U.K. Passport Renewal Experience

[PolemIan]

I have recently renewed my passport and thought I’d share the experience with those that may be approaching the expiry date.

Remember that these days the expiry date as far as the EU is concerned is 10 years from the issue date rather than the expiry date which may be later than that depending on how much unexpired time there was at last renewal which would have been added on.

We were slightly concerned about how long it may take given the strike earlier this year. However:

- Application was submitted online, photo was taken on the iPad and uploaded from there. Got a Green tick first time which was a relief given it took about an hour of retaking the photo for my wife a couple of years ago. This clearly means I’m more photogenic…..

- rest of the online process is dead simple. Including the payment of £113.86, less than 10 mins

- old passport was posted back from the post office in Peyia using the tracked service at a cost of €3.40

- the email message from Passport Office confirming receipt of the old passport was exactly 6 days later. Note that there can be be a lag of a day or so in the online PO tracker for status to change from “send us your passport” to “passport received”

- “passport application approved” email followed 6 days later

- “passport printed” email arrived the next day and the DHL shipment email 2 days later for the new one and the one for the return of the old one a further day later

- got the text message to collect the new one from DHL in Paphos 6 days later and a Viber message from ACS in Polis 2 hours after that for the old one.

- Total elapsed time from posting to the new and old documents being ready collection - exactly 3 weeks.

Excellent I thought.

One quirk I discovered. When you get the text from DHL it includes a link to select the collection point, this is a bit flakey as the first time I looked it showed the one next to Cartridge World in Paphos, then went mysteriously blank, then came back allowing me to select that, then vanished again so I didn’t bother when the 2nd one came though for what I guessed to be the old passport.

So I collected one from Polis, nice drive with nothing else to do that day, then collected the other one from DHL Paphos a couple of days later.

According to the helpful staff in DHL, the link can be a bit hit and miss. If you are able to select the DHL Paphos unit it will go there and stay there until you collect - got a text when it arrived, phone call to remind me the next day and another text reminder the following morning. Thorough!

The staff told me that if you do nothing with the link they will assume you require “delivery” to your address and forward it to the ACS location nearest your address that does delivery - in this case Polis (despite Mezzogiorno ACS being the half the distance compared to Polis). You can call the central number and stop this though. A little odd but who am I to argue and it’s a nice cruise up to Polis.

All in all, a very positive experience and a couple of friends have also sent theirs a week or so after mine and so far the timelines seem to be very similar.

Hope this helps allay any concerns anybody may have.

Ian

PS keep your old passport, I have a friend who had all sorts of issues changing the address on their car logbook as it referenced an old expired passport they hadn’t kep (or a copy of) that the Citizens Centre insisted they wanted to see in order to update the address.

[galexinda]

Thank you, something I must do before March 2024 when my current Passport expires due to the new 10 year ruling, even though the expiry date is October 2024.

Not sure whether to leave it to the beginning of January or renew it in October / November as some countries require 3 months and others 6 months validity before the expiry date. Not sure where I stand as a Cyprus Permanent Resident.

[Firefly]

I wonder if the new EU ruling affects British citizens, living in Britain.

I hadn't heard of this before, I'm going to Rhodes in September for my granddaughter's wedding, my current passport expires in May 2024. Question is, will I be denied access to Rhodes if the issue date differs.

I'll check the issue date, I just assumed that they would be the same.

[Dominic]

The rule itself makes sense. Everybody would be happy if, when you came to exchange your passport for a new one, they took any time on the old one from the cost of the new one.

Lets say it costs £200. If you renew 6 months before the expiry date, then they would knock £10 the cost of the new one. Mind you, when you look at it like that, it is only a small amount of money you are talking about, and probably not worth it in terms of admin costs.

[Kili01]

Firefly! Yes I think it does. This rule actually changed after Brexit was completed and the UK had left the EU.
But that was during the Pandemic when most people weren't able to travel.


Dee

[Firefly]

Dee, thank you.

I checked my passport, and it was issued on the same date, that it ran from, so hopefully I should be okay.

Jackie

[PolemIan]

I wonder if the new EU ruling affects British citizens, living in Britain.

I hadn't heard of this before, I'm going to Rhodes in September for my granddaughter's wedding, my current passport expires in May 2024. Question is, will I be denied access to Rhodes if the issue date differs.

I'll check the issue date, I just assumed that they would be the same.

Yes it does. For non EU Nationals, E.g. a UK passport holder travelling from U.K. to the EU, since 2021 the EU now requires your passport to be issued within the last 10 years, so the expiry date is irrelevant if it’s later than 10 years after the issue date. I think the advice is that any U.K. passport issued prior to 1/10/2018 may have extra time added to the expiry date which is potentially no longer valid.

The legal requirement is that there must be 3 months remaining until the expiry (based on 10 years from the issue date) on your departure date from wherever you’re visiting - though I believe the FO and EU strongly recommend 6 months, and it’s recommended to check the requirements for each country before booking a trip - I just about made it for a recent holiday in Athens prior to renewing my passport.

The link for Greece, which I assume also covers Rhodes, is here:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advic ... quirements

This is quite a good article on the subject:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/ ... t-rules-eu

Ian

[Firefly]

Ian

Thank you for the info. I read the government details, and I should be alright for Rhodes.

Jackie