Got to go to the British Embassy

[Melanie]

I hate going to the British Embassy here in Budapest for official stuff because they suck. I go twice a month for things to do with the British Women's Association but that's not the same.

Any way the reason i have to go is Thea decided to flush mammy's passport down the loo. I rescued it but its wrecked. It was due to be renewed in March but i had planned to go home for a visit before then! Plus we were going to drive the couple of hours down to Austria in the next few weeks! ARGHHHHHHHH.

She managed to get it out of the draw and toddle to the loo with it in the time it took me to put a bin bag in the bin outside! I swear she plans these things like a military operation!

See we get all excited about our babies learning to walk but i swear more time with her crawling would have been lovely lol.

 

[Josephine_Beth]

I hate the new regulations on gaining a new passport, apparently you can't apply with just a normal birth certificate, you now need a 'long birth certificate', whatever that is. And it's costly, it's gonna cost me 180 GBP's to have a new passport made!

 

[Melanie]

Yeah i know, i had grief getting Thea's passport over here.
I've got the long birth certificate because i needed it to apply for my Hungarian residency permit and ID card.
It costs a bloody fortune at the Embassy though, its loads more expensive than getting a passport at home. I suppose the bonus is i walk in with forms and walk back out with a passport, no waiting for the postman to bring it.

 

[Squiglet]

Oh hun I really feel for you... mine up for renewal next year and I'm really dreading it....

We used to be able to go and get it done in Alicante... which is only an hours drive away, but now we have to go to Madrid which is four hours by car...Plus once you get there you have to stay the night because the office only gives out 50 tickets a day....and if you are not the first 50 people in the queue you have to go back the next day....they start handing tickets out at 8:30am. So not only the stupid expense of a biometric passport about 200quid....but I also have to pay for travel and accommodation.

How fair is that????

They've also taken away residency cards from all non Spaniards, which sounds great in principle (ie no more queuing at 4am to get tickets at the foreign office) but now we have to carry our passports around....if it get's lost and stolen, you have to go through the whole rigmarole of getting a new one from Madrid again.

I'm changing my nationality to Spanish in the next five years (beuracratic red tap makes it that long)...but its better than the thieving British Embassy who couldn't organise a p*ss up in a brewery.

 

[Melanie]

Squiglet that's pathetic! I thought they were bad over here!
It cost us £120 for Thea's passport! That's more money than adult passport at home! Talk about taking the mick! I'm not sure how much mine will be, probably around the same as yours. Over £100 more than home, its disgusting isnt it.

I quite like having a Hungarian residency card because its illegal not to have identification on you at all time here and the card means i dont have to carry my passport with me.

 

[Josephine_Beth]

for the child's passport over here, you have to pay 56.00 cyp pound to have a british birth certificate made up and then 62 cyp pound for the actual passport.

So 118.00 cyp pound, it must be about 125 GBP that.

Silly huh

 

[Melanie]

for the child's passport over here, you have to pay 56.00 cyp pound to have a british birth certificate made up and then 62 cyp pound for the actual passport.

So 118.00 cyp pound, it must be about 125 GBP that.

Silly huh

Yeah same here, we had to pay £60 for Thea to have a British birth certificate. Bloody disgusting if you ask me, paying that much for something that she is ENTITLED to by birth, its not like we have to pay for birth certificates in the UK!

 

[Squiglet]

I'm only going to register this baby's birth at the consulate but I'm not going to bother getting him a passport. My DH is Finnish and is entitled to Spanish nationality so this baby will be Spanish with a Finnish passport.

When we were getting the paperwork sorted for getting married, my DH had to pay 30€ for his paperwork AND they translated everything for him. The British consulate charged me 153€ (I even kept the receipt) AND I had to pay Extra for the translation.

They totally rip you off...

We really like our residency cards, because you can't even use your bank card over here without some form of photo ID and I'm loathed to carry my passport around.

 

[tuck]

here in Greece it costs 118e for a childs passport but you can use the greek birth cert, it's 185e for me to renew my passport and if I register her birth with the embassy it's 235e!!!!!!!!!!!

at least we dont have to go to Athens though, can do it all by post, as the consulate here dont do it anymore.

I havent registered her birth yet as it's not a legal requirement and there's no time limit, we will probably get a greek passport for Matilda and then she can decide when she's older whether she wants a british one as well.

I am very tempted to send my passport to uk to get in renewed rather than paying out for it here!!!!!!

 

[enn]

its a full birth certificate. im lucky cause my parents already got mine when i was a baby. we have Emilys as well as she will need it for the future cost us £3.50 to get hers and £10 to send away for my ohs. Of course we didnt need to send of for Emilys as when we reg we got the little one and asked for the big one at same time and paid for it there and then.

the full one has everything on it place of birth mothers maiden name fathers etc.

 

[Becksss]

and Rileys just cost £45

 

[Sarah&Braydon]

aww bless her maybe she didnt like ur pic on it ?