deb8181 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Hi there Has anyone had to renew their British passport whilst living in Oz. I am visiting the UK in December this year for a holiday and mine and my husbands passport will only have 5 months left on it at that point. I have been advised that i need at least 6 months left on them and therefore need to renew them before i go to the UK. I have looked into renewing them and i am shocked to see it is going to cost approx. $282.00 each ($564.00 for the two). To renew in the UK it is only 77.00 pounds each - that is over 200.00 pounds more to renew them over here in Australia - DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!! My daughter still lives in the UK and has suggested that i send them over to her and she will send our applications in for us but i don't think this is allowed. Please help. Any advice would be appreciated. Deb8181 :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 There is a Premium One day service in the UK which costs GBP 129.50. It's by appointment only and only takes 4 hours. That would mean you could go and get it while on holiday. There are a few passport offices up and down the country who offer it. The only issue is that your husband will only have 5 months left on his passport when he goes to the UK. Assuming he is a UK citizen he is not going to get in to trouble for entering the UK with only 6 months left on his passport. After all, citizenship allows him to reside there...it's not as if he has a visa attached to that passport for the UK. You can also enter the UK on an expired UK passport so i can't see any issues that end. I believe you do need to be in the UK to have your passport renewed by the IPS (for the one day service, someone needs to go in person - doesn't need to be you, but you have to be in the UK at the time!), so I don't think getting a relative to do it while you are in Oz is going to be possible. Does Oz require you to always have at least 6 months left on your UK passport to reside there? I honestly don't know! It may depend on the type of visa you hold (clearly if you are dual nationality, then they don't care if you have a UK passport or not!) I can't give any advice in this area unfortunately, so hopefully someone else will be along to assist. Who told you or where did you see that you need 6 months left in your passport? The alternative is to suck it up and pay the price via Australia Post. I agree with you about the Daylight Robbery about the price of a passport here...add it to an ever increasing list of things which could be described that way (like paint!) That said, you can go in to a Post Office and do it...which is much much better than having to go visit an Embassy or High Consulate, so financial cost aside, it is actually really quite painless to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 You would have to have a uk address to get it done over there. I think you need to suck it up and get it done here like everyone else does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deb8181 Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 Hi there Has anyone had to renew their British passport whilst living in Oz. I am visiting the UK in December this year for a holiday and mine and my husbands passport will only have 5 months left on it at that point. I have been advised that i need at least 6 months left on them and therefore need to renew them before i go to the UK. I have looked into renewing them and i am shocked to see it is going to cost approx. $282.00 each ($564.00 for the two). To renew in the UK it is only 77.00 pounds each - that is over 200.00 pounds more to renew them over here in Australia - DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!! My daughter still lives in the UK and has suggested that i send them over to her and she will send our applications in for us but i don't think this is allowed. Please help. Any advice would be appreciated. Deb8181 :huh: Thanks for your reply George. Both mine and my husbands passport run out at the same time unfortunately. I was told i needed six months on it by the travel agent in Oz when i booked my flights to the UK. We are both UK citizens and have only been in Oz for just over two years. We have a permanent skilled visa which is inside our soon to expire UK passports and we dont have dual nationality as we havent been in Oz for long enough. I guess if you weigh up the cost of the £129.50 and then half a day of your holiday lost, its probably easier to get it done over here so you havent got to worry about getting it done when you are over there, plus of course we are going on 15 December so it will soon be Christmas and everyone shuts down i guess. I just hate paying over the odds for things like this when you never get your money's worth when you pay the cheap price never mind paying through the nose for it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deb8181 Posted July 6, 2012 Author Share Posted July 6, 2012 You would have to have a uk address to get it done over there. I think you need to suck it up and get it done here like everyone else does. I would have a UK address over there as my daughter still lives there at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Thanks for your reply George.Both mine and my husbands passport run out at the same time unfortunately. I was told i needed six months on it by the travel agent in Oz when i booked my flights to the UK. We are both UK citizens and have only been in Oz for just over two years. We have a permanent skilled visa which is inside our soon to expire UK passports and we dont have dual nationality as we havent been in Oz for long enough. I guess if you weigh up the cost of the £129.50 and then half a day of your holiday lost, its probably easier to get it done over here so you havent got to worry about getting it done when you are over there, plus of course we are going on 15 December so it will soon be Christmas and everyone shuts down i guess. I just hate paying over the odds for things like this when you never get your money's worth when you pay the cheap price never mind paying through the nose for it!!! You definitely don't need more than 6 months left in your passport to enter the UK as a British citizen...what might be a little different is any country you are travelling through to get there...Singapore/UAE/etc. Yes, the cost is a sore one from Oz, but I think the facts that you won't be wasting a day of your holiday, you'll have peace of mind that there will be no issues while you are overseas and you'll have time for DIAC to update their records of a new passport all mean that it is a sensible, if expensive, option. When I looked into the one day service, the IPS website said someone else could attend the office instead of you, but you had to be in the country at the time...it didn't say you had to have an address in the country....clearly they can check if the last time your passport was used was to leave or enter the country, so they know if you are in or out of the UK when they process it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsg2369 Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Suck it up what are you all about the person has asked for information not for you to get on your high horse get a grip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Suck it up what are you all about the person has asked for information not for you to get on your high horse get a grip As I was the first person to mention that phrase I'll reply to this...I totally feel OP's pain, and in their position I would be as annoyed as them. I am likely to be in that situation in about 18 months time too. I agree with their sentiments. That said, the fact remains that paying the higher price in Australia may be the easiest way forward for them, and like lots of things in life in Australia, you just need to get on with it and try and see past the fact you feel you are being ripped off. Trust me, I need to do this on an almost daily basis myself. So, no offence intended to the OP and apologies if it sounded like there was, although I think they took the advice along with my other thoughts in the way it was meant. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest the hales in oz Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 i recently went back to the UK and left my kids in Queensland. While I was there I posted their passports off to get renewed and had them returned them to my parents house via the normal UK postal service. My parents then posted them back to us in Oz with no problems what so ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 Passports are serious bits of paper and putting an address where you are no longer living or someone elses address could mean a delay if you were ever in trouble overseas. Passports last for yonks so its not a problem we just get them renewed when they come due. British ones are now processed in NZ but its still easy as we just have to go the post office here to do the forms etc. So its more expensive, travel is expensive, I have no probs with keeping NZ economy ticking over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR Moving to Oz Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 To be fair it's an important document that lasts 10 years so only work's out at $28 a year just over $1 a month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DR Moving to Oz Posted July 6, 2012 Share Posted July 6, 2012 sorry $2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expatmummy Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Hi, We had to renew our daughters passport here, we arrived on a 457 and she had 2 days to go until the 6 month limit. It subsequently expired and we had to send off to NZ to get it replaced. The cost is actually the British Goverment ripping you off, nothing to do with Perth etc, as we have had to renew in Oman where we lived before and it was just as bad and took even longer because the application went to Germany. I must say though that the process here was relatively painless, I'd even filled in part of the form wrong (blonde, I know) and the lady at the post office waited patiently for me to correct it, checked it all, sent it off for us and we had it back in 2 weeks. Far better than wasting days of your holiday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurenKnowles Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Hi there Has anyone had to renew their British passport whilst living in Oz. I am visiting the UK in December this year for a holiday and mine and my husbands passport will only have 5 months left on it at that point. I have been advised that i need at least 6 months left on them and therefore need to renew them before i go to the UK. I have looked into renewing them and i am shocked to see it is going to cost approx. $282.00 each ($564.00 for the two). To renew in the UK it is only 77.00 pounds each - that is over 200.00 pounds more to renew them over here in Australia - DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!! My daughter still lives in the UK and has suggested that i send them over to her and she will send our applications in for us but i don't think this is allowed. Please help. Any advice would be appreciated. Deb8181 :huh: Also- why is it asking for my mum and dads original marriage certificate AND my dads original birth certificate??! Is that right- those are pretty tough documents to get a hold of.... Especially when I live in aus and they both live in the UK.... So confused I'm not sure if it applys to me and I've got the wrong form... But it prints off a checklist for a person born in UK after 1982 and father born in UK. My mum is UK born too- why has it not an option for both parents born in UK?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jen85 Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 You would have to have a uk address to get it done over there. I think you need to suck it up and get it done here like everyone else does. I never knew it was so cheap in the UK, ive been ripped off like everyone else in Oz for years!! how annoying :arghh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
an1ta Posted July 2, 2013 Share Posted July 2, 2013 Hi there Has anyone had to renew their British passport whilst living in Oz. I am visiting the UK in December this year for a holiday and mine and my husbands passport will only have 5 months left on it at that point. I have been advised that i need at least 6 months left on them and therefore need to renew them before i go to the UK. I have looked into renewing them and i am shocked to see it is going to cost approx. $282.00 each ($564.00 for the two). To renew in the UK it is only 77.00 pounds each - that is over 200.00 pounds more to renew them over here in Australia - DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!! My daughter still lives in the UK and has suggested that i send them over to her and she will send our applications in for us but i don't think this is allowed. Please help. Any advice would be appreciated. Deb8181 :huh: Hi you do not need 6 months on your passport. I flew to the UK in feb with my daughter and shew only had 3 month's left on hers. I phoned the airlines, not the travel agents...I was told by them as long has the passport was in date the days your fly then you can use them. I would get them done when you get there. Hope this helps. We have just had this convo on another site I go on, and someone else has just done the same as my daughter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Densha Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 i recently went back to the UK and left my kids in Queensland. While I was there I posted their passports off to get renewed and had them returned them to my parents house via the normal UK postal service. My parents then posted them back to us in Oz with no problems what so ever. Is this still allowed? As I really can not afford the cost doing it in Aus. So want to send it back to UK and do it there, I have free courier allowance and so all I would be paying is the initial 72 pounds. Any advice please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.