Home Office, however, the Foreign Office took it over in the last few years and the prices shot up...... even embassy staff have to pay these extortionate prices too or so I was told.

[Pierre ZFP]

I think you are right, as long as I could prove my identity in some satisfactory way I would have probably got into the UK.  My problem would then be how to leave to go back to work in Luxembourg?  Also, I could (and did) quite legally visit France, Belgium and Germany by car, bus and train but try to get on a plane and it would be another story although I could have got a temporary travel permit from the Consulate.  So, if Paris take a long time to process your application, come over to Luxembourg and see Penny in the office - she is a very nice lady!

I looked again at the passport application and it does say quite clearly that there is a premium for applying for a passport at an overseas office.  This premium is to assist 'Distressed British Citizens'  Well afar paying 88 euros I was pretty distressed!! Can I have some money back?

Snow last night and -3 degrees in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

 

[Will]

88€ is indeed the standard fee for a renewal or new passport from the British Consulate in France - if you want the larger one it's over 100€. Having visited the consulate in Paris I can confirm that they will pull out all of the stops to speed up the process if at all possible, in fact from what I have heard about difficulties of getting a passport in GB, Paris seems to be quicker and more flexible.

[Battypuss]

I cannot get any sense out of the passport people here in France. DD2, age 11 has a British passport issued originally for 5 years in London, then extended for 5 years in Paris. Now it has expired completely. Do I have to start again from scratch? The only answer I get from the Consulate is yet another copy of the same form...

[Teamedup]

We have always started afresh with new passports. I have heard that photo's don't need countersigning again once a passport has been issued, but we have always got this done again.

What gets me is the inflated price we have to pay to get our passports from the Consulate, and as we have three that are all due at the same time, makes quite a hole in our budget.