Thursday, May 15, 2014
A thought about passport applications....
At the main Post Office in Tonbridge you can renew your driving licence over the counter in a special, space age booth which takes your photo and checks your details. You even sign it there and then electronically on a light pad which sends it to the DVLA. They then post you a new licence, presumably having doubled checked all the details. If it works for driver's licences then what's wrong with extending it to passports. I dare say that not every passport application or renewal could be done in a similar fashion but I'd have thought that about 95% of them could be. So why not save us all the hassle and worry of having to do everything the old fashioned, and very slow, way?
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4 comments:
I got a passport about 5 years ago and had to attend the passport office at Maidstone. They lock you in whilst asking questions about parents and questions from you credit reference. I guess if you fail they send for the police and deport you. They don't do that for driving licence.
Guess not....
A Passport is valid for 10 years, so why all the fuss? If you remember to renew your Passport in plenty of time it shouldn't matter if the process seems slow. Also, a passport application/renewal, requires references plus authentification of your photo by those referees. This would not be practical by machine.
As for driving licences, I've still got a paper one, which doesn't need renewing.
Paul - I think the point here though is instead of paying the £x fee for them to 'check and send' why not just do it all via this automated service if, as mentioned, it is working for driving licences?
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