Ok so I pitched up at 9.59, went through all the nonsense of why am I here, show my appointment email, strip search, hand wash, through 5 more locked doors etc and sat and waited where I was told, to renew an existing British passport with my appointment set at 10 to purely submit my docs.
Some teenager came up and mumbled about sorry, system down, sebentar etc etc
10 mins later he came back and said let me see your docs. So he through everything unconvincingly and then took them. I said to him I am ok if you just want to manually check now and I come back tomorrow to get the receipt, but he gave me the blank look.
I said don't worry, I have done this before, it's not expired, only full, I don't need countersign, I look the same, here is 2 pics, credit card form, etc etc, 52 pages in order of colour copy of the original, etc etc
Anyway he took everything and came back 5 mins later. "Just wait here a minute please sir"
By now I'm getting cranky because I have another appt at 10.40 and if I had been 15 mins later for VFS they don't let you in, and I am the first one (only one) but yet there is a problem and I've been waiting 30mins.
Eventually they find the power switch and I get served. Again the boy unconvincingly goes through everything 16 times then goes to get his friend. Apparently I need to include a non existant check list, so his friend finds one and of course turns out that is what HE needs, not me, so he goes through it, ticks 2 boxes, asks me to sign it and then gives it back to me! Weird but whatever.
He then says I need proof of address, I say no disrespect but I don't. it is not even mentioned on the app forms. He said he is just worried it will get rejected. I said I know you just doing your job but I can assure you it is not needed and not even requested. My address is clearly stated and anyway I have to collect it from here, you are not even sending it to me anymore.
He seems convinced, takes everything, shuffles it, and says ok we call you when it's ready.
Now interestingly, he also took my passport, which I know is wrong, because it is still valid and I need it, although he hadn't actually looked or mentioned entry stamps etc - which is lucky because I enetered on my other one. I thought well the new one will be here next week and I have the one I need to leave if I have meeting outside anyway, so I didn't push that too much. But I did think he was wrong.
So I managed to leave by 11 - so disregarding the 35 mins of watching paint dry and people trying to work out to press a button marked "press here to exit" before they can open a door, I was with the guy about 10-15mins but purely because he obviously did not have a clue what he was doing. I guess hardly any Brit passport renewals?
Then 30 mins later I get an email:
Dear Sir/Madam
We would like to inform you that your old passport is left at our office. It was no necessary to leave your passport with us, so please take back your passport immediately at working days between 10.00 am – 17.00 pm.
We were very sorry for your incovenient and misunderstanding.
Best Regards,
On behalf of Her Majesty’s Passport Office
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UK Visa Application Centre
HM Passport Office Local Service Provider, Jakarta
1. This is from a company representing the British Government and there are more spelling mistakes and grammatical errors than on the FB page from "English teachers"
2. They don't know what they are doing obviously.
3. You don't need to leave your existing passport, which I already knew. In fact even when you go to collect its replacement, it is only cancelled "online" so you can still use it for ID and domestic flights (maybe Int'l too, I never check to see if they do cancel it). Years ago they clipped a corner off the back cover (before technology lol)
Anyway I replied and said hang on to it, I will pick it up next week with my new one, which hopefully will be BLUE (not black) but worse case will be burgundy with no mention of EU etc
That's it really. Will update when I get it. I expect the BCA sms in a day or 2 confirming they took my 128 quid and that means it was processed and I should have it next week.
After that up to admin to close this or pin it or whatever.
The original link to download the forms etc is here:
https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/overseas/information/indonesia/renew/adult
https://assets.publishing.service.g...s/attachment_data/file/462278/OS_Form_010.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-passport-creditdebit-card-payment-authorisation
https://assets.publishing.service.g...file/190989/OS_Payment__Instruction_07.13.pdf
2 passport photos, white background 4.5cm x 3.5cm
128.51 GBP for 48/50 page jumbo adult.