Pledge “passport”
"I will apply to renew my UK passport on 15th August 2005 but only if 100 other UK citizens will do the same."
— Geraint Bevan, Member of NO2ID (www.no2id.net)
Deadline to sign up by: 14th August 2005
106 people signed up (6 over target)
Country: United Kingdom
More details
The UK passport service will start issuing "biometric passports" in October 2005. These passports will contain electronic chips which are capable of storing biometric information about the passport holder in a machine-readable format. This measure is at the insistence of the US government; it is a requirement for countries to comply if they wish to continue participating in the US visa waiver scheme. Passports issued before October 2005 will not contain these chips.
Furthermore, the Identity Cards Bill, which is currently under consideration by Parliament, specifies that passports will become "designated documents". If this bill becomes law, applicants for such documents will be required to provide personal information and undergo biometric processing (capture of fingerprints, iris scans and digital photographs) as part of the registration process for the new central database - the "National Identity Register". Applying to renew a passport before the bill becomes law will buy 10 years grace before the government can use passport renewal to force applicants to enrol on the National Identity Register, by which time the scheme may have been defeated.
If enough people renew their passports at the same time, the surge in applications may get noticed by MPs before the third reading in the Commons and may help them to understand that the identity cards scheme will face determined opposition if they try to impose it on us.
Resist ID cards and the database state. Sign the pledge and then join NO2ID: http://www.no2id.net
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- pledge to give people a chance before I judge them, to help others when I can fill a need in their lives, to promote a positive outlook on life, and to spread a little more love in a world that could really use it.
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Current signatories (
= they've done it)
Geraint Bevan, the Pledge Creator, joined by:
- William van Zwanenberg
- Stephen Hodgson
- David Salgado
- Tony Walton
- Alex Martindale
- Matt Holmes
- CarolineD
- Calum Hutchinson
- Duncan Lock
- Ishtar
- Ash Berlin
- Andrew Aylett
- Chris Hawes
- Rhian Geleick
- ken barron
- Iain Georgeson
- Illtud Daniel
- Edward Thomas
- Russell Gray
- Robert Nock
- John Lawton
- Malcolm Hutty
- Patrick Doherty
- Helen Austin
- Gordon Lawrie
- Jennifer Flippance
- Nicholas Aleksander
- Nick Thomson
- Andrew Mansell
- Matthew Hepburn
- Alastair Irons
- Alex Runswick
- SImon Tipper
- Dominic Tristram
- Tim Ede
- Renee La Corbiniere
- Pete Jordan
- Will Howells
- Michael Sheldon
- Angela
- Ottilie
- Piers Cawley
- Helen Robertson
- Keith Hebden
- Mark Wainwright
- Isabel Klint
- Pete Shaw
- Howard Jones
- Steven Wood
- Helen Griffiths
- T Wood
- L Fieldhouse
- Tomas Bodle
- Stephen Beynon
- Wedge
- Adam McGreggor
- Rachel Evans
- Mark Turner
- Sarah Fletcher
- Suzon Forscey-Moore
- Mike Crockart
- glyn hanton
- James Smith
- Paul Warren
- James Lattimore
- gareth tissington
- Graham Gillions
- Mark Dunn
- Bronwen Thomas
- Darren Newton
- William Stewart
- Richard Cookson
- Lynda Warren
- Philip Ward
- Richard Galloway
- Nick W
- David Reynolds
- Adrian Walker
- Tracy Hunter
- Owen Whitfield
- Tim Haines
- Gavin M. Doig
- Steve Cotton
- Jean Strong
- Steven Evans
- 20 people who did not want to give their names, 1 of whom has done the pledge
- 1 person who signed up via mobile
Comments on this pledge
- Can apply for a new passport at any time without needing to justify it (you do *not* need to report your old one lost, stolen or eaten by the dog)
- Will get up to nine months "credit" for unused time left on your old passport if you apply for a new one before the old one expires, so if your old passport expires in or before May 2006 you won't even lose out financially by applying for a new one in August 2005.
It'll give 10 years of identification without an ID card - very good idea.
And no matter that I have a few years left on my existing passport - excellent!
However, I find the whole issue of identity cards very disturbing so I'll happily send off the form on the 15th.
According to the UKPS website,
"Please note that your old passport will be cancelled. Please be aware that this may invalidate any visas in the passport. You are recommended to contact the issuing authorities to confirm whether an unexpired visa in a cancelled passport remains valid."
http://www.ukps.gov.uk/_1_applications/1...
