Passport renewal/Photo hints/Check & Send

booter

Hi all - OH and I recently had to renew our passports. I hate photo booths - despite having a few goes, I always end up looking like a zombie/junkie. I also hate the fact that they charge £5.00 a throw, so being the good MSEr I am (!) and given the fact that I'm as tight as a duck's behind, I had a look on the forum to find the cheapest/most efficient way of getting the photos done. I came up with this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3029184
(Thanks mb55 for the epassportphoto.com link)
After I'd sent off the applications, I then found this thread:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3153996

I thought I'd report on my experience, in the hope it will encourage others to have a go at saving a few pounds, and because I now feel a bit of an expert!!!

Filling in the renewal application was straightforward enough. Taking the photos posed a slightly bigger challenge! First, find one cream or white sheet. Then iron it (and I don't do ironing!). Then find a flat surface on which to attach the sheet (this had to be inside the house - outside, both OH and I squinted too much, even though it wasn't sunny) with enough natural light from behind the photographer as no flashes allowed. Then take photos. This was the tricky bit. Very cheap camera, which with the slightest tremble gives a blurry image! (In addition, OH can't take a decent photo to save his life!). Also make sure that there are no shadows on the sheet/backdrop and no small children doing bunny ears. Then give around 5 minutes to stop having the giggles. Eventually I get a couple that look half decent (i.e. OH doesn't look too much like a thug, I don't look too much like a Evil Edna).

Using epassportphoto.com, I sized them according to the instructions. I then saved to the memory stick and took to the local photo printers (apparently, they have to be printed on professional paper). They printed them off for me for 40p each. They then told me that they'd be too big and produced a template. So, off back home for piccie revision.

epassportphoto.com instructions say "The edge of the chin and the crown must be inside the green rectangles". I found that the whole head needs to be inside the green rectangles. Of course, if I'd printed a draft off at home, I'd have known the size was wrong by measuring it using the passport office guidelines - http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/files/ips/live/assets/documents/photos.pdf

So, I resized the photos and returned to the photo printers for round two. A different assistant said that they couldn't be done on the printer I'd used before, as that printer had paper with writing on the reverse of the print, and the passport office only accept plain white backing(?). She also said that a simple inkjet printer can't be used, it must be professional quality ink/paper to be acceptable. By this time, I'd got a headache and asked if she'd just print them off anyway, on whichever machine she thought suitable. She then looked at my photo and said that the passport office wouldn't accept mine - I have a fringe which sits on my eyebrows (it doesn't cover my eyes). Apparently I should either get a haircut or push my fringe away from my face! By this point, I couldn't care less, and asked her politely to just print them off! She finally does so, charging 50p per copy (i.e. £1.00 total). I suspect an ulterior motive however - they do passport photos at "only" £15 each!!!

Anyway, then off to the Post office - using the guide on the passport application envelope to ensure I'd got everything. The assistant said that if the passports were required within the next 2 weeks, then I'd have to use check and send (at over £8 per passport). Otherwise, it could take up to 6 weeks. As I say, I'm tight, I'm in no particular rush, and in addition, I'd heard of a few cases where the P.O. say the photo was no good, and another would have to be done (by them, at around £5 each). So I say no thanks to the check and send, but post them by registered mail (at P.O.'s recommendation, as I'm returning the old passports) but both go in the same envelope - cost £5.45 I think.

Less than a week later, the new passports arrive. Obviously the photos are OK, the fringe is OK, and the paper and ink are OK. So much for check & send!

So, cost of DIY passport renewal - £77.50 x 2, photos £1.80 total, registered post £5.45. Grand total £162.25. And I look almost human. And the OH doesn't look too much like Charles Manson. I can live with that.

Hope this helps someone

Apologies for the long post - I'm trying to make the point of perseverance!

Incapuppy

It depends really on what price you put on your time; the time that's needed to faff about to do it all and go to and from a photo printers until you are happy with the results!

will-he-payitoff

Why did you send them registered post?

DCFC79

Its alot of messing around, i just get them done at jessops when i need them

booter

Incapuppy wrote: »

It depends really on what price you put on your time; the time that's needed to faff about to do it all and go to and from a photo printers until you are happy with the results!

Yes it was a bit of a faff, although not purely to be happy with the results - a lot of faffing was getting the sizes/paper/ink right. That's one of the reasons for the post - so that others may not have to faff quite so much. With amateur camera and photography skills, and the knowledge of exactly what to do, it wouldn't have been a faff!

will-he-payitoff - I sent registered post as this it what the post office advised (for security for old passports). They told me that registered did not travel with the regular mail (unlike recorded del) and therefore would be more secure. (And I couldn't remember off hand the advise given by the passport office which method of postage was acceptable!)

kazwookie

3 weeks ago

I paid £4 for photos in a photo booth in the local post office. Borrowed the counter scissors, cut off 2, put the spare 2 in my bag, shoved the whole lot in the envelope.

Posted renewal forms, cheque etc at post office standard post, there and then, my nice new style passport was back 9 days later, delivered in a van one Saturday afternoon!!

Plus they added on the 8 remaining months.

What a load of faffing around you did, OP.

I found it very straight forward and ease.

dtaylor21184

Just done my little boys passport he's only 3 months old.

We have a slr camera so took a picture on a white sheet

OH is a graphic designer so he resized them and you could get the 8 to fit on one photo printed at pence off one of the online sites

sent off back in 5 days

simples

booter

Yes, I know I did a lot of faffing around with the photos. And I am now aware of just how simple it is. As I say, my point in posting was to illustrate how simple it really is, and try to explain (probably badly) that both the print shop where I had my photos printed and the post office gave me advice about how it should be done, which had I taken, would have been costly and unnecessary. The point of my post was to encourage others to have a go at saving a few pounds, (after all, if you have a family of 5 and use a booth for photos, it can get very expensive). I pointed out my pitfalls to help others avoid them. If my experience helps others, then surely that's what MSE is all about?

In a nutshell:
Passport application form - doddle
Photos - easy to do at home
Check & Send - Why bother?

safesound

I'd usually agree booter, but I've spent countless hours in the last week trying to get the stupid photos just the right size and I just cant do it. I'm giving up and going to a photo booth it may cost ££'s but at least it'll be done.

peachyprice

I've taken all 5 of our passport photos myself and printed them on my little HP photo printer, it has a function for passport photo sizes for several different countries (UK, US, Canada, Australia etc). It takes 5 mins, cost pennies and have never had photos refused.

I also use the passport sevice online form thingy, they fill in all the necessary info, send me the forms, I just sign them. Have never seen the need to pay someone at the Post Office to check them either.