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Post by Carl LaFong on Apr 12, 2024 12:10:06 GMT
Bad as the Royal Mail.
The price of a UK passport will rise on Thursday, for the second time in just over 14 months. The cost of applying online to get a new or renewed adult passport will go up from £82.50 to £88.50 from midnight. This 7% rise follows a 9% rise in February 2023. Consumer group Which? said travellers due to renew would "likely be shocked" by the hike. The Home Office said it did not make a profit from the applications and the fee rise would help improve services. Which? Travel expert Guy Hobbs said: "If you've been meaning to renew your passport, today is your last opportunity to beat the price hikes." When should I renew my passport? Holidaymakers going to EU caught out by 10-year-passport rule Passport rules: 'Escorted through the airport like a criminal' The cost of applying for a child's passport online is also going up from £53.50 to £57.50. If you apply by post the price rises from £64 to £69. A postal application for an adult passport will rise from £93 to £100. It costs more if you apply from abroad, or if you require a passport urgently. Passports are free for people born on or before 2 September 1929. Prior to last year's rise, passport fees had not gone up for five years and a standard adult online application cost £75.50. The Post Office, meanwhile, said its "check and send" service will still be on offer for £16. 'Among priciest in Europe' Mr Hobbs at Which? said: "The cost of renewing a passport has jumped significantly in the last few years, with this latest price hike following hot on the heels of a hefty 9% rise just last year." He added: "While these price rises may well reflect rising production or processing costs, the UK passport is now amongst the priciest in Europe." The online cost of an £88.50 UK passport is among the most expensive in Europe. The UK comes in behind countries like Switzerland (£122), Denmark (£103) and Italy (£99.50). The cost of a US passport, meanwhile, is £103.
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Post by Carl LaFong on Apr 12, 2024 12:10:29 GMT
One reader called Ian told the BBC: "The quality of these new passports is shocking. Although I use mine very often the gold embossing on the front is completely worn off." Martyn James, a consumer rights campaigner, said: "Just because a business or organisation can raise prices doesn't mean they should. The starting point with any price increase - and this is 16 percentage points over 14 months - should be what are you doing to make the service better." In the aftermath of the Covid pandemic hundreds of thousands of people were affected by passport processing delays, with many experiencing travel disruptions. Some 360,000 customers waited more than 10 weeks to receive their passports in the first nine months of 2022, the National Audit Office found. Mr James said: "The Passport Office has struggled with meeting its basic obligations, so many users will question what they are getting for their money." Another reader, Hugh from Cheshire, however, told the BBC that he applied online and got his renewal within a week. "It lasts me for 10 years, so just £8.25 per year." The Home Office said the higher overall fees would go towards the cost of delivering passports and reduce the reliance on funding from tax. Separately, holidaymakers travelling to the EU are being warned not to get caught out by the "passport 10-year rule". UK travellers used to be able to carry up to nine months from an old passport over on to a new one. But post-Brexit, EU countries will not accept passports issued more than 10 years ago. Up to 32 million people applied for passports before the new rules, but it is unknown how many have been affected.
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Post by Carl LaFong on Apr 12, 2024 12:11:59 GMT
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Post by tickingmask on Apr 12, 2024 13:14:38 GMT
UK travellers used to be able to carry up to nine months from an old passport over on to a new one. But post-Brexit, EU countries will not accept passports issued more than 10 years ago. It must have taken a jaw-droppingly extraordinary degree of bureaucratic pettiness to come up with a law such as this. Anyway, it makes for a good riddle:
Q: When is an expiry date not an expiry date? A: When you are some unelected jobsworth in the EU Commission, making up pointless laws to try to attach some significance to your pointless job! Boom, Boom!
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Apr 12, 2024 13:38:35 GMT
160 CAD here, which Google tells me is the equivalent of 93 GBP.
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Post by Flying Monkeys on Apr 12, 2024 13:41:53 GMT
OH MY GOD I HAVE TO FORK OUT SIX POUNDS MORE EVERY TEN YEARS HOW WILL I COPE AAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
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Post by Flying Monkeys on Apr 12, 2024 13:42:31 GMT
Not that I'm taking the piss or anything.
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Apr 12, 2024 13:47:04 GMT
UK travellers used to be able to carry up to nine months from an old passport over on to a new one. But post-Brexit, EU countries will not accept passports issued more than 10 years ago. It must have taken a jaw-droppingly extraordinary degree of bureaucratic pettiness to come up with a law such as this. Anyway, it makes for a good riddle:
Q: When is an expiry date not an expiry date? A: When you are some unelected jobsworth in the EU Commission, making up pointless laws to try to attach some significance to your pointless job! Boom, Boom!
You are probably reading more into it than there is. The most likely explanation is that the EU accepts EU passports up to nine months past their validity, but that tolerance is not extended to citizens from outside the EU.
If a Japanese citizen can enter the EU with a passport expired six months earlier but a British citizen can't, then you have a point. But that's extremely unlikely. I would bet that the law hasn't changed, it's just that it no longer applies to UK citizens.
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Post by tickingmask on Apr 12, 2024 15:52:59 GMT
You are probably reading more into it than there is. The most likely explanation is that the EU accepts EU passports up to nine months past their validity, but that tolerance is not extended to citizens from outside the EU. If a Japanese citizen can enter the EU with a passport expired six months earlier but a British citizen can't, then you have a point. But that's extremely unlikely. I would bet that the law hasn't changed, it's just that it no longer applies to UK citizens.
