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Second mare's comment - especially the photo part of it. Fortunately I found a very helpful small photographic shop local to me, whoc not only supplied 6 passport-sized photos of B Jr. but offered a free re-take in the event of the Passport Agency bouncing the application, which (luckily for them) they didn't.
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Sorry - should read "6 passport-sized photos...for less than a photo booth would have charged for 4".
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Oh Lordy!
Our local Consulate wants to rush me an arm and a leg for the passport - I have to get all the pics - NO obscured eyes, looking straight at camera, a bank-guaranteed cheque, PLUS courier fee if I don't want it sent by post. (I don't!)
I think I'll keep my expired one, and use the S African one for a while!
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I first got an adult passport for myself around 1980 when I was travelling the high seas, and even with all of the recent changes, it is still ridiculously easy to get a UK passport.. The cost is also low in comparison to the cost of flights and hols that it will be used for and I wonder at the surprise applied to these long overdue changes that will help squeeze a few criminals a little harder.
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It seems pretty complicated to these people too
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1002/100234...l
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Scuse me - I may be dumb I know but
how does
"An Identity and Passport Service spokesman said criteria for photos were deliberately strict"
and
"In the end they decided to touch up the photos on a computer"
add up?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Further to my last post (complete with typos!) if a baby of 3 months needs a passport and it is valifd for 10 years (is it?) the photo isn't going to look much like the child as the passport comes to the end of its validity.
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A passport issued to an under-16 is valid for 5 years. Although my just-four-year-old already doesn't look much like his passport photo.
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"In the end they decided to touch up the photos on a computer"
it does not add up as it is against the guidelines:
www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/Photographers-guide-...f
" ...Digital enhancement is not acceptable as this can result in the capture of an inaccurate biometric ...."
example of acceptable photos:
www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/PLE_04Eng-Photo.pdf
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"We appreciate how difficult it is to get good pictures of children, so we allow under-fives to have their mouth open and eyes facing away from the camera."
How can you tell if the mouth is open IF the eyes are facing away from the camera.
A photo of the back of a babys head must pretty useless for identification purposes!
--
pmh (was peter)
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The cost should be low! The cost has only been raised because a passport in soemthing that a lot of people need, the Government are the only people who can issue one and thay can charge whatever they like for them. The cost is very high for most the trips that I do, last one ,7 nights B&B with flights to a Greek island, which cost me just less than twice the cost of the passport I needed to go there! Another Government rip off!
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>> last one ,7 nights B&B with flights to a Greek island, which cost me just less than twice the cost of the passport I needed to go there! Another Government rip off!
Yes, that's a good idea AS, Tony should charge a percentage of the cost of the holiday for the passport!
You know it makes sense.
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even with all ofthe recent changes, it is still ridiculously easy to get a UK passport.. The cost is also low
Right colino. Second time I went to Nigeria, in 1977, I thought it expedient to change my passport at the last minute as an address that had been written in it on my previous visit four years earlier had recently been in the news - long story - in a way that might have made Nigerian immigration refuse me entry (they used to like doing that to British visitors).
On visiting my former host I told the story. Those present questioned me closely on how long the new passport had taken to obtain, and how much it had cost. I said three days, and £10 extra for doing it in a hurry (or was it £5? Can't remember). 'What about bribes?' they asked. Everyone was utterly flabbergasted at the speed, efficiency and cheapness of the whole operation, as in Nigeria at that time it cost a lot, was very arduous, took an unspecified but very long time and involved one or several bribes.
As so often in that country I couldn't help feeling a little bit guilty about how easy we have it compared to most of the world's population.
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> involved one or several bribes
They are called "locally administered non specified administration fees"
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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There's something badly wrong in the baby story. The whole point of requiring photos to come from approved machines or studios is to prevent people photoshopping their own, whether for reasons of dishonesty or mere vanity, so if I were the Passport Office, I'd be paying the mother and the shop a visit. Surely a damp sponge would have made the baby's hair lie down for long enough to take a picture!
The size specifications are all to do with the need to do biometric encoding of photos to comply with international security standards. That's why photo machines now display a frame that you have to fill with your face to satisfy the requirement.
As for
A photographer took the picture on a digital camera, and Kate and Eden waited for them to be developed.
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i find it interesting to note that a man is not allowed to wear a wooly hat, but a muslim woman is allowed to cover her head/hair. what do they say people of the turban wearing religion?
www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/PLE_04Eng-Photo.pdf
on another web site, guidance states that if you wear glasses, " no dark tinted lenses, no flash reflection on lenses, no tinted lenses (if possible, avoid heavy frames - lighter framed glasses to be worn) "
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Last year we needed to replace 3 passports in the family. The local post office service to check the passport application was well worth the money (£7?) because they spotted minor problems with the photos that could have led to rejection - they are really picky now apparently. Using the service also meant the passports only took about a week - apparently passports checked via this service come back quicker.