"I have a visa in my old passport; can I just transfer it over?
It is not possible to transfer a visa from one passport to another without making a new visa application. Please note that the Embassy no longer issues visas valid "indefinitely". If you are issued a new visa it will have a maximum validity of ten years.
My passport containing a valid visa has expired. I've obtained a new passport; do I need a new visa?
If the passport in which your visa has been endorsed has expired, the visa in the old passport still can be used, provided that you also carry a valid passport of the same nationality. Note: If, when canceling your old passport, the passport authority has clipped the corners of the passport, and, in so doing, has damaged the visa in any way, that visa is no longer valid and cannot be used for travel to the United States."
http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/faq...
However, even if your visa remains valid, you might perhaps be subjected to extra scrutiny at US immigration if they think that there is something odd about having renewed your passport before the expiration date of the old one that contains the visa.
Thanks everyone.
ps. I want my country back.
The exact date that passport applications would require you to register for an ID card depends on the progress of the Identity Cards Bill through Parliament, but 2007 is likely.
When I protested that all this didn't seem very secure, I was assured that it was so "really", and I was also assured that the 'secure courier' made extensive notes, when delivering a passport, about the property concerned - "even to the point of noticing flower pots or a child's bicycle". When the 'manifest' of the courier concerned was finally tracked (which took over two months), he hadn't even noted the colour of my mailbox!
The passport was never found and, given that it was over two months before it could finally be cancelled, it shudders me that these are the people, this is the office, this is the system which will be dealing with our entire identities should this nefarious bill come to pass.
However I will certainly be renewing before they start requiring you to be fingerprinted like a common criminal, as part of the process of piggybacking the dreaded ID card on the back of the passports.
If you're an ex-pat Brit like me, the UK Home Office told me by email that we won't have to register and submit all this biometric info. Apparently only those residing in the UK will have to go through that hoop. So presumably that means that we'll be getting the same type of UK passport as before.
Maryon Jeane: "it shudders me that these are the people, this is the office, this is the system which will be dealing with our entire identities should this nefarious bill come to pass." You've hit the nail on the head.
Having worked for government organisations (not in the UK, but they're all similar) I firmly believe that the level of competance, security and even honesty is frighteningly low.
Kathryn, it will ask if you are renewing a passport. Tell the truth, there is no need to lie on the form.
The UK and USA are at the fore-front of the Orwellian Global Dictatorship society which is rapidly become a reality, meanwhile people are eating crisps and watching big-brother on channel4.
W A K E . U P .
Other 'problems' do come with changing a UK passport. I am now travelling around Europe without a passport due to it taking 2 to 6 weeks to get a new one, why so long?
The only time I need a passport in Europe is when I travel to or from the paranoid UK. I have even been to Switzerland, outside the EU, several times this year without needing a passport.
In Holland you get a new passport by going to the local council with your old passport and 2 new photos, half an hour later you walk out with the new one, Germany does add an extra step, you need to have the application countersigned by a solicitor, but once again half an hour in the local council offices and you have a new German passport and a French one if you want it. All German citizens are entitled to a French passport as well, also vice versa.
I've signed up to this pledge and am going to renew mine now, but I doubt that there will be a visible bump in the renewal stats.
Please note that the Post Office will accept an application for renewal even if you do not fill in or include the supplemental form.
They will also accept cash so you do not have to help UKPS to link your bank details to your passport number.
Thank you to everyone who signed the pledge!
I do not need a passport immediately, but I signed up to this pledge and I have applied.
The notes concerning the machine readable page state that "There is no hidden information and there will be no means of adding information to the page after the passport has been issued". Also, as I am born and bred English, I have 'European Union' at the top of the front cover. But should I hold any other form of British nationality, the EU reference will be ommitted.
So, there's 'British', and 'almost British', eh? That should prove interesting.
My old passport still had 26 months to run, and I have been given an additonal 9 months validity on my new one because my old one had not yet expired. Sadly the most extra they will give is 9 months, but its another 9 months I wont have to have a biometric passport !
"Passport prices soar again to pay for new security measures
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
(Filed: 18/11/2005)
The price of a passport is to go up by more than 20 per cent to £51 to pay for security measures - including face-to-face interviews for every new applicant starting next year, the Home Office said yesterday.
..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/04/...
Register article. They'r etrying to stop us...