Changes to British Passport Holders in China and Taiwan
Overseas British nationals will now find that they will have to commute back to the UK in order to process or renew their British passport. Citizens residing abroad such as China or Taiwan will have to submit their passport application to Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK.
The British Trade & Cultural Office (BTCO) has reported that new policies announced aim to achieve greater security and consistency in decision making and to strengthen security measures in order to reduce the possibility of fraud, identity theft.
From 9 December BTCO has said all British overseas nationals should seek further information on the UK government websites. Previously, British citizens were able to submit passport applications to regional processing hubs, for example British nationals residing in Taiwan could submit their application to Hong Kong. This service is no longer available. BTCO recent statements have revealed applicants will be required to send off their application to the Passport Customer Service Centre in Liverpool.
These changes do not affect the waiting time; however the fees charged to overseas applicants are based on the costs of providing the service. BTCO has pointed out that the volume of British Nationals applying abroad is far less than the volume of people applying in the UK, and so it is harder to sustain efficiency. This is why UK government has decided that issuing UK passports will only take place in UK for British nationals.
These announcements do not only affect Taiwan but other countries including Philippines, South Korea and Japan, which submitted UK passport application to the regional processing hub (Hong Kong) beforehand.
