ELI5: Renewing a UK passport from the USA, the old-fashioned way

September 27, 2023 4:01 PM

I'm helping someone renew their recently expired UK passport. They (and I) live in the USA. Also, the UK government's helpful online tool doesn't load... what now?

AFAIK, the one-stop shop for information on renewing a UK passport from abroad is at https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports.

But if I click the "Start Now" button on that page, it thinks for a long time before timing out with an error page.

Is there an old-fashioned PDF version of the information needed to submit a UK passport application from abroad (specifically, from the USA, since there seem to be differing instructions for which country you're in)?

Bonus question: Is it still possible to submit a paper application by mail, with paper passport photos? I'm pretty sure that Walgreens/CVS can take UK-formatted passport photos, but I don't think any of them provide the new-fangled digital photo format that the UK government wants.

posted by serelliya to Travel & Transportation around England (15 answers total)

The link you posted works fine for me, without any delay. I just quickly copied and pasted your link into Safari on my phone and had no difficulty getting to the next screen to enter personal data (once I accepted cookies again).

Perhaps consider another browser, or experiment with a different device?

I can’t help with your other questions, but I can tell you that the link is operable, so you may not need the other solutions. Good luck!
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:09 PM on September 27, 2023

Response by poster: Interesting, I tried on multiple browsers and devices without effect, but finally was able to get through after disabling wifi on my phone and using cell data. Guess it's an issue with my wifi. Thanks for the advice to investigate the access issue further though!
posted by serelliya at 4:14 PM on September 27, 2023

Response by poster: Addendum after being able to access the government tool:

It's still forcing me to use a digital passport photo. Is there any US national chain (I live in a flyover state) that actually provides these, with the required code, or do I have to figure out how to take my own valid passport photo at home?
posted by serelliya at 4:16 PM on September 27, 2023

Best answer: Taking a digital passport photo at home is not that difficult. You have to follow the instructions carefully but they’re mostly fairly simple things like taking it in front of a whitish wall with no shadow (there’s also requirements about facial expressions and acceptable headgear but you have to follow those even if get the photo from a photo booth). There’s nothing highly prescriptive (you not going to have to get out a ruler to measure anything!) and you don’t have to crop the photo: they do that for you. If you can take a clear photo of someone’s head and shoulders against a whitish wall with no shadow then you can do this.

When you upload the photo, it will do some automatic checks to see if it’s acceptable and instantly tell you if it is. If it isn’t, you can take another photo and try again. When you finish the application, the photo gets checked by a human being, which may take a few days, but the worst that can happen is you get asked to upload another photo (you won’t have to redo the rest of the application).

Assuming it’s easy for you to visit or be visited by your UK citizen, taking a digital photo at home is probably quicker and less expensive than getting one from a photo booth.
posted by kyten at 4:30 PM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've just renewed my UK passport, and all I needed for the photo was a white painted wall and the front camera of my phone, so if you've got the former, that should be fine.
posted by ambrosen at 4:31 PM on September 27, 2023

Walgreens and it’s ilk do Passport photos. Many post offices do as well.
posted by bitdamaged at 6:08 PM on September 27, 2023

US passport photos are a different shape and size than passport photos in other countries (including the UK). Do not take one at Walgreens or the USPS and expect it to work. Just follow the very clear instructions on the UK.gov website to take one using a phone. I just recently renewed my UK passport from overseas following these instructions and it worked fine. If I recall correctly, an automated tool checks the file you upload meets the criteria.
posted by caek at 8:41 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Walgreens and it’s ilk do Passport photos

They and their ilk definitely do US passport photos, but they do not do passport photos for other countries.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:27 AM on September 28, 2023

Best answer: If you take your own passport photo, take extra care to ensure that the face is lit evenly from both sides. If one side is even slightly better lit than the other, they'll reject the photo.
posted by pipeski at 1:46 AM on September 28, 2023

> It's still forcing me to use a digital passport photo. Is there any US national chain (I live in a flyover state) that actually provides these, with the required code, or do I have to figure out how to take my own valid passport photo at home?

I had to do this whilst resident in Ireland - the UK passport photo requires "head and shoulders" whereas EU/Irish passport is head-only - not sure what the US standard is. In practical terms this means that I couldn't use the "passport photo booths" because they effectively take the wrong photo - however, I just went to an ordinary photo shop, they snapped a "head and shoulders" pic of me with a neutral background and that was fine for the online submission.
posted by BigCalm at 1:47 AM on September 28, 2023

Best answer: I did mine recently. I used the online photo submission thing, while taking various selfies in front of a wall in my house and getting it to tell me what was wrong with them. It took about five minutes to get an acceptable one, the process was completely straightforward.
posted by quacks like a duck at 2:27 AM on September 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Just adding to the voices to reassure you that it's easy to take a passport standard photo for a UK passport with a camera phone now. I renewed a UK passport earlier this year, the website takes you through the process and checks the photo for you. It's very straightforward, and I found it easier than getting an approved photo the old fashioned way.
posted by tomsk at 3:43 AM on September 28, 2023

Best answer: I did the home photo option for myself and my son (separately).

For mine it worked straight away.

For my son it was initially rejected for having a background shadow. But the process is just that they send you an email, and you upload a new one. The new one worked. So it's not the end of the world if you make a mistake.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 4:03 AM on September 28, 2023

Home photo works fine. You need the wall to be pretty white. I got a photo to pass the online screener when I had lightened the background from cream to white but that's technically against the rule and I don't know whether it would have been rejected later in the process (which we abandoned for other reasons).
posted by plonkee at 5:01 AM on September 28, 2023

I don't know whether it would have been rejected later in the process

I've definitely tweaked colour levels and even deleted shadows on passport photos before. I don't think there's anything complicated going on in terms of validation.
posted by pipeski at 3:10 PM on October 8, 2023