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Q: UK passport renewal time from China?
A question for British people on here living in China.
Last year for cost saving purposes the UK moved all overseas passport issuing offices to Liverpool (claiming security reasons!)
I think most of us know it went tits up & there were 3-4 month delays in issuing passports overseas. Looking on the website now they are stating 6 weeks minimum to issue a renewal passport.
Anyone have any experience this year of how long it actually takes?
8 years 40 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
i have just finished my renewal.it only took 4 weeks.I used Chongqing application office,didn't even need to attend in person for drop off or pick up.
Hotwater:
Cheers Paul. I phoned them last night (UK passport advice line). They told me it's about 3 weeks at the moment.
The worrying thing is they say you can't travel on current passport during renewal but can use it as ID. I need to fly inside china next month to Kunming and need to know if it can still be used to board an internal flight & check-in to a hotel. Phone line to UK passport advice wasn't very helpful. Will need to ask Chinese staff on Thursday. I'm hoping they know! So will go in person.
My recent experience with the uk online "this a a beta website" visa application would indicate it is another failed cost cutting exercise by whitehall mandarins.
The foreign service used to be a Government department that would serve UK sujects abroad. Now it is just a money spinning visa agent.
i have just finished my renewal.it only took 4 weeks.I used Chongqing application office,didn't even need to attend in person for drop off or pick up.
Hotwater:
Cheers Paul. I phoned them last night (UK passport advice line). They told me it's about 3 weeks at the moment.
The worrying thing is they say you can't travel on current passport during renewal but can use it as ID. I need to fly inside china next month to Kunming and need to know if it can still be used to board an internal flight & check-in to a hotel. Phone line to UK passport advice wasn't very helpful. Will need to ask Chinese staff on Thursday. I'm hoping they know! So will go in person.
Wait, so we can't get it done in HK anymore?
andyinshenyang:
No, they took that option away about three years ago.
xunliang:
Oh ok. Well I won't be needing a new one any time soon anyway.
Mega rant alert!!!
The website if fecking shit. Really really shit. When I say shit, this is shit of epic proportions. You need to imagine a godzilla like animal, the size of Saturn that eats 5 Earth size planets a day.... then only has a dump once every million years.... imagine the smell? The UK visa website and service is worse.
It is beyond rancid. It is beyond smelly descriptions... it is beyond superlatives of shitty... its like that moment in "hitch hikers guide to the galaxy" where Zaphod is exposed to the massiveness of the universe, but he survives because his ego is bigger.
Customer service? Bollocks.... where the feck did they get these Vogons from?
Honest to God.. a purple Martian would get better service in Royston Vaseys corner shop than anyone applying for a UK visa will get.
Such is the service you get after privitisation. Such a shame. No more friendly consul to go to chat with.... just an evil money spinning visa mill, set up to wring every last penny from the applicants.
Ha ha. The website probably cost 15 billion...
Rant over.
icnif77:
'Upper' for 'ventilation'! 
I missed comments on May and her husband April, I mean ... '
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I just renewed mine last month, it was an easy process.. download, print and fill out the forms on this website https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports
Take the forms, passport photos, residence permit, photocopy every page of passport and old passport to passport/visa office : Address:
2nd Floor, Jiushi Commercial Building,
213 Sichuan Middle Road,
Huangpu District, 200002, Shanghai, China.
上海 - 上海市黄浦区四川中路213号久事商务大厦2层
once there they will ask you to fill out a payment form. You can't pay with cash or union pay, visa or master card does the trick.
They will submit the docs to the UK. They say six weeks but I submitted mine on the 28th of June and got mine back yesterday (14th July) so was quite quick.
william.neal:
Cheers for the info.
- For a renewal did you need a countersignatory?
- How long did the procss take on the day?
Hotwater:
Thanks for the feedback. I'm off to the GZ office tomorrow