Indian Passport Renewal in UK – Full Guide 2024

How to renew your Indian passport in the UK?

If you are an Indian living in the UK and your Indian passport expired recently (within the last year) or is due to expire within a year, or you lost it or need a change of personal details, you’d need to get a new Indian passport issued whilst in the UK.

In this guide, I will show you the detailed steps on how to apply for Indian passport renewal in the UK.

The process includes the exact steps we followed to apply for renewing my wife’s Indian passport which was due to expire in a month.

This is a detailed guide to walk you through the step-by-step process we followed that you could use to get a new passport booklet issued.

If your passport has already expired, there is a slight difference in the list of documents required that I will cover below – read on.

Indian Passport Renewal in UK – Complete Guide

Before we get started, let’s get the terminologies right!

Indian Passport Renewal vs Re-issue

See:

When your passport expires, the most logical term that comes to mind to get a new valid passport is to get it renewed.

Chances are – the google search that brought you here was “Indian passport renewal” and not “Indian passport re-issue.”

Technically, the term that applies when your passport has expired recently or is due to expire in the next year is a passport “re-issue.”

So what is the difference compared to a passport renewal – I will cover it briefly here.

As I mentioned, re-issue is when your passport is due to expire or has already expired after its original 10-year validity (or five years in the case of children up to 15 years of age). You need a new Indian passport booklet issued.

If you had a passport with a validity of fewer than ten years, and you need to now extend its validity to up to 10 years, that is termed as a renewal.

In case of a renewal, the passport booklet remains the same with an added entry to extend its validity.

Well, if you already knew the difference between an Indian passport renewal and a passport reissue and came here looking for the correct term – high five! 👋

If you didn’t, no worries – I’ve got you covered.

Here’s a summary of the differences between Indian passport renewal vs Indian passport reissue.

Now that you have a basic idea of India passport renewal vs re-issue let’s jump right in.

Applications for Indian passport re-issue in the UK need to be submitted in person (or by an immediate family member) at one of the Indian Visa & Consular Application Centres.

Fill Online Registration Form for Indian Passport Renewal

Starting 02 Jan 2018, handwritten application forms will no longer be accepted.

All applications for renewal of Indian passport must be accompanied by the printout of the online filled application form.

Here’s how you get it.

Step #1. Go to this link and click on the Online Registration Form button.

This will take you to Online NRI Passport Application Registration Form.

Step #2. Select the Indian Mission that’s nearest to you and Service Desired as “Re-issue of Passport.”

Fill in the rest of the form giving the applicant’s Surname and Given Name.

You also need to mention if you have ever changed your name. If you have, select the check-box and mention your previous name in the given field.

Save the Temporary Application ID shown on this screen. You will be able to return to your partially filled application using this ID, so it is very important to save it somewhere.

Once done, click “Save & Continue.”

Step #3. Fill in Applicant information and Address Details that you want printed on the new re-issued passport.

The address to be printed on passport has to be your current permanent address where you stay in the UK. This is the one that will be printed on your renewed passport.

Click “Save & Continue” to move to the next section, where you need to add other Address Details and Family Information.

Related: What is visible mark on the Indian Passport Renewal Form?

Step #4. In this step, you need to provide details for other Address – this has to be your current address in India (I entered my parents’ address in India).

In the next step, enter the Applicant’s Family Information. Again, the details that need to be filled in are pretty straightforward.

Step #5. Enter your old Passport Details.

You can find all of these details on your old, most recent Indian passport.

File No. can be found on the last page of the passport. Click “Save & Continue.”

This is the last step of the application, and this is where you will get a prompt to click OK if you are ready to Finalise the application for submission.

Step #6. Click OK on the prompt to finalise the application.

This is where I would have expected a review application step to show where I could get a chance to review the details I entered.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. When I went to use the Temporary application ID I was given, I got an error saying, “Temporary Application Id does not exist, please ReEnter and Try Again.”

This is when I realised that the prompt was the last step to the submission.

If you enter any incorrect data and submit the final application at this step, you will need to register again with the correct details and start with Step 1 again.

Step #7. Check your email, and you should get an email confirming your application has been submitted.

“NRI Online Passport Registration WEB FILE No: GBRLPxxxxxxx Registered”

Step #8. Copy the Web File No. starting with GBRLP.

Go to this link and enter the Web File Number to print the Online Application Form for renewal of Indian passport online in the UK.

Luckily for me, all the details were fine, and I had no changes to make.

