Passport costs to increase in October; renew now if you've less than a year remaining

jaxxy00

Alfie_E wrote: »

See Renew for Freedom.

New passports have an RFID tag in them, so, boys and girls, remember to get a screened passport holder. An RFID tag is a small computer chip with memory and a processing unit. It also has a little looped aerial, so the information can be read at a distance.

What do you mean get a 'screened' passport holder?

My daughters first adult passport came in the post the other day, taking a total of just 12 days, very impressed. Wasnt at all impressed with how it was delivered though as i happened to ask at the post office how they got sent to you and was told by courier. Ours laid on the mat and had just been put through the letterbox, we didnt have to sign or anything.

Not impressed with how easy it is to obtain birth certificates either. You used to have to make appointments and see someone. Now you do it over the phone, with any card for payment and obviously to be sent to any address (chances are youre not having it sent to address on certificate).

CFC

jaxxy00 wrote: »

What do you mean get a 'screened' passport holder?

My daughters first adult passport came in the post the other day, taking a total of just 12 days, very impressed. Wasnt at all impressed with how it was delivered though as i happened to ask at the post office how they got sent to you and was told by courier. Ours laid on the mat and had just been put through the letterbox, we didnt have to sign or anything.

Not impressed with how easy it is to obtain birth certificates either. You used to have to make appointments and see someone. Now you do it over the phone, with any card for payment and obviously to be sent to any address (chances are youre not having it sent to address on certificate).

Some people are concerned because the RFID tag can be read at a distance. Some people have speculated that a particular kind of RFID tag (eg american or british) could be used to automatically set off a bomb, ie bomb waits till american or brit goes past it. If you screen your passport eg, keep it in a passport holder lined with tinfoil, you prevent the tag being read and the immigration officer can to open it to read it.

Birth certificates - even worse, you can get them online now and companies can buy them in bulk!!!

melg1973

immoral_angeluk wrote: »

Again??????? I still haven't changed my passport from my maiden name!!!! I refuse to pay £60-£70 to have my last name changed when it's still got 6 yrs left on it!!

Snap! I got married last year for the 2nd time. When I changed my name the last two times it was free, couldn't believe you now have to pay for a full new passport, especially when I had over 8 years left. Will just have to remember to book everything in my maiden name

nullogik

Yet another excuse from the Labour government to squeeze more money out of us under the guise of "providing better diplomatic services abroad."

Rubbish! Its another stealth tax. But then we as consumers are caught. If we want to go abroad then we need a passport (in most circumstances) so we effectively HAVE to pay this "tax" unless you want to spend the rest of your life taking holidays in the UK.

adam2484

kids passports are £45 at the moment

Tashja

We are hoping to go away in November with aour baby being due October 7th.

Obviously we will need to apply for her passport so does this mean she will need a face-to-face interview ?? Interesting considering she will be a couple of weeks old !!

Also if we take her to be fingerprinted, etc will we get her passport there and then ??

Thanks in advance.

T xx

soco1

Can't see why anyone would need a screened passport cover.

As an immigration officer handling all manner of passports daily my experience is that the biometric chips can only be read at very small distances of well under 10 cm.
Our scanners can't read the chips unless the passport is laying on the scanner itself. Holding the passport next to it has no effect as it cannot read it.
Therefore I'd be surprised if there was a danger of people being able to read the passport at any distance.

Certainly not something I'd ever be concerned about.

As to birth certificates, before the advent of the internet anyone could go up to St Catherines House or Somerset House in London (can't remember which one is the old or current place) and buy any certificate they wanted. All you had to do was look up the person you wanted from centuries of ledgers, get the certificate number and put that on a form and pay your money.
Yes it's easier now but no different really.

tightus_wad

Grrr...more to make my blood boil at the Blummin goverment! The amount of tax you pay to go abroad in the first place SHOULD make the passport FREE!!
Up the revolution is what I say!
Does anyone know how the UK rates in the cost of passports? i.e. are we the most expensive in the world or....ta
It'll soon be easier AND cheaper to get a fake passport than a new one!!

ka7e

Rubbish! Its another stealth tax. But then we as consumers are caught. If we want to go abroad then we need a passport (in most circumstances) so we effectively HAVE to pay this "tax" unless you want to spend the rest of your life taking holidays in the UK.

Having a passport (or photo driving licence, £44) is almost compulsory these days. Since they have turned 16, my children have had to produce photo ID to

• buy a 15 - rated console game
• apply for an LEA loan
• apply for a CRB check
• enrol at university
• open a bank or building society account
• at 18, buy a drink in a pub (or even enter a pub/club)

My son recently had to provide photo ID to get his driving licence....which he needed as photo ID!

CFC

ka7e wrote: »

Having a passport (or photo driving licence, £44) is almost compulsory these days.
My son recently had to provide photo ID to get his driving licence....which he needed as photo ID!

It's absolutely terrifying - at every point the government is determined to squeeze us for cash and to restrict our liberties. I never thought for one minute I would ever say this, but it's not the country I grew up in any more. It's like some Orwellian nightmare, and it's all aimed at controlling the populace using the hyped up pretence of terrorism.

After all, exactly how much terrorism do we have in the UK now compared to all the IRA stuff in the seventies?
Answer: a lot less.

We have few rights in this country because we are subjects, not citizens. When we were a bastion of democracy and rights of the individual, this didn't matter. But it does now, because the government can take your rights away a bit at a time, because they were never enshrined in law.

Many people are finding out now that although of course they are eligible for a passport, they can't actually get one....because of the all the new changes.

Yet you can get a fake passport in India for 50 quid or get smuggled in without a problem. According to a recent program on the telly, you can get bundled on a US flight for interrogation without going throuh any kind of passport control.

This country is becoming insane,and the post above about needing photo id to GET photo id sums it up. It's time ordinary people stood up to be counted and to say NO.