The good news for British passport holders is that they do not have to visit the UK consulate for the renewal of their passports when they are abroad. If you are a UK citizen living in the United States and want to renew your passport in the USA then you easily apply for the renewal of your UK passport through the UK home office website. To avoid any kind of inconvenience or delay in the renewal process of a passport you have to properly fill out the online application form, provide all necessary information correctly, and upload all relevant required documents and the old passport. The following information would be asked during the processing online UK passport application:
- Your date of birth
- Where are you living currently
- Detail about your old passport
- Either your existing passport is stolen or lost
- When you get your last passport
- Which type of passport are your required
As an overseas, you can apply through an online passport application by following these three steps.
1. Digital Photo
A digital photo is a mandatory and very important step for UK passport renewal. There are several options to take your digital photo such as from your mobile phone, photoshop, photo booth or by hiring a professional photographer. Although taking a photo become very easy in the digital era, the requirements for a UK passport photo are very strict, you should not take it as an ordinary photo. The requirements for the digital photo of a UK passport are:
- Colour photo
- Focused, clear and visible
- Size should be between 50KB to 10MB
- Size of 35 mm and 45 mm length
- Clear and white background
- No object or people in the background of the photo
- A clear contrast to the background
- Do not have “red eye”
While taking digital passport photos you use to consider the following things too:
- Proper sitting position
- The face should be toward the camera
- Not smiling face
- Selfie is not acceptable
- Your mouth would be closed and have a plain expression
- Do not have hairs on your face
- Your eyes should be opened
- Without any type of sunglasses
- Not head covered that hidden face
- Do not cover your face
- There should not be any shadow on your face or background
Although there are several online digital passport photo services available on the internet, the result of this application is not sure. There you are advised to visit professional passport photo services providers. Here in United State, a few professional passport photo services provide you with a code to enter the Home official website while applying online passport application, instead of uploading a digital photo. This code would be linked to your passport photo.
2. submit an online application along with the renewal fee
Once you get your digital photo or code, you may proceed with your online application for passport renewal. You have to enter all required information in the online form correctly, any wrong information would cause of delay in your passport renewal. Attached are all the required documents and pay the online application fee. The renewal passport application fee is £86, and if you need that passport would be couriered to your given address in the United States, you have to pay an additional courier fee of £19.86.
3. back your passport to the UK passport service
After submitting and accepting your application for renewal of passport followed by paying the renewal fee, you need to send back your old passport to UK passport services. Kindly select tracked courier service to make sure that your passport has reached the UK passport office safely.
Once your application has been approved, you will get your new passport at your given United Nations address by courier services.