If you make a mistake and need to make amendments, the only way of doing it is to fill in a new application form.

So be careful while filling in the application in the first attempt to save time.

Book VFS appointment to renew expired Indian Passport in the UK

The process to book an appointment for the renewal of Indian passport at the VFS centre in the UK is similar to the one I mentioned in the Indian passport surrender guide.

Head over to the book an appointment section (opens in a new tab) and follow the step-by-step instructions.

In services, select “Indian Passport.”

Once you have scheduled the appointment, come back here to proceed further.

Documents required for Indian passport renewal in UK

Here is the list of documents you need to submit to the VFS appointment centre.

• Printed and signed application form – that you filled above
• Declaration form – download here
• Annexure E – download here
• Police Verification Form – download here (for minors, this form is required for both parents along with one for the minor applicant)
• Appointment Confirmation Printout
• Four recent 50mm x 50mm size photographs.
• Original Indian Passport
• Self-attested copies of passport – bio (photo) page and last (address) page
• Residence permit
• Declaration of change of appearance – download here (for children under 16 – minors)
• Annexure D – download here (for minor applicants – consent of both parents)
• Two A4 sized self-addressed return envelope (Royal Mail Special Delivery) for the return of original documents and new and cancelled passports.

All originals above need to be accompanied by a self-attested copy each.

Additional Documents:

Marriage Certificate and Spouse’s passport: If you want the applicant’s spouse’s name endorsed on the re-issued passport, include self-attested photocopies of the marriage certificate and Passport of the applicant’s spouse along with the original Passport & marriage certificate.

Utility bill, recent bank statement, or property papers in the UK: if you want your UK address to be added to the new passport. For UK address to be included, your residency status in the UK has to be permanent (ILR). If not, you can only change to a new Indian address or leave it as is.

Authorisation Letter: If the applicant is unable to visit VFS in person to submit the passport renewal application, a close family member can do it with an authorisation letter along with their original passport or photo ID card and a document showing the relationship.

Indian Passport Renewal Fees in the UK

The total application fee for renewing your Indian passport in the UK up to one year before/after expiry is £67.88.

Here’s the split.

Fees for ordinary (36-page) passport – £57.00

VFS Service charge – £7.44

Consular Surcharge – £2.00

SMS/Text messaging Service – £1.44

You can opt to pay by Cash, Debit Card or Demand Draft/Postal Order payable to ‘VF SERVICES UK LTD.’

Please note VFS no longer accept Credit Cards.

If you want to apply for the Tatkal service, you will have to pay an additional £110.

These are the fees for reissuing your passport if it has expired within a year or if it is due to expire in the next year.

If your passport expired more than a year ago, or if the changes you need in your passport relate to change of name etc, you’ll be required to pay for affidavit service additionally.

How long does it take to renew Indian passport in the UK?

Reissuing a new passport booklet that’s recently expired or is about to expire will be delivered to you ideally within 10-15 working days. If details need to be verified, it could take as long as 6 weeks.

But how long the renewal takes really depends on your circumstances.

In our case, the original documents were returned after 3 working days of submitting the application at VFS.

The new re-issued Indian passport booklet along with the cancelled old Indian passport followed 8 working days later.

If you want your passport to be re-issued in an emergency situation, VFS advises going to HCI for same-day service.

How to get your originals back?

All Originals will be returned to you within 10 working days by Royal Mail Special Delivery if you provided during submitting the application. If not, you can also choose to use the DX courier service offered by VFS.

Renew Indian Passport in the UK: Summary

There you have it!

I hope this step-by-step guide helps you in getting your expired/expiring Indian Passport renewed in the UK.

I have penned down here the process we followed to submit the application for my wife’s Indian passport renewed in Feb 2018. The purpose of this guide is to help you through the process and in no way construes legal advice on whether you will get your passport using the same list of documents we did.

If you do find this guide on how to apply for renewal of your Indian passport in the UK useful and it helped you in any way, please do me a huge favour and share my posts with your friends, family members and colleagues at work.

A quick behind the scene update and plan for upcoming posts:

I surrendered my Indian passport a few months ago (I published the detailed guide on Comparism which the ex-pat Indians in the UK found really useful – check it here).

I visited India over the Christman/New Year break and had no time to apply for my OCI application; I got an eVisa for India instead which took less than 24 hours for approval.

Detailed guide for Indian eVisa: https://www.comparism.com/indian-evisa/

Step-by-step guide for OCI application: https://www.comparism.com/oci-card/.

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