Passport photos

NO! The actual requirements state:

• taken against a plain light grey or plain cream background;

Fortunately a white background will appear light grey on a photo when not highly exposed.

Pleased to report that the mug-shot I took of myself for my new passport was accepted - I didn't print it myself, but I did do everything else.

The walls in my house are nominally white, but under ambient light come out looking light grey, so I just sat on a chair with the remote control F, and took pictures until I got one that I could bear to keep.

Then I did a bit of minor PP, followed by a lot of fiddling about until the dimensions and facial proportions matched the regulations, and made a JPG file with four copies and suitable borders.

Took it down to the local photo printer, who charged me an exorbitant four quid to print them and clip them out.

Pretty painless, and the passport came back in 9 days.

£77.50, though, plus £8 for the Post Office's 'check and send' service.

What a con ... nothing that you cannot do yourself and in fact should do.

Last time I needed a Passport "Style" photo was for my daughters bus pass. I took the shot myself and used Tescos printing as they do passport photo prints. I plan to so it the same way in a few months when I get the kid's passports renewed....hopefully this will be accepted.
( I think the charge for printing was less then £2, for 6 copies. )

Well of course that's true regarding the checking, and indeed I did.

However, as you'll see from Direct.Gov, it also includes all the postage costs, and is supposedly both quicker and less likely to get snarled up in the system.

All the "for official use only" bits on the form did get filled in and stamped in front of me, so it may well end up on a some sort of "already checked" pile when it gets to IPS.

For the difference between £8 and what it would have cost me anyway to send it SD, I thought it was probably worth it, and 9 days turnaround was a lot quicker than I was expecting.

Yeah. I reckon it's money well spent.
One less thing to worry about and yo can buy some stamps and a dog licence at the same time.

Knowing a bit about how central processing units manage workflows I suspect that the ones that have been post office checked go into a seperate workflow queue at the passport office and get processed by a different team more quickly.

Those sent in 'direct' as it were go into the 'normal piles' and take longer.

So, whilst I agree the 'checking' you can do yourself for that reason I have paid the Post Office checking fee.

Everytime we used the Post Office Checking system , passports were back in a few days .

The last time I did it a friend posted hers at the same Post Office I used for checking mine , at the same time and hers took ages to come back but mine was here in under a week - it's clear they are handled differently and as ChrisA indicated the teeny extra cost [ after subtracting the cost of Special Delivery ] is nothing to write home about .

There's another point too - if we don't use our local Post Offices we will undoubtedly lose them .

Like we are. Our post office closes next week, the building having been sold. All post offices in the Netherlands are closing.

I have no idea where I am supposed to go to send a parcel or a recorded delivery letter from next week. That they have forgotten to tell us.

Four passport photos don't cost much to have made here, so I just get them done at a local photography shop. It's one reason they are more relaxed with the photo rules for embassy issued passports than UK issued ones.

Luckily I still have 5 years to run on mine. Unlike my ESTA registration which runs out at the end of the year and then will cost me a stonking $14 to renew. Blinking Yanks

You might be able to renew it (actually, get a new one) without charge before the $14 charge takes effect.

Take a look here for some background ... and here for the actual form.

It seems that the country of departure and flight details are optional, and can be filled in later. The US address can also be updated later, so it appears you can get the application accepted (and hence valid for two more years) without having actual travel plans in place.

I've got a reminder set up so that I can fill mine in as late as possible before the charges come into force.

Interesting.

But Canada two months we know have to MAIL to the USA and then send in US bank draft which costs a lot more. Next the passport is returned by UPS which means if I had not been in I would have drive about 10 miles to pick it up from their nearest depot. Unlike the passed where I sent to Ottawa and could use a CREDIT CARD and for photographs they had to have a studio name which then added to the cost.

In Indonesia the authorities insist on having a red background for passport and visa photographs! I don't know either...