High Cost of Renewal of Passports in France

[AnOther]

There was an article on this in last weeks Telegraph:

"Cost of renewing passport abroad

Michael and Sally Jewell, Melrand, France write

We are British citizens living in France, so when our passports expired we sent them to the British Embassy in Paris for renewal. We were shocked to find that this cost us a total of 370 Euros (£265) for two passports, more than double the cost of renewing in the UK.

We have tried to find out why the cost is so high but neither the Embassy, the Passport Office, nor the Foreign Office has been able to tell us.

Gill Charlton replies

"It's all to do with economies of scale," says a Foreign Office spokesman. "The UK's seven hubs process far more applications than our embassies abroad. We are not allowed to make any profit but we cannot make a loss either." Now that 91 British Embassies are issuing biometric passports, the cost of the new equipment and increased staffing levels is reflected in the cost of renewing a passport.

However, you can avoid these high charges by renewing your passport while visiting the UK. In order to do this, you need to make an appointment to visit a passport office and to provide a UK address to which the passport may be posted.

Further information is available from the Passport Advice line: 0870 521 0410."

So the message seems to be renew whilst in UK if possible.

Remember also that from 2009 I think you will have to go for an interview for a renewal, I don't think anybody knows quite how this is going to work for expats yet...! 

[trumpet]

I do not know where those prices came from. I had my passport renewed by the British Embassy Paris last year. Total cost around 120 euro's. And that was for it to be expressed mailed back to me. New fangled passport too!

[trumpet]

I stand corrected have just looked at the info.

Passport Type	w.e.f 1 April 2007
Adult standard 10 Year passport (32 pages)- First time/renewal	€ 185 (plus €5* to return passport by registered post)
Jumbo 10 Year passport (48 pages) NB: not available until mid 2007	€ 223 (plus €5* to return passport by registered post)
Child (under 16) 5 Year passport (32 pages)	€ 118 (plus €5* to return passport by registered post)
Amendment of existing passport (e.g. name change, new photograph)	€ 151 (plus €5* to return passport by registered post)
Veteran's passport	No charge

It has gone up that's fer sure. One thing the transaction was very quick.