Passport Interviews

So just where will you have to go to have your interview before you get your first passport?

Early analysis indicated that certain parts of the UK, because of the nature of the geography and the scarcity of the population, could not justify a dedicated AbI office on purely economic grounds e.g. Western Islands of Scotland. The UKPS considered several reports during the latter part of 2004 and early 2005 which identified a range of possible networks from 40 to 100 offices.

That's according to the Immigration and Passport Service, and our nearest offices will be in Inverness or Glasgow. So what happens next?

In areas where the travelling time to the nearest network office would be more than 1 hour, alternative arrangements will be available. This will consist of interviews over a secure webcam link in premises to be made available by a partner organisation. A procurement exercise will be needed to establish the arrangement; the following table shows the areas in which it will be available and the estimated annual number of applications to be handled.

The entire Western Isles fall into this category. However, on the up side, although they cannot afford to put an office here, they have already designed a typical office layout for premises they have yet to acquire.