Passport

[djtdjt]

My passport expires in April 2011, does it really cost £80 for a new one? do you get an electronic one when you apply for a new one? TIA.

[Buenchico]

The current fee is £77.50 for the standard service. (£122.50 for the 'one week' service. £129.50 if you make an appointment to attend a passport office for the 'same day' service).

Up until a few days ago I might have suggested that, if you only travel to the EU, you should wait to see if Identity Cards (which are currently only available in the north west of England) have been rolled out across the whole of the UK by the time your passport expired. (If so, you could have used an ID card for travel within the EU at a cost of only £30). However David Cameron has now announced that ID cards are to be abolished,so we've lost the 'cheap option'.

All new UK passports are now 'ePassports'. They look the same as the old passports but contain an electronic chip. The data on that chip is the same as is printed on your passport; nothing else is included.

http://www.direct.gov...ourpassport/DG_174097

Chris

[boxtops]

Chris, did I hear that the suggestion of the eye recognition passports may now be phased out in the new Government? I tried it at Gatwick last time I went through, it was a bit weird - I could do it because I had the electronic-chip passort,

[dzug2]

I heard it as a Libdem thinkpiece in the election campaign - ie something someone said off the top of his head as a way of saving money without thinking through the consequences..

Bang goes ESTA and visa waiver to the US if it actually happens.

[spudqueen]

If you want to possibly save money then apply for a new passport as soon as yours has nine months left. Your new passport would then be valid for 10 years and 9 months and you will have got your new one before charges go up, which although I cannot say for certain that charges will go up before April 2011, they may well do.

[spudqueen]

Oops - forgot to post this link
http://www.direct.gov...ourpassport/DG_174096