The British Government has announced a number of important changes to the passport service for its nationals living overseas.
According to a statement from the British High Commission yesterday, from Monday, August 12, 2013, the application process will be centralised and British nationals in Guyana should submit their passport application to Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK.
“This important change follows reviews by the National Audit Office and is
designed to achieve economies of scale, greater security and consistency in decision making. All British passports have enhanced sophisticated security features designed to reduce the likelihood of identity theft and passport fraud,” the High Commission said.
Currently, British nationals living in Guyana would submit passport applications to a regional processing hub in Washington, United States.
From Monday, information on the UK Government website will advise British nationals on the new passport application process.
“All the information required to make an application will be found at https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports. Applicants will be required to send their applications to the Passport Customer Service Centre in Durham. There will be no change to processing times.”
The High Commission explained that fees charged to British nationals applying overseas are based on the current costs of providing the service. “As overseas volumes are much less than UK volumes, it is harder to gain efficiencies overseas. That is why we have taken the decision to repatriate the issuing of passports to British nationals overseas to the UK. Once this has been completed Her Majesty’s Passport Office will be seeking to create closer alignment between the two sets of fees.”