Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Che]

Has anybody renewed their British passport at the embassy in Seoul recently?Details of the cost and the procedure to be followed would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[edwardcatflap]

They don't provide this service at the Embassy in Seoul any more. You need to fill in a form online and send it, details of payment and your old passport to an address in Hong Kong. Go onto the British Embassy Seoul's website and follow the links to new passport. The cost is extortionate - around 150 quid for the passport and the delivery service.

[Che]

Thanks for the info.I think the UK is really on a slippery slope when it's citizens have to renew their passports through a Chinese dependency!
Probably another example of a cost saving "efficiency' measure or the privatisation of the old passport office into a semi independent agency.
Better off out of it if you ask me!

[b-class rambler]

The UK has several "Regional Passport Processing Centres" around the world that now deal with passport renewals and applications instead of the individual embassies/consulates that used to do it.

The Hong Kong Consulate is the one that deals with most of the eastern/southern part of Asia.

As was mentioned above, it's not cheap at all and as well as the price of the actual passport itself, you'll have to factor in a pretty significant extra amount for the cost of having your application documents and current passport couriered to Hong Kong, plus the extra charge for having your new passport couriered to you AND your documents returned. These two are done separately because the documents (including your expiring passport) will be returned from Hong Kong, but the new passport will be sent from the UK.

I've had to use the Hong Kong office once and they did turn it around fairly promptly - in about a week less than the 4 weeks they said on their website that it would take. However, if you could manage to renew it at a UK passport office whilst on a trip back there, then I'd definitely recommend doing that instead. Even the most expensive same day express service would be cheaper than doing it via Hong Kong.