The other tip they had after the passport photo problem, was they pointed us in the direction of a local chemist that did passport photos with a hand held instant camera. They took as many photos as needed until they got ones acceptable and only charged for the okay ones. You have to be careful with the photo booth supplied photos because issues we found were (1) sitting to close to the camera, (2) sitting to far away from the camera and (3) sitting too high or too low meaning your eyes were not within the right section of the photo. This last point is not mentioned on the info sheet you get with the application form - they only mention size of face, no tinted glasses, no hats, etc. but nothing on the level your eyes need to be at.
Hope my experience helps someone on here.
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Applied for my daughter's passport last October when she was 6 months old - totally stress free. Photo taken at local Asda store using the instore photographer - 50p more than a serve yourself booth and free retakes if the photo was rejected, but as she had photographed so many babies she knew what would pass the photo test.
Those who constantly moan about the cost obviously haven't read the leaflet that comes with your passport which details how the money is spent. Part of it is for the office which produces your little book containing a photo, but far more is used in providing consulate services abroad.
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Have any BR Members have had cause to use consulate services abroad and have found them satisfactory or value for money? Where does my 40p in the £ tax go that I have sub overseas tax free civil servants and their tax free cars (motoring reference) by paying thru the nose for a passport?
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Have any BR Members have had cause to use consulate services abroad and have found them satisfactory or value for money?
Yes. Stranded for an extra day in Cairo in 1973 by airline cock-up, the airline also refusing to pay another night of hotel, so went to British consulate to borrow a fiver. I asked for sterling but the consul lent me £5 Egyptian, after bending my ear about how he always travelled with a $100 bill sewn into the lining of his jacket for just such emergencies...
The fiver got me a cheap room and something to eat. On getting back to London I felt, perhaps wrongly, that this was a debt that might crop up later at an awkward moment if left unpaid, so I went to the Foreign Office and found, with great difficulty and only by insisting, a person who was willing to take an English fiver ('You can call the difference interest,' I explained) and give me a receipt for it.
I leave it to others to decide whether this represented good value for money.
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For son's replacement passport we had the photo taken in a shop "specialising" in passport photos and then paid for the post office checking and it was duly sent off. The photo was rejected because it did not show both ears clearly! After trying again at the photo shop without success (the photo looked like no one we knew), we got photos in a booth and sent them off. The lady at the passport office was superb - we had rung the number given on the original letter of rejection to explain he needed the passport for a school trip and thereafter she tracked the passport and its progress from letting us know the second photo had arrived to arranging for it to be sent to us by courier. The post office refunded their fee.
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.. Stranded for an extra day in Cairo in 1973 ..
yeah, things might have been good, and value for money in 1973 (how much did your passport cost in those days?) but the concpet of "consular services" is now not a service for the british citizen in his/her time of need, but a very long jolly for the foreign office staff and their counterparts in the host country.
i can recount ghastly experiences suffered by many individual in recent years at the hands of the uncaring consular staff. however, the publicly recorded terrible experiences of the british victims of terrorists abroad and the natural disasters like the tsunami and hurricane katrina speak volumes.
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"....looking straight at camera, a bank-guaranteed cheque...."
Just renewed mine in Spain - 150 euros - using registered post - courier service would have been extra 40 euros. Credit cards only (or cash if you are prepared to travel to consulate in Madrid!) - no cheques, bank drafts or money transfer. Premium rate "help" line if you have any queries. You could download instructions for the photograph specification in Spanish - took two goes for the photographer to get within the precise dimensions required. If an interview had been involved some people would have up to a 1200 Km round-trip.
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P.S. On a related subject - the EU has forced Spain to stop requiring ex-pats to have a local identity card (residencia) on the grounds that other EU countries don't require other EU nationals to have them - Spain will in future issue an A4 certificate of registration with no photograph.
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Have any BR Members have had cause to use consulate services abroad and have found them satisfactory or value for money? Where does my 40p in the £ tax go that I have sub overseas tax free civil servants and their tax free cars (motoring reference) by paying thru the nose for a passport?
I sincerely hope you never have to find out how good they are.
