I've just filled in the papers and sent them off together with a 'certified' photo.I have two passports to go with my two citizenships (British & Swedish). The procedure for getting the two could hardly be more different!
The Swedish Passport:
Turn up at the police station in town, take a queue number, wait five minutes, talk to a lady behind a desk, show driving licence, get photo taken, pay 400 kr, go away. Come back a week later and collect a nice new passport.
The British Passport:
Download and print and fill in the forms. Go into town to get a photo taken, which much satisfy exacting standards so that a biometric passport can be made. Get two photos, one of which has to be certified (see above) by someone who knows me for at least two years, mustn't be a family member etc. etc. Send all this registered post together with the old passport to Düsseldorf (yes in Germany), where they will take 10 days to produce the new passport, which they will send by DHL back to me. The price?
10-year adult passport - €143
Return shipment is handled by DHL Worldwide and costs €28
The only advantage that the UK passport seems to have is the fact that it is valid for 10 years as opposed to the Swedish one which is only good for 5 years.
400 SEK / 5 = 80 SEK per year
€171 / 10 = €17.1 ~= 175 SEK per year
Why bother? - I don't know, perhaps I just need something to moan about. Perhaps I want to keep my options open!
I suppose I should include in the Swedish side of the equation the 1500SEK naturalisation cost, but since I don't know how long I'm going to live, I don't know how many years that has to be spread over! If I've got less than about 16 years (3+ have already gone), the UK passport comes out cheaper!
All of this is of course spurious, I chose to take up Swedish nationality. I didn't need to, and many British people who live here don't bother. Why did I do it? Besides the practical point of making some things a little simpler (actually very few things) and being allowed to vote for the parliament (non Swedish residents of more than a number of years can vote in local elections anyway) the only real reason I can think of is that it better reflects my status. I am now a mixture of British and Swedish. I'll never sound quite like a native Swedish speaker, although some of my English has been a little affected. I'm not a 'more English than the English' type of ex-pat, nor am I 100% Swedish.
Which passport do I use when travelling? So far, with the exception of once when I was trying to confuse the British system (into UK Bristih, out again Swedish), I've used my Swedish passport. This has been at least in part because the Swedish one has the newer computer readable text, and biometric stuff, which makes it quicker.
When my Swedish Passport runs out (end of next year) when I get a new one I'll need to give my finger prints. The Swedish passports have incorporated this for some time now. Ignoring the invasion of my privacy issues, I wonder if/when the British get round to this how that will work. Will I need to travel to Düsseldorf to get this done?
The whole identity thing in the British system is ridiculous! I happen to be a director of a UK company. In order to establish my identity with Companies House I had to send them a 'utility bill' with my name and address on. This was of course in Swedish. My offer of an English extract taken directly from the Swedish Population Register, was rejected! They'd rather have an incomprehensible (for them) bill for groceries than a complete description from the Swedish state! What security doesn't one have in a British Passport where the identity control is based on a foreign language grocery bill, or the signature of a friend they might ring up?
End of rant! (for today at least)
