I have seen the problems arising from this sort of thing among my own friends and family. If you send your passport off for any sort of processing it's like sending it into a black hole. It means that you can't plan any travel out of the country for months ahead. If you phone up to ask how much longer it will take, it emerges that they don't keep records of the arrival of your passport. Sending it by recorded delivery is no real help. Royal Mail take your money for recorded delivery, but don't necessarily get the delivery logged.
I had to renew my passport last year. Last time was 10 years before, and at that time all I had to do was to make an appointment at the Consulate in Geneva and then go and queue up. Now, however, they ask you to post it to Paris (or, I suppose, travel to Paris). No way was I going to trust the French postal services or the processing at the British Consulate there. So I made an expensive same-day appointment at the Passport Office in London and combined it with a trip to London that I had to make any way. I spent quite a bit at a photographer getting my passport photos done "properly" but they were still rejected when I presented them and I had to go back on the merry-go-round twice more to get ones that met their criteria.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21463492 Quote:
Appointments for the UK Border Agency's same-day visa service are being sold by unofficial agents, the BBC has learned.
The agents, some based abroad, sell the slots - for up to £200 - to foreign nationals unable to secure one themselves from the service.
It is claimed the online booking system crashes nightly, as people try to avoid the long delays of applying by post.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.