The Home Office has announced that the cost of passports and renewables will increase later this month on an already expensive, yet essential, document.
The new fees will take effect on Tuesday 27 March and will apply to both new passports, passport renewals and the replacement of lost passports.
From March onwards it will cost £85 to renew or replace your passport – this is a 17 per cent rise.
However, if you apply by post, this fee will rise to just £75.50 – a £3 increase.
The price of a child’s passport will also increase. The current £46 fee will rise to £58.50 when applying through the Post Office postal service.
This fee will be capped at £49 when a child’s passport (under the age of 16) will be purchased online.
For those with a passport that will expire before 27 March 2018, it is advised to renew your passport now to avoid the higher costs.
If you are able to renew now, up to nine months left on a passport will be added to the new one.
This would mean rather than just the 10-year lifespan of your passport, this will rise to 10 years and nine months.
According to Gov.uk, it should take three weeks for your new passport to arrive. It is therefore advised to check your passport expiry well in advance of your holiday.
However, if you do need a passport renewal urgently there is the possibility of using a one-week fast-track option.
Although using this premium option will drastically raise costs.
A fast-track adult passport will cost upwards of £103 whilst a child’s price would also rise to £87.
If you are planning on flying in the next few months, check your passport expiry date. If you’ve only got a couple of months left, renewing now could save you money later in the year but this has to be done before Easter.
Even though the price of a British passport is set to increase, a UK passport doesn’t make the list of top threes most powerful passports in the world.
As a British citizen, only 159 can be entered without a visa.
This compares to 162 via free countries for Singapore and South Korea – the two most powerful passports in the world.
In fact, the UK ranks as the fourth most powerful passport in the world according to the passport index.
