A Jersey passport? We’ll have to ask the UK…

Thursday 05 March 2015

The last passports to be printed in Jersey rolled off the presses at noon yesterday – from now on if you want a passport, it’ll be printed in the UK.

The new arrangement has been put in place because the UK authorities wanted to make passports more secure. Applications will still be processed here, and the passports will still say “Bailiwick of Jersey”, but the printing will be done in the UK.

No price rise is planned – the standard six-week service will still cost £72.50 for an adult and £46 for a child, and the express eight-working-day service will be £111 for an adult and £84.50 for a child.

The Jersey Passport Office issues around 10,000 passports every year.

Customs of Immigration service director for legal status and revenue Steven Le Marquand said: “These changes will bring to a close a two year project between Her Majesty’s Passport Office, Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

“The arrangements agreed mean that Jersey applicants will continue to benefit from the personal service offered by the Passport Office at Maritime House.

“Processing times will be very much in our control and we have service level agreements in place to cover both the printing functions in the UK and the onward delivery to Jersey. The Island has secured access to future upgrades to passport designs whilst retaining its ability to issue a passport locally in an emergency situation.”

Ministers fought a losing battle with the UK authorities over the last few years to keep the right to print Jersey passports here.

They also updated the law last year to close a loophole that meant there was no specific law against forging a passport or using false information to get a UK passport.

The new law created new offences for making a false passport application, forging a passport, or purchasing, receiving or selling a forged passport. It is also now an offence to make a false or misleading statement on a passport application.