From April next year you will have to return to the UK to renew your passport, according to The Telegraph: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/expat/chelsea_girl_in_china/10140258/a-passport-service-without-let-or-hindrance/
Stephen
I agree with Catharine, ask to speak to a person, or get the clerk to email them to call you back, it worked for me. Also check they will send it express delivery not snail mail!
Insist on speaking to a person - i.e. call the consulate not the helpline. Same thing happened to me, I missed a flight as a result. They were f***ing useless and eventually sent my passport back with the WRONG name on.
Passports will still be available from the Consulate in Paris. Please see the following:
http://ukinfrance.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=23154896
Thanks Tracy
Official passport and identity card information direct from the FCO
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/passports1/
Making it quite clear that you can renew your passport when in the UK but can not do it by post as you have to be present at the address to sign for it!
French residents continue to renew their passports in Paris.
More importantly, Identity Cards will no longer be valid for travel from midnight on the 21st January.
Hi Suzanne,
http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/files/ips/live/assets/documents/photos.pdf
Photographs for children aged six and over must meet the full standards set out in this guide.
Photographs of children five years and under must show a clear image that is a true likeness of the child. As young children can be difficult to photograph, children aged five and under do not need to have a neutral expression or to look directly at the camera, but they must face forward.
In addition to the exceptions above, babies under one year old do not need to have their eyes open (however it is preferable for eyes to remain open). All other standards must be met. If the baby’s head needs to be supported, it is important that your supporting hand cannot be seen.
If you have real difficulty in meeting these conditions, you should visit a photographic studio rather than a photo booth.
Or, heres the other link you were looking for
https://www.paspic.com/taking_baby_photo.php
Natasha - did you find the web address for the photo? I need to get Izzy's passport done before April xx cheers
Suz
Thanks Natasha, we had ours done in a photographers but she was very moody as the baby wouldn’t stay still without squirming! The online option sounds perfect!
Thanks for posting this as mine is up for renewal next year and I had no idea about the change in location.
Suzanne - I had to get two of my boys done at a couple of weeks old and it was such a nightmare trying to get them looking in the right directiion with eyes open. For one I ended up getting a local photographer to take two pics; one facing right way with eyes closed and one facing wrong way with eyes open and then then merged them for me… luckily was accepted! With my other son I found an online site which you send a pic of your child to on a blank photo and they make sure its passport compliant. I took a pic of him on the floor laying on a white pillowcase and sent it in. Really pleased with end result. Will find web address and post it here later.
yes I’m not looking forward to laying out another 400 euro for a passport & birth certificate for our next born! It took 6 weeks last time to get our passport for enfant No1. Her photo was taken at 9days old & I was worried in case it was rejected, can you imagine trying to meet the guidelines with a 9 day old squirming away - no hands in view of photo so we couldn’t hold her, must be front on (she kept squirming & turning), eyes must be fully open (not so easy when you are only 9 days old)!
Thankfully it came through ok before our trip back to see family in the UK, we’re not planning any more travels (en famille) before June next year hopefully so 6 months should give Paris enough time to sort it before April.
Suzanne
www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas
Hello - I’m new to the group. I was going to renew our British passports through the consulate in Paris and I think it was about 170 euros each!! Since we have French ones, which were 40 euros each, I just haven’t bothered to renew them. I’m not sure how legal it is for me to enter England with French documents, but I’ve been doing it year after year!
They - the consulate- issued my son’s passport (he’s 8) without a counter signature and then reissued mine in the same name that I had requested to change so I had a passport with a different surname to the signature… Thankfully I spotted it, otherwise I could imagine (knowing my luck…) turning up at Gatwick and ending up in a detention center for six months.
Highly efficient - not.
Both of my kids were born in France , so we had to apply to the British Consulate to get their passports at great expense although they were very efficient. My husband and I have renewed ours this year but had family do this for us from the UK as doing it through the consulate is about double the price.
The argument in the article about it being a security risk because of passports being posted doesn’t make a lot of sense as most people in the UK do their renewals by post.
How ridiculous! I’m also surprised that you managed to reach them on the phone, I once tried years ago and was kept on hold for at least an hour…fortunately I was phoning from work (ahem, sorry British taxpayer, I was in local govt at the time) and I had to hang on cos I needed an answer. I might phone the British consulate and see what they say, for example, will we have to in person to the passport office, how long will we have to stay in the UK before they’re issued???
Very interesting, but this will make you laugh (or not). I wanted to renew my children’s passports about 5 years ago now. I was visiting my mum in the UK at the time so posted them from there recorded delivery. There was a query on one of them and they rang my mother who told them that I was in France, they put the phone down. I then rang them. I was told that because we were in France what I had done was a ‘major breach of security’. After lots of my ‘I’m a British citizen and was born in the UK as had my children’ etc., etc., it then transpired that they only check 1 in 5 passports! I was very angry and told them that only checking that number of passports was much more dangerous than me sending 2 passports by recorded delivery. I was livid. I eventually had them renewed in Paris. If I have to renew them in the UK, will I come up against this problem again?