UK passport renewal UAE

[Victor Inox]

VI jr., who resides in Dubai, needs to renew his UK passport. This requires him to send his application, supporting docs, etc. to an address in Düsseldorf.

Does any Ppruner have an idea why the relevant UK passport office would be in Germany?

[Sheikh Your Bootie]

Just is habibi. They can do it in around 2 weeks ish, if you send via courier to DUS Passport office, and they return it via courier as well.
option 2 is to go to a UK passport office and get it done in 12 hours or less.

SyB :zzz:

[mad_jock]

Because about two years ago they centralised all the FZO passport production in Dusseldorf.

So instead of the 1-2 week turn round you used to get at your local embassy.

You go in and drop the paper work off in the embassy which then gets mailed to London which then routes it off to Dus.

Then it gets kicked around for xx number of days until complete then it returns. by the same route all in apparently 4 weeks if your lucky.

If there are any issues your stuffed.

If he needs his passport in the next 2 months you would be better to go back to the UK and get it done on the same day service.

If you get your passport nicked or destroyed for any reason the only way you can really sort it in the UAE is to get a emergency travel document to get you back to the UK then once you have a new passport come back and then its another 5 days to get the visa transfered.

O once you do have the new passport by mail you need to come in on a stamp using it before you can get the visa transfered onto it if you use an egate to get in they will just make you exit and return again.

[Victor Inox]

Thanks, SYB and M_J.

Your point regarding time required well taken. He happily doesn't need to travel urgently.

Just seems strange to outsource passport production to a foreign country. You would think De La Rue could do the job.

[Old King Coal]

If you're British you are entitled to have 2nd British Passport, and I would highly recommend this, as it makes sending away for Visa's and / or getting a passport renewed a whole lot easier!

A letter from your employer stating your job description, and mentioning the hassle it causes if you're ever without your 1st passport, should satisfy the requirement for a valid reason for you to have a 2nd passport.

See: How to apply from United Arab Emirates (http://ukingermany.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/passports/how-to-apply/united-arab-emirates) (scroll down to where is says 'Can I have a second passport?' )

I have two myself, and very useful it is too !

[mad_jock]

get caught with two passports in the UAE and your off to jail.

[Airmann]

If you legally have two passports from your own country what business is it of the UAE government. So long as you are in their country legally why don't they bugger off and mind their own business.

[nitro rig driver]

Nothing wrong with having 2 or more legal passports in the UAE.
The problem is how and when you use them,
ie go out on 1 and come back or enter another country on the other on the same trip.......:=

[springbok449]

Number 1 Springbok Junior just having his passport renewed at the moment, all docs sent via DHL 1st October, application processed and paid for on 4th and still not received new passport...

Have spoken to a contact there and its on its way...inshallah!

Can be done in 2 weeks if you are lucky but experience and hear say tells me the norm is 4-6 weeks...

Good Luck.

Bokkkie Senior

[Airmann]

ie go out on 1 and come back or enter another country on the other on the same trip.......:=Whatever, with egate they're never even going to see your passport anyway. And frankly so long as I use the same passport to leave or enter the UAE what business is it of theirs which passport I use to enter other countries as long as I'm entering those countries legally. It's all a bit much, especially when you haven't done anything illegal

[helen-damnation]

VI

The UK passport office is in the process of centralising all the passport offices into one in the UK. The seven (?) worldwide ones will apparently be done away with once the "main" UK setup has been setup! As told to me in the UK office last year.

Suggest you use Fedex/DHL to send the forms etc from here.

Regards,

HD

[lenhamlad]

Just seems strange to outsource passport production to a foreign country. You would think De La Rue could do the job.

The production of the passport is not done in Germany, only the processing of the document. In days gone by, embassies held stocks of passports and renewals were handwritten. With modern technology it was deemed not financially viable to have the necessary machinery in every embassy around the world to process the new digitally finished document.

I agree with nitro rig driver. There is not a problem in having two passports in the UAE. It is how you use them. I used to have two passports, one for travel in around the Islamic countries and one for going in and out of Israel. In the eighties if you were travelling in Africa it was best to have two passports as certain countries would refuse you entry if you had South African entry and exit stamps in your passport.

[Dubaian]

I was told the main reason for centralisation was to avoid having loads of blank passports all over the world just asking to be stolen. Germany does the processing of the applications but the actual documents are issued from UK somewhere.

I applied for and got a second UK passport (not from UAE, from Qatar, but it's all the same nowadays). No hassle and it came back via courier in about 10 days. I was surprised at the speed - - but it's all a lot more expensive than it used to be.:rolleyes:

[Victor Inox]

Thanks, everyone, for all your valuable and interesting comments. VI jr. has sent off his application by courier to DSL. Let's see how many days it will take for the new passport to come back. :ok:

[Jolly Foreigner]

Did my renewal within 24hrs by going back to the passport office in Victoria. Booked an appointment in advance and then jumped on the flights, left DXB at 0300 and was back at 0700 the following morning with the new piece of cardboard that we readily give away to other global scumbags.

[springbok449]

Springbok juniors came back today so 24 days in total...

Apparently one of he reasons they have "centralised" the renewal of passports was that before they use to ship blank passports to the various embassies worldwide to be printed on-site, needless to say some went missing which encouraged forgeries...

[alainboy]

Just to add my 'two pennyworth'
Found this out earlier this year - they told me in AD that it would take 8 weeks to go to DUS and back, I told them 'you must be joking, I need my passport every 8 days' and then enquired actually what do they do now in the Embassy??, as the visa issue section is now 'farmed off' to some agency and is in other premises. She was an Indian anyway, so I was wasting my time berating a 'mere expat employee'.
Anyway, I called UK and 'booked an appointment' - they do give you a choice of offices and Newport was the shortest queue. Booked a flight, drove to Newport and did the whole thing in about 3 hours. However this RAPID SERVICE does cost, if I remember in the area of GBP135/- !!!!
So you see, the UK Gov't, in all it's wisdom, centralises Passport issue in Germany (why? I am sure labour costs are just as high! Why not give work to people in UK??????), we suffer and we pay - this sums up 'good ol blighty' these days.
Oh Gone are the days....................... and don't get me started on their so called 'fast track' machines at LHR that hardly ever work or the queues at Immigration, oh sorry UK BORDER idiots - the only place in the world, that I have come across, where you have to take your passport from your wallet. Also the only place in the world again that I have come across where there is a sign to tell you not abuse them verbally or indeed physically. Why is that?
And why were they worried about blank passports lying around 'waiting to be stolen' - don't they give them away free to foreigners with hard luck stories anyway?

Am I sorry that I left UK more than 20 years ago - NO!!
Am I sorry that sometimes, just sometimes, I have to go back there - YES!!

[Guy D'ageradar]

Just did junior's one - both came back today - total time 3 weeks.