How Much?

I am lucky. I have dual citizenship, US and UK. I was born in London, so I got UK citizenship at birth. Fortunately I was born before 1984--if you're born in London after 1984 you have to also have at least one British grandparent (I think) to get citizenship. So I lucked out on that count. I applied for and received my British passport in 1999. It's been great to have both passports. When entering the UK I can use the short line, and it's (slightly) easier to travel in the EU. And going to Brazil on my UK passport was great because I didn't have to pay the $100 American penalty.

So it's been 10 years and I need to renew my British passport. I have been putting it off because I need to mail in all the paperwork and I'm in Mexico now and (this is kind of embarrassing) I haven't yet quite figured out where the Post Office is. (Note to self: seriously, look it up.) So today I decided to get down to business. I downloaded the forms and filled them out with an online tool. Then I started trying to figure out how to pay the fee and that's when I realized it costs $199 to renew my passport!! I think when I got the original it was MAYBE $75.

What happened?

According to what I read when searching for info on the increase, it's all because the British government needs more money to help travellers in distress. I mean, yeah, I get it, kind of, but $199? I don't know. Don't they know there's an economic crisis happening?

And the kicker is that it only costs $119 to do it if you're inside the UK. I'm thinking of flying to London just to renew my passport. Yes, I know that will cost more than $199, but I'll get to see my friends too.