Renewal of a British Passport by Post (Courier Service)

[PapaBravo]

If you are contemplating renewing your passport by post using a Courier, you may be interested in my recent experience.

Click http://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport Click 'Start Now' / 'Are you applying from the UK? / answer 'No', and enter Turkey as your country and, when asked, your TRNC home address. Continue to answer all the questions (using the details in your expiring passport]. Eventually you will be asked to pay by Card (I paid £211.72 for 2 passports).
A short time later you get an email from the Passport Office giving you a username and transaction reference. Using this info, log onto the link provided in the email and fill in the form/s, which you download, print and sign (and send by courier to the Passport Office); this is all straightforward. You are asked for 2 pieces of ID selected from those listed on the form - I used a copy of both sides of my TRNC Driving Licence, handy because it has my photograph and my TRNC home address, and I also sent a copy of my UK Medical Card.
You need 2 regulation photos for each passport - I got mine from the photographer near the Main Girne Car Park. The quality of the photos was obviously acceptable, BUT, although they were cut, they were not cut to the correct size as required in the 'Guide to Filling in the Application' (a friend had hers rejected because they were not the correct size, so check yours carefully and ensure that they conform).
Get an A5 envelope for each passport and address them in accordance with the Instructions, then take everything to the Dagli Sigorta Insurance office in Karaoglanoglu, but do not seal the envelopes. The girls here are very helpful, but are unable to assist in filling in the forms. They will give you a 'covering letter' on their headed notepaper for each passport, which asks the passport office to return the passports (new and old) to the Dagli office rather than your home address (which could be difficult to locate here in the TRNC). They sign the letter and you are asked to countersign. Put everything into the respective envelopes and seal them. Now pay them the Courier fee of 50 Euros for both passports. That's the first stage complete!

When the DHL Courier collects the packages from the Dagli office he will issue a Waybill No for each package. Ask the girls to notify you of these Numbers as it is the only means of tracking the package from collection to delivery. Thereafter you log into http://www.dhl.com and insert the Waybill Numbers into the Tracking Box and you will see exactly where your packages are. UNFORTUNATELY, we sent ours just before Byram! The packages sat in an office in Turkey for 5 days until Byram was over and were then delivered to the Liverpool Passport office within a couple of days. UNFORTUNATELY it was Bank Holiday Weekend in the UK! After about a week we were contacted by DHL, advised that our packages were on route to us, and given new Waybill Numbers, one each for our new passports and one each for our old passports. Now it is just a question of tracking them. UNFORTUNATELY, our 4 packages somehow ended up in Larnaca 'Awaiting collection as agreed'! FORTUNATELY there is an email address for DHL on their website and I contacted their London office explaining my position. I got a speedy response from Chris in the office, who assured me that he would sort it out. The packages were duly routed back to the UK and 2 days later I was given 4 new Waybill numbers which, when tracked, showed that they were on their way to Istanbul/Ercan. The packages arrived at the Dagli office 3 or 4 days later and we arranged collection. Mission accomplished and all in about 4 weeks, start to finish. Thank you Chris of DHL and the Girls in the Dagli office.

Would I use this system again? Yes I would, despite my bad luck with timings and Larnaca! The Tracking System is very efficient, and when I needed assistance, DHL were quick to provide it, so I never felt that my packages were at risk at any stage. i did wonder how my packages could end up in Larnaca as they were addressed to Mersin 10, Turkey. I suspected mischief by a DHL employee in the UK (not pointing the finger at any nationality in particular) and appraised Chris of my suspicions and he agreed to look int it.

[mickhm]

Thank you PapaBravo mine will need renewing soon so have printed your information off. Most useful.

[Spud50]

I need to renew my passport so this information is really useful. Detailed instructions will really help. Thank you.

[nermal]

Papa Bravo is it possible to give a contact number for Chris or DHL office in England preferably an email address.
A parcel is supposed to be being posted from my bank and I dont know if it is on its way and have nothing to trace it by .

[Keithcaley]

Papa Bravo is it possible to give a contact number for Chris or DHL office in England preferably an email address.
A parcel is supposed to be being posted from my bank and I dont know if it is on its way and have nothing to trace it by .

I think that the normal procedure is for the sender to supply a tracking number to the recipient.

Best to contact your Bank and ask them for the tracking information - otherwise, if you did contact DHL in the UK, you wouldn't have a reference number to enable them to identify your parcel.

[PapaBravo]

Nermal, I got Chris by going to http://www.dhl.com. Scroll to the bottom left and click on 'Contact Centre' then where it says 'Select a Location' choose 'United Kingdom' then click 'Go' and this takes you to the email page.

However, I think the information given at Message 5 is correct.

PB

[PapaBravo]

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