Guest Sereena Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hi all Anyone had to get their UK passport renewed within a year of being in Oz? My hubby's expires in June next year so we need to think about getting a new one for him. Thought is would be simple...! We found the forms etc on the British Embassy website, but then we discover that you have to get it countersigned! This should be done by a British Citizen who's a Doctor, Justice of the Peace etc etc & has known you for at least two years...um, there's no one here in Oz like that we know - strangely enough they're all back in the UK!! Then it goes on to say that if you don't know anyone of this standing locally, then a citizen of the county you're in with a similar standing and has known you for at least two years can do it!! This poses a bit of a problem being as we have only been here 6mths! So, basically reading that we can't get his passport renewed as we have no one here to countersign it! Can we send the form back to the UK for someone there we know to do it or is there another way around this rather ridiculous situation!!? Thanks for any help you can give us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuju Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hi sereena if you are in Oz you just need to send off for a renewal uk passport to Canberra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbie.rn Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 hi sorry if i am dim but could you be a bit more specific my kids need doing for may and i havent even started to figure it out so any info would be great cheers debbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hi Sereena Are you looking at Form C1? I have just downloaded it and I am shocked. I have never seen a more absurd document in my life. Did they devise it after getting lost in Hampton Court Maze, one wonders? Send the whole caboodle to someone you know in the UK. That will solve the problem of the countersignature. Best wishes Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sereena Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Yep, form C1 - that's it! It's totally ridiculous isn't it!? Like I mentioned in my first post I wondered about sending it all back to the UK for someone there to do for us, but then I got to thinking whether the Embassy in Canberra will LET you do that. I think we may have to call them & find out (& pay about a $1 a minute on their info line!) I just wondered if anyone else had had the same problem & got round it another way (ie NOT having to send it all back to the UK for countersignature!) Thanks all for your input - much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realitynotincluded Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hi there... Just reading thru and was thinking that maybe sending your passport back to the uk might not be such a good idea in reference that it will show that you are no longer in the country and they might hold onto it.... especially as passport fraud is such a big thing now a days and they might think it was someone trying to use a stolen passport etc.....l did read in a long ago post somewhere in the many channels of this wonderful forum that a lady contacted the passport at expense to be told that she could use someone of standing like a teacher or someone of standing in the community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Hi Sereena It is not necessary to send the existing passport to the UK. Somebody who has known OH for long enough does not need his passport in order to countersign his photo or his application. I had to do the same drill myself four years ago. I lost my British passport and the only copy of my Malaysian Birth Certificate. Not so much "lost" as "stupidly binned" to be exact. I put them both in a brown envelope to protect them, put them in a drawer with a load of other stuff in this "safe keeping drawer", didn't check properly when I decided on Junk Clearance one day and you can guess the rest..... Ring up Mamma in Australia. Heeeelllppp! How do I get another Birth Cert off the Malays? I've phoned the High Commission in London but I am not getting far! Apparently I have to send the form to Petaling Jaya???? They have at least e-mailed the form - which is in Malay but I can more or less understand it. Mum said calmly, "Nonsense. Your birth is registered in the UK as well as in Malaysia. Ring up the General Register Office and ask to speak with the Overseas Births section. They will send a copy of the British version. You don't need the Malaysian one as well." (She turned out to be right. I had not known that there was a British version of the thing until then.) I then sent the form and the photos to a solicitor mate of mine in London because I've known him for longer than I've known any other solicitor - eg 25 years at the time (which he helpfully wrote on the form.) I didn't have a passport to send him and no note of the number of the missing one either. Got the form & pix back from my mate, got the British Birth Cert in the meantime and went to the local Post Office asking suspiciously, "Is this enough? Are you SURE?" The postmaster beamed and said it would be fine. He was right. My new passport arrived a week later. Best wishes Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mummy3 Posted December 15, 2008 Share Posted December 15, 2008 Renew before you leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sereena Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Well, yes in an ideal world we would, but being as we are already in Oz & have been for 6mths, that could prove a little tricky!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mummy3 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Well, yes in an ideal world we would, but being as we are already in Oz & have been for 6mths, that could prove a little tricky!! Sorry hadn't realised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sereena Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 No worries! I was just hoping that someone had had the same problem when already IN oz & didn't know anyone to countersign your form...it seems totally ridiculous that we have to send the forms all the way back to the UK in the vain hope that we can get our Doctor or someone to sign them for us (with the help of my Mum!!) It's not as though he's never HAD a passport before for goodness sake!