North Cyprus – UK Passport Renewal – Reasurance for those in the TRNC

UK Passport Renewal

Reasurance for those in the TRNC

By Peter Wills

Despite the recent bad press about the UK Passport Office, this reassurance might help anyone who needs to renew their passport in the near future.

It really couldn’t be easier for anyone living in the TRNC. The service by all parties involved was excellent and it couldn’t have been faster if we had wished.

Firstly you go onto the internet, type in Passport Renewal Overseas, which takes you through to the government website. (click here)

In an easy step-by-step guide, you complete the online form and make your payment by credit/debit card including the fee for the return of your passport.  Remember to make a note of your application reference number so that you can trace the progress of your application.

Then, as instructed, you print off the last page of the form you completed and take it with your old passport and appropriate new photographs, plus 30 Euros to Café Boss, which is located in the road alongside HSBC bank in Girne.

They handle the rest and will give you a receipt with your DHL tracking reference number.  The 30 Euros is payment for DHL delivery to the Overseas Passport Office in Belfast, which goes via Istanbul and Frankfurt in Germany.  On to England and then to Belfast.

By tracking the DHL progress, we could see that our parcel took only 4 days to reach the passport office!  Three days later we could see that the new passport had been processed and despatched.  Four days later it was back in Girne and we got a telephone call from DHL to check our location so that they could deliver it.  There was then a follow-up call from their office to make sure it had been delivered.

Presumably for security purposes, the Passport Office do not return your original documents with the new passport.  But, two days later another visit from DHL and the original documents were returned.

Excellent service from all quarters and assurance that we can now leave the country safely whenever we want, even if it is just to go over the border for some retail therapy.