Passport

[QuizmasterG]

Much has been made recently about keeping important documents safe so your identity and other details cannot be used by less scrupulous people.
I have just renewed my passport (rubbish picture as usual) but it was sent to me with "Her Majesty's Passport Office" and "THIS IS NOT A CIRCULAR - Important Documents enclosed" stamped in very bold type on the front of the envelope.
I know the vast majority of Royal Mail workers are honest hard working people but what happens when they are delivered to, say, a communal block where lots of people have access to the mail?
Surely the passports should be sent in plain envelopes where the contents cannot be identified so easily?
So much for UK security!

[theshedman]

All the passports we have had were delivered by courier and had to be signed for.

[jno]

we had one by regular post a month ago - can't remember whether it had "passport" (or "steal this") on the envelope, though.

[ummmm]

I've never signed for a passport. They have always been posted as normal.

[bednobs]

i think they come by courrier - mine did

[ummmm]

We so need a 'like' button :-)

[DTCwordfan]

My last one was sent by courrier but I did pay for it, not wanting to be without the old one for that long.

[bhg481]

We've just renewed ours. There was an option to have them sent, at extra cost, by a more secure delivery system but we opted not to bother.

[theshedman]

We just paid the normal fee for ours. Nothing extra.

[jno]

bhg, you'd think it was in the interest of the government, as much as of the owner, to stop passports being stolen. Given the price of them, courier delivery ought to be standard.

[slaney]

From the UK passport website...

"Your new passport will be sent to you either by courier or Royal Mail Recorded Delivery. The postman or courier will then do one of the following:

hand your passport to you if you’re at home
deliver your passport with the rest of your post
leave you a card or send you a letter to tell you where to collect your passport or how to arrange redelivery
The ‘missed delivery’ card or letter won’t say that the package contains your passport."

[theshedman]

Forgot to add that for last passport we also needed a birth certificate as son has lost his. Online they give you the option of getting it in 24 hours if you pay over double the price £23.40 instead of £9.25. We just paid the £9.25 and it was still here in 24 hours so is it worth paying that extra.

[2sp_]

I've just looked at getting new passports for myself, Mr P and the two kids. Over £200. For that money I want them hand delivered by Johnny Depp.

[Khandro]

I think you have a valid point, particularly where mail is delivered to apartments where there is only one letterbox in the front door and all mail is left on a table in the hall for individual to pick up, and is also on view to anyone passing by. I had my passport stolen by a bank employee for certain, but I was unable to prove it, it was nearly new, and I had to replace it again, a very costly business
I would encourage you to write to H.M.P.O. and maybe even your M.P. and point this out.

[slaney]

I would have presumed from the details from the UK passport site I gave above, that if the delivery was to a communal area, that a "missed delivery" card would have been left.
Was your delivery to a communal area QuizmasterG?

[dzug2]

How they arrive depends on where you live - there is no one universal method. Depends how far they trust the Royal Mail in the area you live and what service you have paid for

Mine came by courier(white unmarked minivan) and had to be signed for.

[Dee Sa]

a few years back my pal sent her passport + her hubbys to Indian Embassy in London for a visa for Goa, when the passports were returned there was 3 passports inside , theirs and one belonging to a man in Manchester, reluctant to send it back they contacted the person concerned from the details at the back of the passport and the man drove all the way from Manchester to Suffolk to collect his passport in person.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah QMG - I had to renew a few passports for the family,
( they are all different people who exist, I rush to reassure everyone)
and they all came in envelopes
" please note this is NOT a passport ! "

and I thought: " well really !"

[ actually it might have read: please not this IS a passport]

[jackthehat]

I received mine by courier a fortnight ago. As it was hand-delivered, to me in person, I had to sign for it.

The courier explained that if I hadn't been in, he wouldn't have been able to leave it as we have an external letterbox fixed to the wall by the front door. Although I didn't ask him, this seems to indicate that he'd have been quite happy to have posted it through any door letterbox.