Getting a second UK passport

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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 124 total)

  • jonathanmiller
    Participant

    AoR – UKPA (as indeed other passport/visa issuers) is, I suspect more of a bureacracy than a security operation. It is certainly characterised by uncertainty but seldom by agility 🙂 Your point is fair and indeed proper – but hell’s teeth, all I want is to be able to travel in order to earn my living and that of those who depend on me (and the latter includes not just my family and employees, but also quite a number of unfortunate kids and also refugees in various place around the world). Frustrating in the extreme it is. Apologies for the slight loss of cool.


    FaroFlyer
    Participant

    I had a similar situation 18 months ago. I suggest that you make a new application, for a “first passport” and send a covering letter explaining that your current passport is almost full, but has a valid China, or other, visa with a year left. Make sure that you give a UK contact number as they will then telephone you to say that it can’t be done. Explain over the phone why you need a second passport and the guy will give you his name and suggest that you write to him explaining again. He will then take your case to his boss and it should work. They may require a UK address to send it to by recorded delivery.
    Hope this helps


    jonathanmiller
    Participant

    FF – thank you for your kindness in writing to offer a pragmatic solution/suggestion. But I have a couple of problems.

    The overarching one is that I fail absolutely to see why I should have engage in such twists and turns with a representative body of my own national government in order to obtain a perfectly innocent and proper document for a perfectly innocent and proper purpose. And the second is that I have a deep reluctance to tell a lie … and especially when in doing so it could later turn out to have been an own-foot shot!

    Surely to goodness there has to be a vaguely logical and common-sensical approach to this ….. despite the need to guard the system against abusers, wife-beaters, money-launderers, layerers, paedophiles, terrorists and other such unloved citizens?

    Arrrrrrrrgh!!!!

    … but thanks a bunch for the thought, in any event! Jonathan


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Jonathan – just confirm:

    1. you are a UK citizen resident in Spain

    2. You need a second passport for additional visa’s etc

    3. You are not returning to the UK for some time

    4. You would like your “additional passport” pdq.

    Please conform that this is indeed correct and I will happily put my skis on go to my local post office and ask the question and hopefully ID the online form you need. I will also get my travel department to phone the passport office to check. You shouldnt feel as if you have to lie, becasue this is not a unique problem.

    Look forward to hearing from you


    jonathanmiller
    Participant

    Martyn – wow! You don’t, by chance, have a big white beard, wear red and say “ho, ho ho” a lot, do you? What a fabulous offer of help. Thank you so much.

    All your four points are spot on.

    Don’t cross the tips of your skis, old chap.

    Thanks again. Jonathan


    JeremyFQTV
    Participant

    I had to renew one of mine a few weeks ago, and found there are now some extra hoops (for fraud prevention reasons). You only find out the hard way, but:
    (a) they want the photo certified by a suitable member of society for a renewal (not normally necessary for a ordinary renewal)
    (b) they want the parents section filled out for a renewal (ditto)
    Hardly onerous, once you know.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Hi Jonathan – this is from the horses mouth!

    1. From Spain go to the UK Embassy web site and find form C1, which is specific to applications for ex-pats in Spain

    2. The application form is for a new initial passport

    3. You need a letter from your employer (on headed paper) explaining why you need an additional passport (i.e. visiting confliciting countries)

    4. 2 pictures one of which needs to be ceritfied

    5. Your current passport needs to be sent in with the application unless it is being used in which case your employer needs to explain in the letter why your passport is not available.

    6. If you cant send your passport you need to send an original full birth certificate in lieu of your passport

    I hope that this information is useful and it enables you to achieve your objectives.

    Any further help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Have a good weekend

    Martyn


    jonathanmiller
    Participant

    Martyn – I knew it. You are Santa Claus. I am inordinately grateful. Lunch on me (seriously) if you are ever in Marbella or thereabouts. Or – if we coincide in London – in St James’s Square. Happy hunting. Jonathan


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Hi Jonathan – my pleasure, anything else let me know.

    As for wearing red and white and having a white beard – I tend to light candles this time of year.

    Have a great weekend.

    Martyn


    Age_of_Reason
    Participant

    Apologies all about some out-of-date guidance above, and advice. UK passports are no longer issued by FCO from Consulates. Here is the new fco webpage on applying through the new ‘regional centres’ http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/passports1/how-to-apply/

    The principle on ‘second’ passports remains the same – need letter, apply as if for a ‘first’ passport


    jonathanmiller
    Participant

    Thanks AoR. Quite right. Indeed, I was recently surprised – shocked – when my passport was nicked on a visit to Guatemala. The ambassador herself (charming and impressively good at what she does) said that her embassy consular section could no longer issue a replacement. That I had to apply to …. wait for it … Washington DC instead. And that would take some unconscionable number of days which I no longer remember (brain blocking out the pain, no doubt). The only other option available from the local embassy was a one-way travel document to London to apply there (I was booked to Madrid from Guatemala!). Luckily, the passport was found later that day discarded in the street (unlike the money, cards. camera, phone, iPod etc etc), so in the event, passport crisis over. But a frustrating new policy both for travellers and for embassy staff.

    That’s not why I want a second passport as it happens. But if I had had one (not in the same bag of course!) it would have been pretty handy.


    watersz
    Participant

    I wonder what the hassles would be turning up at the airport say in guatamala with a second passport and no entry stamp ( and /or visa if applicable country??)


    jonathanmiller
    Participant

    watersz. Ah – good thinking, Batman. Yes indeed – they can be a bit procedural there. Not a magic wand then, you think?


    Age_of_Reason
    Participant

    Jonathan – having had a similar experience (wallet and docs nicked, docs returned next day) in Kiev, advice from Consul was that they could always get me ‘home’ with a “Laissez Passez”, ie a single trip authority to leave.

    Watersz – With a ‘second passport’ you can then carry on with life and work. Best NOT to show a second passport on exit – stick to the hardluck compassion story.

    Remember also that if you ‘lose’ a passport with local Business or Work visa entries, it becomes much hotter for the thief (you are on official records) and it is much more likely to be dumped. Consult local police or your Sponsor/PRO about how to buy your stuff back.

    I notice, pursuing my researches, that outside Europe it is generally possible to apply at a Consulate (eg Pretoria) and collect personally, or get delivery by DHL cost included in the processing fee. Not clear if this collection facility will apply to the Europaean Processing Centres, which appear to be Madrid, Paris & Dusseldorf.


    travelworld
    Participant

    Yes, I agree- if your first passport is lost or stolen whilst away, I am not sure that producing the second one (with no visa in it for the country you are in) woudl help at the border control of the country you wish to exit. Seems to me that you could use the second passport to get through check in, then tell your tale of woe to departure immigration about lost passport, producing written evidence of its loss and hopefully get through, then use the second passport as ID to get on the plane. Once departed the second passport could be used quite happily to get into UK (or indeed anywhere else where it is visa on arrival).

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