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest notmanfamily Posted December 17, 2008 Share Posted December 17, 2008 Hi, Ignore me if it isnt relevant as we are still in Britain, but I have just had hubbies passport renewed and the photos didnt need countersigned as you can recognise him from his previous passport pic, that you send back with your application and photos and of course the extortionate fee:wideyedxmas:! notmanfamily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sarahfunnyface Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Hi Serena, I'm about to go through this process now - how did you get round the not knowing anybody worthy of signing the photo issue? I have found no where with any useful information! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 We're about to send our forms to the UK so I'll be interested to see if there is an alternative. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sereena Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 In the end my husband had to call the British Embassy in Canberra (at a flat fee of nearly $10! - absolutely disgraceful!) to find out what we could do, and basically there is no alternative. Apparently we have to find someone of relavant 'standing' in the community here in Oz to do the countersignature. When he told them we'd only been here 8mths & hadn't known anyone like that for very long (if at all - we've still got to figure out who we can get to do it!) they basically said it HAS to be someone off the list of relevant standing & if we haven't known them for the required two years then we have to put a covering letter together explaining the situation! Sending the forms back to the UK apparently is NOT a legal option as we are not there. I have to admit, this is the most ridiculous set of rules I've ever heard of - what are they going to do - not give my husband a passport?? We can't get an Oz one yet, so we have to have a passport of somekind! And as for being charged $10 for a 3min call to the embassy I think that says it all! So much for the British Embassy being there to look out for us Brits abroad - they're just there to fleece the living daylights out of us as usual! Sorry for the rant, but it really is a totally stupid situation! :arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sarahfunnyface Posted January 30, 2009 Share Posted January 30, 2009 thanks for the update, I think we all owe your husband a beer using the money we don't have to spend on the phone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin'n'dawn Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 We're getting ready to send our sons away who's 10, we've only been here 1 year 9 months so we still have the same problem. So here's to you and a beer for hubby . Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prettyinpink Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 My hubby has just renewed, thankfully we knew someone over here who could sign. The big problem we had was the photos. No handy booths like in the UK. The post office do take photos for passports but they take them to Australian passport standard, which isn't the same as UK. The nice lady at the post office told us she's be happy to take them but to be aware that they may come back as some have done in the past. In the end we found someone who took photos for UK passports in Perth City. If anyone needs the details I'll be happy to pm them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the hutchies Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 i have to renew mine and two kids before next year, my dilemma is what would happen to our visa in our old passport?? Lisax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest proud2beaussie Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 i have to renew mine and two kids before next year, my dilemma is what would happen to our visa in our old passport?? Lisax Your old passport will be returned to you so you would just carry both the old and new ones with you when travelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 That will depend slightly on the class of visa you have. For those of us with any form of permanent residency, they want you to get a "Resident Return Visa (Subclass 155)". More paperwork and more money, alas. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bruce&jackie Posted April 14, 2009 Share Posted April 14, 2009 Hi Bob, We have a 136 PR visa validated last year, have renewed hubby and son passports whilst still in UK hoping to move over in September, can i not just take both old passport with visa inside and new passport. Many thanks Jackie x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 5immo Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 i'm wondering if i can get the forms from the UK posted out to me, fill them in and post back and get my home to get me a new passport. £70 there or $400 here hmmmmmm. Mine runs out in 2 months dunno what to do, maybe hold on for 2 years and get an Aussie one when i become a ciizen :arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest trevmayoz Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi, I have just got my passport renewed in Malaysia and just got my boss to sign (he is a UK citizen). I haven't know him for 2 years but how are they ever going to know that. From memory I thought you can get a non-British commissioner of oaths, public notary etc to sign it and just pay a small fee for them to do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest itskaren Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi all Anyone had to get their UK passport renewed within a year of being in Oz? My hubby's expires in June next year so we need to think about getting a new one for him. Thought is would be simple...! We found the forms etc on the British Embassy website, but then we discover that you have to get it countersigned! This should be done by a British Citizen who's a Doctor, Justice of the Peace etc etc & has known you for at least two years...um, there's no one here in Oz like that we know - strangely enough they're all back in the UK!! Then it goes on to say that if you don't know anyone of this standing locally, then a citizen of the county you're in with a similar standing and has known you for at least two years can do it!! This poses a bit of a problem being as we have only been here 6mths! So, basically reading that we can't get his passport renewed as we have no one here to countersign it! Can we send the form back to the UK for someone there we know to do it or is there another way around this rather ridiculous situation!!? Thanks for any help you can give us! HI, I had mine done last year in Australia. I filled out the form and sent it to our solicitor in the UK that verified us etc. As he sold our house he did not charge anything for this. This was the only thing we could do as we did not know anyone in AustraliA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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