Renewing your passport - what a joke!!!

[XJSJohn]

As some of you may know, i live in Singapore, so am having to renew my passport through the FCO services. Last renewed about 42 months ago when you just wandered into the British High Commission with the paperwork, but now .... ohh no!!!

My passport is not expiring, just full, it gets used a fair bit (although not as much as many here) and i need it quite regularly given how small the country is.

So, first the Singapore High Commission does not renew passports any more, you send them to Hong Kong (where they then send them on to the Philippines to make them!!!)

This takes a MINIMUM of 6 weeks, and i have to send my existing passport too!! so, if i need to travel for business, go to my house in Malaysia, visit my flat in KL because the tennant has a problem or just want to go on holiday, i cannot for at least 6 weeks. (Remember, singapore is only the size of the Isle of Wight, so there are lots of occasions where you might want to go "oversees" )

So i find the Call Center Hotline number to assist (72ppm + vat + an international call to the UK) only to discover that they want credit card details so that they can charge the 72ppm to this ?!?!?!?!?!

So, my passport is almost full, it will take 6 weeks minimum to get a new one, i will not be able to use my valid current one in the meantime because i have to send that with the application, and if i want to ask any questions i will need to give credit card details first to ensure that they get paid!!! If i do need to travel, this is considered "An emergency" and i will have to apply for an emergency travel document each time, stating where i am going, the reason etc - and i will have to pay for this too ..... GBP50 each time!!!

ohh and it is going to cost me GBP155 + GBP20 for postage too just for the bloody passport!!!

So why is it that my mates from Netherlands, germany, USA, Norway, Australia, etc can just walk into their embassy here and the next day a new passport is ready!!!

st, even my mate from Papua New Guinea can get a new passport in a day or so!!

The only bloody UK service that i need, and they even right royally fk that up!!!

[v15ben]

I had a very similar rant a couple of months ago mate!
My new passport just arrived in the mail today after just under 5 weeks, but I agree, it is a stupid process!

[XJSJohn]

and we seem to be the only country that does this ... its a fkin joke!!!!

and they really do not like issuing dual passports these days either, i tried that approach too!!!

[tuffer]

Why don't you get a second passport?

[XJSJohn]

tuffer said:

Why don't you get a second passport?

Never had a need for it 'till now, and they seem very wary about issuing them, basically have to justify it.

[llewop]

XJSJohn said:

tuffer said:

Why don't you get a second passport?

Never had a need for it 'till now, and they seem very wary about issuing them, basically have to justify it.

The business travel you mention in your opener would justify it - just need covering letter from the business, but don't forget you also need one when renewing the original!

[tuffer]

llewop said:

XJSJohn said:

tuffer said:

Why don't you get a second passport?

Never had a need for it 'till now, and they seem very wary about issuing them, basically have to justify it.

The business travel you mention in your opener would justify it - just need covering letter from the business, but don't forget you also need one when renewing the original!

Agreed, just get a business letter (type your own) and head off to the nearest Passport Office, not so easy in your case. I have used the one day service in London a few times and it has been a breeze, going to Newport on the other hand is not recommended (Passport service is OK but the City is a hell hole). Having two just makes life easier for sending off for Visa's etc or if one runs out. In my case its more about the Countries I have to visit and some not liking each other so much ;-)

[XJSJohn]

tuffer said:

llewop said:

XJSJohn said:

tuffer said:

Why don't you get a second passport?

Never had a need for it 'till now, and they seem very wary about issuing them, basically have to justify it.

The business travel you mention in your opener would justify it - just need covering letter from the business, but don't forget you also need one when renewing the original!

Agreed, just get a business letter (type your own) and head off to the nearest Passport Office, not so easy in your case. I have used the one day service in London a few times and it has been a breeze, going to Newport on the other hand is not recommended (Passport service is OK but the City is a hell hole). Having two just makes life easier for sending off for Visa's etc or if one runs out. In my case its more about the Countries I have to visit and some not liking each other so much ;-)

This is the catch, nearest passport office is a 5 hour flight away and it seems that they don't do second passports there, so it's the passport office that's 12 hours flight away!

[tuffer]

XJSJohn said:

tuffer said:

llewop said:

XJSJohn said:

tuffer said:

Why don't you get a second passport?

Never had a need for it 'till now, and they seem very wary about issuing them, basically have to justify it.

The business travel you mention in your opener would justify it - just need covering letter from the business, but don't forget you also need one when renewing the original!

Agreed, just get a business letter (type your own) and head off to the nearest Passport Office, not so easy in your case. I have used the one day service in London a few times and it has been a breeze, going to Newport on the other hand is not recommended (Passport service is OK but the City is a hell hole). Having two just makes life easier for sending off for Visa's etc or if one runs out. In my case its more about the Countries I have to visit and some not liking each other so much ;-)

This is the catch, nearest passport office is a 5 hour flight away and it seems that they don't do second passports there, so it's the passport office that's 12 hours flight away!

A 12 hour flight and a day in London is better than a trip to Newport

[havoc]

Can you wait until you're next in the UK and add a day to your trip?

(Or even another country with a full-service embassy?)

[XJSJohn]

havoc said:

Can you wait until you're next in the UK and add a day to your trip?

(Or even another country with a full-service embassy?)

Sadly I only come back to the UK every few years, and work rarely takes me to Honkers. (and even Honkers do not do next day processing)

Its a bloody pain, have counted out that I have 12 trips left in my passport (provided I don't need to go to Indonesia - full page) so in that time need to make a 6 week window of no travel!

And they say on the website that this is to streamline and make passport renewal more efficiant!

Yeah bks to that!

[rswift]

Just seen this post, I recently had to do a quick passport renewal, I needed 6 months for a Moscow Visa, and only had 4 on the existing one.

Anyway cutting to the chase, I was going on behalf of the British Council, they put me in touch with their UK travel service, a commercial travel agent/visa agent. They where able to offer the whole service by post, as it happened I was in London so I dropped it off by hand, I gave it to them Friday at 5 pm, they called on Monday at 4pm to say it was ready and where did I want it posting to. I never had to go to the passport office, just filled in the forms & gave them the photos.

I guess this would be easy for them to do for you via a decent courier company ?

Happy to put you in touch with my contact there. They obviously charge for the service, but luckily I got mine paid for !

[XJSJohn]

rswift said:

Just seen this post, I recently had to do a quick passport renewal, I needed 6 months for a Moscow Visa, and only had 4 on the existing one.

Anyway cutting to the chase, I was going on behalf of the British Council, they put me in touch with their UK travel service, a commercial travel agent/visa agent. They where able to offer the whole service by post, as it happened I was in London so I dropped it off by hand, I gave it to them Friday at 5 pm, they called on Monday at 4pm to say it was ready and where did I want it posting to. I never had to go to the passport office, just filled in the forms & gave them the photos.

I guess this would be easy for them to do for you via a decent courier company ?

Happy to put you in touch with my contact there. They obviously charge for the service, but luckily I got mine paid for !

Very interested, please do post / pm the details!