Going abroad this year?

CFC

Make sure you're ready and able to pick up a bargain holiday at short notice by getting your passport application in before March 26th, plus avoid the expense of a trip to your nearest interview centre (up to 60 miles away!) and having to take a day off work to get a passport!!!

Why you should renew your passport, or apply for one IMMEDIATELY if this is your or your child's first passport!


On March 26th 2007 the first of a new network of 69 government ID interrogation centres will open for business. If you apply for your first adult passport after this date, then you may be called for a compulsory "interview" at one of them.
Currently it takes around two weeks to get a new passport. The new way – called "Authentication by Interview" – is expected to take between four and six weeks. Not only will you have to fill in a bigger form, but you’ll be made to travel at your own expense to your nearest interrogation centre for official questioning. The government admits the questions will be "intrusive".
Furthermore, the government agency running the scheme predicts that because of the changes, as many as 1 in 4 young people will not receive their new passport in time to make their trip. "Fast Track" passports, which you can now get in an emergency within one day or one week are being abolished for first time applicants. You will have no choice but to wait your turn to be interrogated at a time that suits them.

People applying for their first adult passport from April 2007 are being used as guinea-pigs for Tony Blair’s ID scheme. From later this year "authentication" is planned to include fingerprinting. This is what ID cards really mean: government collecting more information about you and linking it up.
The passport application form in future will ask you to give lots of information about yourself: official numbers, addresses for the last few years, maybe about your family or education... And you'll sign to declare that it's the truth.
That information will be used to look up everything recorded about you on all the available government and business databases: school records, social services, police, credit, perhaps family details... all currently separate and private… to build a single file of personal information on you for official use.
The interview will check that you can give answers about private details of your life that match the official ones. If you can, you'll get your passport. If not... it is not clear, but trying to get a passport "under false pretences" – if the computer says "no" – could be serious. If nothing else, it means more waiting. And "suspicious" details on file for life.

arnie&caseysma!

Please also see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=381081
which I posted last week, gives you town and cities where the interview centres will be and also what will happen in the case of remote areas.

lisyloo

Why you should renew your passport, or apply for one IMMEDIATELY if this is your or your child's first passport!

It's not clear to me why this affects people renewing their passport.
Could someone explain please.

arnie&caseysma!

lisyloo wrote:

It's not clear to me why this affects people renewing their passport.
Could someone explain please.

It doesn't affect people renewing their passports, only those who are obtaining a full 10 year (adult) passport for the first time, and not all cases will require an interview.

The only renewal which it will affect will be the transition from 'child' five year passport to the 'adult' 10 year, NOT ordinary renewals.

EDIT - Just read the stuff again, it does not affect those that have held their own child passport but does affect those who were only named on a parents passport.

CFC

Shortly ALL new passport applicants will have to attend the interview - every single case. That's why the government has built 69 of these purpose built centres. It is NOT selected cases. So safest bet is to get those applications in before March 26th to guarantee you won't have to make a trek! The UK IPS estimates 1 in 4 applicants will have to cancel their travel plans, because they will not get a passport in time.

Then all renewals will undergo the same process, and they'll also probably put the prices up at that point yet again - renew now if your passport has less than a year on it to avoid future inconvenience and expense. I have.

arnie&caseysma!

Passport interviews
Passport interviews are a new measure to protect an individual’s identity. Anyone aged 16 or over applying for a passport for the first time to have an interview as part of the application process. The interview will confirm that the passport application we have checked actually belongs to the applicant and that they are the rightful owner of that identity.

Why interviews are being introduced
Interviews are being introduced to the passport application process because:

Who will be interviewed?
Only adults who have never previously held a British passport in their own name will need to have an interview; it will not apply to people who held their own passport as a child but it will apply to those whose names were included in a parent’s passport.

When will interviews start?
The requirement to attend an interview is to be introduced gradually, starting with a limited service in April - not all first-time adult customers will be called for an interview initially. IPS will increase the number of interviews progressively throughout 2007.

Customers not contacted by IPS within eight working days from receipt of a completed application form will not need to have an interview.

*We will start with small-scale interviews in a limited number of interview offices and during this period customers will not have a choice of interview office. However, the location of the interview will be within one hours travelling time.

As can be seen from the above which is taken directly from the website of the Identity and Passport Service it is those applying for a passport for the first time and not those who have previously held a passport in their own name.
Those who are not contacted within 8 working days of receipt of the application form will obviously not have to attend an interview. It does not say for definite if this is just during the roll-out phase in 2007 or if this will be the case throughout.

And interviews will only be carried out in person where the applicant is within one hours travelling distance....good new for those in my area as we are classed as a remote area and they are running video conferencing facilities from a partnership agency so we don't have to travel! I always knew there was a perk to living in the sticks and now we have just found it!:D

FOr full details check out the official website:
http://www.passport.gov.uk/passport_first_interviews.asp

CFC

On March 30th last year, the Identity Cards Act 2006 became law. Among other things this lets the Home Office turn your passport into a ‘designated document’ for its ID card scheme. That means that as soon as it can — maybe in 2008, but possibly before — the UK Identity & Passport Service will refuse to renew your passport unless you attend an official interview and agree to be fingerprinted and give a wide range of personal information for the Home Office’s ‘National Identity Register’ database(s).

The government says the passport price will rise to at least £93 when it starts issuing ID cards. The ID card will be voluntary to carry or possess but all the information for it will be compulsoury to give when you renew your passport.

You will effectively have an id number, whether you choose to have an ID card issued and carry it or not, and the passport will bear the cost of this. The price of a passport (as you are aware no doubt) has already leaped up beyond all recognition, and here's another price hike planned.

The way you can get a passport will begin changing from early 2007.

To begin with, not all new applicants will need to attend an interview simply because they are in start up mode. But the timeframe for this will be very short - as soon as all the interview centres are fully ready to go, ALL new applicants (NO exceptions) will be required to attend an interview in order to get a passport.

Not all first-time adult citizens will be called for an interview to begin with, as they need time to ramp the system up. IPS will increase the percentage of interviews progressively throughout 2007 until they hit 100% of all applicants.

*We will start with small-scale interviews in a limited number of interview offices and during this period customers will not have a choice of interview office. However, the location of the interview will be within one hours travelling time." (quote from site.)

The renewal interviews will start after that, and the government hopes that they will be able to start this program sometime in 2008.

The Identity and Passport Service (it's not actually called the passport office any more) has said itself that it is likely that one out of 4 travellers will need to cancel their plans as they will not get their passports in time due to the delay which the new process adds. It hasn't posted that on it's website for some strange reason...oh, could it be government spin?