A friend runs a business in Subic Bay. His UK passport has some years of remaining validity, but there is literally no more space for visa stamps - to the point where he has been told he will not be allowed back into Singapore! He spoke to the British embassy in Manila, where a lady informed him that he would have to submit his current passport in order to get a new one; this would then be sent to Hong Kong, from where it would be sent to Britain, and once everything was found to be in order he would, in a few weeks, get his new passport. He asked if he could get a second passport - yes if he submits the first... etc As every schoolboy (but not the British Embassy!) knows, a foreigner is required to keep his passport, with valid Visa, on him, when residing in the Philippines, and he needs to travel in the region very regularly. My attempts to help have been stymied because the Passport Office in Britain don't have a phone number, just a (useless) automated email reply service. This merely infomed me that he should contact the British Embassy in Manila! If he flew to Hong Kong he would be "grounded" there for maybe a couple of weeks. If he were to book an appointment for the gold plated express service he could fly to London or alternatively he could perhaps use one of the commercial businessess offering a passport renewal service, and courier his passport to them? But can anyone recommend a business that offers this service - the web shows a list, but one needs to feel safe.. Any other thoughts? HELP! I wondered
Your friend should have a pukha ACR-I Card (not the cheap imitations they give to tourists after 3 months). This replaces the need to carry a Passport in the country and he would only need his Passport to travel internationally. In all honesty, your friend's best option would be to fly to London where he could get a new 48 page Passport well inside a week. I believe there's a one day turn around available at the Petty France office (but for a price, no doubt). This is the problem when Government tries to "streamline" services, they invariably make things a whole lot worse. The Manila Embassy used to send the applications direct to the Foreign Office in London and new Passports could be issued and returned to the Embassy within a couple of weeks or so. But thanks to this Government's centralising policy, the Hong Kong hub merely adds to the delays and for no good reason. Simply an excuse to ramp up the charges to the customer. I'm about to send off the application for my son's first Passport and I've been advised that it'll take around 2 months, maybe longer.
Don't know if this helps but I thought if you apply for a ACR1 card (I think it is) it means you don't have to carry your passport round with you. He could then send his passport off to the embassey for its world tour. Personally I've never carried my passport around with me when I was out there for fear of losing it.
Thanks Marham and SubseaStu. He does have an ACR-1; he has been a resident for twenty years. The main concern is really overseas travel. I just wish I could get a response from the Passport Office. If one could be confident of making an appointment he could fly in and out in a couple of days, but his business is not in a condition where he can leave it for a week - not for the next few months anyway.
Hopefully one of these, or a combination may help:- Apply for, renew or replace a British passport if you’re in Philippines Get a passport urgently Get an emergency travel document Or Here's an outfit that can help with passports including getting a second passport with just a photocopy of the current one
Aaargghh! They've changed it again!! I checked with the British Consul in Cebu who said that I simply needed to send the completed application form, photos and documents for my son's first Passport by LBC to the Embassy in Manila and they would eventually return the Passport etc., by LBC to me. Now it seems I have to fly to Manila and go to the Embassy twice, once to hand-in the application and then, 6-8 weeks later, to collect the Passport. I am not impressed by the reduction of services whilst the fees increase.
See my post from a few weeks ago about renewing my passport in Liverpool using the "one day" service: http://www.british-filipino.com/sho...ter-of-Complaint&p=29805&viewfull=1#post29805 No way did I want to be abroad without a passport for several weeks with no guaranteed delivery date, When applying for a replacement British passport ALL other currently valid passports must be handed in for cancellation. Appointments for the one day service cannot be made more than three weeks in advance which does not help travel plans (it was two). It is now a terrible service for UK expats.
just read your posts in that other thread Dave. Must have missed it first time round but its very imformative. Just a question for eveyone (don't mean to hijack the thread) but my present passport still has a good few years left to run and now has 6 pages left in it. Trouble is we're off to the phils proper in October and I'll need to get a 12 month visa, plus I'll be getting visa's for work. I'd like to get a new passport this month / may so I don't have to apply for another one in the next 6 months when I run out of space due to visa's / entry stams. Can any one see a problem with having that amount of time left or blank pages?
No problem, my old passport had four or five blank pages and two years validity left when I renewed it. Up to nine months validity will be automatically carried over to your new passport from the old one. Example: My new passport: Issued 22 Feb 13 Expires 22 Nov 23 (Ten years and nine months) Start here --> https://www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport And use the "Get a Passport Urgently" at the right hand side if you want the one day / one week service. (Get a 48 page passport!)
If you need an urgent british passport you need to book an appointment you can't just turn up at the office, I found this out the hard way , you can find your local office and book an appointment here: http://www.passports-office.co.uk/nearest_passport_office.asp
If you need to replace your British passport from abroad, wait until after the 7th April and you will save 45 quid! www.gov.uk...