The issue here is not that the EU doesn't accept passports that have expired - that's perfectly reasonable not to, and most other countries don't either. The issue is that they don't accept passports that are still current and might even have another 9 months before their expiry date.And why not? Because they were issued ten years ago or more! So it doesn't matter whether the passport has expired or not, computer says no. (Or at least some computers, the reports coming in say that this is a mass of confusion with people actually turning up at the airport and then being turned away just before they were due to board the plane. Lovely!)
I wonder what dreary committee of jobsworths made that particular law up? Did I say 'petty', already?
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Apr 12, 2024 15:58:52 GMT
You are probably reading more into it than there is. The most likely explanation is that the EU accepts EU passports up to nine months past their validity, but that tolerance is not extended to citizens from outside the EU. If a Japanese citizen can enter the EU with a passport expired six months earlier but a British citizen can't, then you have a point. But that's extremely unlikely. I would bet that the law hasn't changed, it's just that it no longer applies to UK citizens.
The issue here is not that the EU doesn't accept passports that have expired - that's perfectly reasonable not to, and most other countries don't either. The issue is that they don't accept passports that are still current and might even have another 9 months before their expiry date.And why not? Because they were issued ten years ago or more! So it doesn't matter whether the passport has expired or not, computer says no. (Or at least some computers, the reports coming in say that this is a mass of confusion with people actually turning up at the airport and then being turned away just before they were due to board the plane. Lovely!)
I wonder what dreary committee of jobsworths made that particular law up? Did I say 'petty', already?
The wording on the article is terrible. Passport issued ten years ago or more are past their expiry date! There are no passports issued more than ten years ago that are still current. No country issues passports valid for more than ten years.
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Post by notoriousnobbi on Apr 12, 2024 16:17:49 GMT
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Post by tickingmask on Apr 12, 2024 16:24:56 GMT
Passport issued ten years ago or more are past their expiry date! There are no passports issued more than ten years ago that are still current. No country issues passports valid for more than ten years. That's the problem - you say that, but it's not true: there are, at least in the UK, where you used to be able to renew your passport up to 9 months before it expired, and get given a new passport with the original expiry date, but ten years later.
So for instance, let's say my last passport expired in December 2014, but I decided to renew my passport earlier, in March, because I had to be abroad at the time my old passport expired. So I applied for a passport in March 2014, and got given one with an issue date in March 2014, but because my original passport didn't expire until December 2014,my new passport was given an expiry date ten years later, in December 2024. (The passport office no longer do this, but ten years ago they did).
So here am I now ten years later, still with a passport that has December 2024 as its expiry date, a whole 9 months away, in clear easy-to-read print. And it's considered valid in pretty much every country in the world... apart from the EU, of course. Which I only discover when I'm at the departure gate, just about to board the plane. Does that make the problem clearer?
(Edit) I could be wrong, but I think the EU came up with this 'ten years from issue date' passport validation rule in December 2021 (I suspect around the same time that the UK passport office stopped the 9-month extension rule). The timing of this is quite telling, wouldn't you say? Did I use the phrase 'petty and vindictive' already? ("They voted for Brexit, let's make up new laws to make their lives as inconvenient as we can, bwahahahaha!")
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Post by Jep Gambardella on Apr 12, 2024 17:20:14 GMT
Passport issued ten years ago or more are past their expiry date! There are no passports issued more than ten years ago that are still current. No country issues passports valid for more than ten years. That's the problem - you say that, but it's not true: there are, at least in the UK, where you used to be able to renew your passport up to 9 months before it expired, and get given a new passport with the original expiry date, but ten years later.
So for instance, let's say my last passport expired in December 2014, but I decided to renew my passport earlier, in March, because I had to be abroad at the time my old passport expired. So I applied for a passport in March 2014, and got given one with an issue date in March 2014, but because my original passport didn't expire until December 2014,my new passport was given an expiry date ten years later, in December 2024. (The passport office no longer do this, but ten years ago they did).
So here am I now ten years later, still with a passport that has December 2024 as its expiry date, a whole 9 months away, in clear easy-to-read print. And it's considered valid in pretty much every country in the world... apart from the EU, of course. Which I only discover when I'm at the departure gate, just about to board the plane. Does that make the problem clearer?
(Edit) I could be wrong, but I think the EU came up with this 'ten years from issue date' passport validation rule in December 2021 (I suspect around the same time that the UK passport office stopped the 9-month extension rule). The timing of this is quite telling, wouldn't you say? Did I use the phrase 'petty and vindictive' already? ("They voted for Brexit, let's make up new laws to make their lives as inconvenient as we can, bwahahahaha!")
Yeah, OK, in that case forget I said anything. I don't see a good reason to disregard the expiry date printed on the passport.
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Post by notoriousnobbi on Apr 12, 2024 17:52:53 GMT
("They voted for Brexit, let's make up new laws to make their lives as inconvenient as we can, bwahahahaha!") Next time Lisa O' Carroll presents one of those "In Limbo" cases I will repeat that quote...
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Post by tickingmask on Apr 12, 2024 21:40:25 GMT
Next time Lisa O' Carroll presents one of those "In Limbo" cases I will repeat that quote... Make sure you also emphasise the words "petty" and "vindictive" when you do so. There's no reason why Brussels would choose to make up this law, at this time, other than to be petty and vindictive.
Now, when is an expiry date not an expiry date, again?
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