I'd be surprised if the rules on tax for Civil Servants posted overseas are any different from those serving banks, insurance companies (or in HM Forces). And where their incomes are taxable very few indeed will pay 40p in the £
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" Have any BR Members have had cause to use consulate services abroad and have found them satisfactory or value for money? Where does my 40p in the £ tax go that I have sub overseas tax free civil servants and their tax free cars (motoring reference) by paying thru the nose for a passport?"
I speak as the brother of a recent British Consul in a country I won't name. The tone of comment addressed at consular staff on this thread seems pretty insulting to people who are doing a job as well as they can.
If we staffed all our consulates with enough people to handle tsunamis or terrorist outrages in every country they could happen in, we'd go bankrupt. As it is, the little you do hear about them apart from when journalists get onto a big event suggests they are doing a pretty good job. Plenty of countries get by with a total FCO staff you could count on the fingers of one hand. Or one finger, in some cases.
Also, bear in mind that for every intelligent Backroomer who gets into trouble through no fault of their own, there are probably oodles of idiots walking open-eyed into trouble who, frankly, probably don't deserve any help to get out of trouble. They get it anyway.
I'm still struggling to see ANY motoring link in this thread.
V
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I'm still struggling to see ANY motoring link in this thread.
I started this thread for those that may well find it helpful prior to motoring on holiday in Europe.
Getting a passport now or very soon for a holiday later in the year may well save a lot of additional aggro.
Things have changed if only - "Six week wait for a passport, compared to three or four now"
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I speak as the brother of a recent British Consul in a country I won't name. The tone of comment addressed at consular staff on this thread seems pretty insulting to people who are doing a job as well as they can.
I quite agree. But they are public/government employees and therefore an easy target for the spleen of any jerk who can punch a few keys...
As for the new passport rules, they seem a good idea to me and long overdue.
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Having worked abroad as a civil servant in the last 10 years myself I can assure you that it can be a very pleasant little number. I certainly paid higher rate income tax, I had access to tax free shopping on a military base and subsidised price petrol. Mercedes cars ( motoring link) were sold at a tax free price and then a 15% discount. I lived in a heated, lit, furnished 3 bed room house with a garage, on which I paid no rent or charges of any kind nor was I taxed on the benefit. I rue the day that the base on which I worked on closed and I came back UK!
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Having lived and worked abroad myself (NOT as a civil servant, but as an engineer) I think its certainly not for everybody and were I working for the government (particularly in the military) then I would expect to be very well treated. Armitage Shanks - note that you were a military pilot - I hope that they treated you well and certainly don't begrudge you your share of the tax take.
I have no personal experience of British Consulate staff, however my brother in law does. Some years back he was installing equipment at an Egyptian naval base for a large UK engineering company. The Egyptians were not happy with various aspects of the equipment and they had his passport! Things turned very ugly indeed. His company were no help at all, but the British staff in Egypt worked very hard to get him out. He was asked to go back the following year - but naturally refused!
Having been to quite a few 'fly blown' spots around the world I don't envy the staff that work in some of these places.
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well the truth may be hurtful, but facts are facts. as i said i could recount many individual horror stories of "service" from consular staff. but that would identify those people and it is for them to tell their stories. i am familiar with these stories because i am "very close" to the workings of the fco in the uk as well staff abroad.
as for the tsunami, hurricane katrina and terrorist attacks, the failings of the consular staff have been documented in official reports (these failings are paticularly glaring when compared to the work of consular staff from other countries which are very poor in the economic league compared to the uk ).
..British Embassy officials are criticised today in an official report for their insensitivity and selfishness in the days following the Asian tsunami. .... Scathing criticism was reserved for some British Consulate members who were on holiday in the area at the time and who failed to help. ...
...
As survivors arrived at Gatwick airport to emotional reunions with relatives, many criticised the lack of help from British embassy staff in the US. ....telephoned embassy officials in Washington from the Superdome. When she got through an official told her to speak to consular staff in the devastated city of New Orleans itself - where the consulate building was closed and under water - before cutting her off. ...
...
Tony Blair apologised today to Britons caught up in Hurricane Katrina who have complained at being "abandoned" by the Foreign Office.
...
Relatives of British victims of the Bali bombing have criticised the lack of support from consular staff as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy. ... also criticised the British authorities. "One told me my mother back at home would know more about what was going on," he said. ...
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If this could revert back to motoring discussion it would be apreciated.
If not, then at some point later today it will be locked.
Thanks, DD.
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As always, Dalglish, your ability to search the internet for evidence that backs up your point of view knows no bounds. Rather unusually, this time you have failed to trawl this site to find someone saying something different from what they once said on here. No doubt you tried.
You are right, a job working in a British Consulate is indeed "a very long jolly for the foreign office staff and their counterparts in the host country".
V
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