h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've got a new passport!!!

As I'm due to fly to visit my mother on 14 Feb, I sent it off to the Consulate in Düsseldorf before Christmas as they warn you it can take 4-6 weeks.

Since then I've been walking around without any form of ID which is equivalent to walking around stark naked in Germany. But no one noticed. I hoped I wouldn't be expected to identify myself when I went to collect the registered letter at the post office, but as I've known the lady who runs the post office for more than 20 years that wasn't a problem.

Anyway, it came fully equipped with chip and the ghastly photo I had to have taken. (no glasses, no smile, no hat. Not that I ever wear a hat. If I'd just popped into a booth, I wouldn't have taken my glasses off, either, unless they have a list of instructions hanging up somewhere)

I had been warned by a friend who had her photos done by a German photographer and sent them in for her new passport that they will refuse German photos because the stipulations are different. (How many mm your eyes have to be from the edge of the photo or something) So I had my photos done last November when I was visiting home and had no problems with them being accepted.

Also I remember having a fun morning having the photos and the form signed by my husband's boss. As I don't know a doctor or a priest or anyone at all of British Nationality of a "certain standing" I am allowed to ask an equivalent authority of German Nationality to sign it for me. I thought the Headmaster of a secondary School was a good idea, and I've known him for over 25 years. I dashed into school on the last day before the Christmas holidays and everyone was in a jovial mood, and that part of the proceedings went off without a hitch, too.

The Consulate even included a form by which I can claim a 10€ refund. I checked on the website the very day I transferred the money, but the pound is dropping so fast, that by the time they got round to doing it, the price had probably dropped by that much!

Then I opened the passport and on the inside pages there are lovely drawings of birds - no longer the squiggly pattern that was on the old one. I'm not very good at birds, but with the help of the RSPB "Bird Identifier" I narrowed them down to a Curlew and a Sparrowhawk.

Has anyone else got a birdie passport and can you identify the birds in it?

My passport which is about 8 years old has a colour photo of me. But the new Irish passports have black and white photos. If you send in a colour picture, they convert it into black and white.

Yes, I think I heard that about Irish passports. What's the reasoning behind it?

It's something to do with going into America - our passports were designed to fit in with American entry regulations.

The Gruesomes need new passports - and hence new passport photos - next month. So they can go to UK... but if German photos can't be used, what the heck is a body supposed to do?

Sheesh, even Koreans can have their photos done in Germany.

Did you ask about Biometric photos? All German photo places do them.

Yes, and thexy all look like taken from the rogues' gallery.

Just print out the instructions from the Consulate website, Sho. My friend had hers done in Germany, you just have to tell the photographer exactly what they're supposed to look like.

http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/apply-photos-standards.asp

It says here

http://ukingermany.fco.gov.uk/en/passports/biometric-passports


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Just print out the instructions from the Consulate website, Sho. My friend had hers done in Germany, you just have to tell the photographer exactly what they're supposed to look like.

http://www.ips.gov.uk/passport/apply-photos-standards.asp

It says here

http://ukingermany.fco.gov.uk/en/passports/biometric-passports


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As to whether they're valid for entering the US, it says:

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It also mentions my birds, but frustratingly, does not say what they are:

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ah - it wouldn't occur to me, to be honest, to use a photo booth.

Mostly because they're dire. But also because you never know who might have left a chocolate-chili cake on the seat

My birdie passport was issued on 6th Oct 2006. Far worse picture than yours, I'm sure. I had to stare so that I didn't blink, so I look really demented. There seem to be four different birds - is that one from each territory like the languages, do you think? I couldn't identify any of them.
Usually in Hong Kong I would be due for another fairly shortly, but we weren't allowed across the border for months before the Olympics and I came home in July. My various trips to Ireland haven't caused any stamps, so it looks as though I'm stuck with the pic for the next 8 years

No, they don't stamp your passport for moving around in the EU anymore.

Mrs R got a new (Irish) passport and the black-and-white picture is printed directly onto the page, not stuck in. Don't know why the Americans need photos at all, now that they take your fingerprints and photograph your iris as you immigrate.

How did they do that? Did she send the photo in in a digital format or did she send in a photo on paper which they scanned in?