Thread by @jonworth

This is a 🧵 about my new UK passport

And it's a positive story

Really

And German followers of mine would do well to pay attention to it

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Don't worry. I have not lost my mind

I'd prefer a UK passport gave me rights to live freely in the whole of the EU (it doesn't) and what colour it is doesn't bother me in the slightest. I can put it in a @PulseofEurope case anyway 😜

2/14

The story is about how the passport renewal was handled

And how fantastically good it was

Really I am not joking

This is how government-citizen relations should be

3/14

I started the process to apply for a new passport, renewing my old one, on 14 Jan. The new passport arrived today, 28 Jan

It is all done in an online system that is joyously simple to use. It explains exactly what you need to submit, why, and helps you through each step

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It asks you at the start where you are based - Germany in my case - and calculates the later steps accordingly

Simple, sensible, user-centred design

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You can even submit a digital photo that *you take yourself* that goes into the passport. They explain what criteria this photo has to respect clearly and simply. Within 5 mins using some lamps, a tripod, my SLR and a white wall and I had it sorted

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When you upload the photo, the system does some rudimentary checking of the photo to tell you the likelihood of approval (I presume they contact you later if something fails)

For me as I had followed the instructions to the letter it worked first time

7/14

Payment is done simply with a credit card, you get an email confirmation and a number for your order

You can login to get the details of the process, and get email notifications for each step, and a SMS from the courier firm delivering

This is the history

8/14

Logically I had to pay the postage to *send* in the old passport myself, and it took a week with DHL for my old passport to get to Durham (14-21 Jan)

The passport application was checked and processed 21-25 Jan, sent 25 Jan and arrived in Berlin 28 Jan

14 days

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Total errors: zero

Total phone calls: zero

Total meetings: zero

Total "what the hell am I supposed to do?" moments: zero

10/14

Don't get me wrong. Some of this was luck - it could have failed in somewhere. The courier could have mislaid it. Case load for new passports is undoubtedly low just now due to COVID, so that probably sped things up

But credit where credit's due: this was *impeccable*

11/14

Compare that to the process to do a "Wohnungsanmeldung" in Berlin (the process to register your residence with the town hall where you live)

The digital system was ill designed, had a complex form, was not clear what had to be submitted, why, and large files failed...

12/14

... and it failed so much that - *despite* COVID - they ditched the digital system and you now once more have a meeting with an official to do it all. And wait weeks or even months for an appointment

All summed up in this thread:

https://twitter.com/jonworth/status/1349767902413656066

13/14

Why - if the UK can design a straightforward system for a passport renewal that even works from another country - can Berlin not manage a digital system to allow me to register that I have moved flat?

That makes me 🤬

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