British High Commission. New Greek Vice Counsul!

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 06:29

Are members aware of the latest knife in the back from the British High Commission? I learned last night that the BHC in Nicosia appointed a Greek Cypriot with close contacts in the Greek Cypriot Police and government as the new vice consul after effectively banning applications from the north on the orders of the Greek Cypriot government in the south. We now have to go to Spain for our passport and Istanbul if you need a visa. all the Turkish Cypriot staff have been sacked from the BHC in the north as of last week, and the consul is based in Athens and hardly ever visits or answers mail. So we know who is in charge over at the BHC then-the Greek Cypriots of course. This isn't funny though. The BHC holds confidential and sensitive information about all of us which is now freely available to the Greek Cypriot government after this latest appointment.

If anyone applied for the Vice Consuls job please let your MP or MEP know what is going on here.

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 08:55

This is a serious turn of events, which needs confirming. Has anyone contacted the press here?

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 08:56

This is VERY disturbing, was it mentioned in any newspaper at all? Have you a link we can use to read more about it?

Geoff

Famagusta City

Troodo


Joined: 12/06/2008
Posts: 1002

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 09:30

If this is true, is it safe for British residents to renew passports?

wings


Joined: 25/06/2010
Posts: 152

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 09:45

This allegation is typical of yet another "Greek" Cypriot scaremongering post. The source of this information and the perpetrator are somewhat suspect. If the source doesn't have the details then its clear that the propoganda machine is making an attempt to ruffle a few feathers in Westminster and attack the people who live in the north with a little subversion. The information if there is any should be made clear in the post about all the facts. What, when, how, why and where. No facts, names or more specific details. No credibility now or in the future.

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 10:16

As you might imagine they are trying to keep this quiet.



I overheard a conversation at the BRS AGM last Saturday and checked the facts with a former member of staff at Shakespeare House. The new Vice Consul goes under British sounding name, her married name. My source was unclear about the name but is checking this out but confirms that both parents are Greek Cypriot and that she is probably something called dual nationality. The job was not advertised in any Turkish Cypriot newspaper but was heavily advertised in the Greek Cypriot press.

I am trying to find out more but you can imagine what it is like trying to get factual info out of the British High Commission, clearly they want to keep the lid on this until she is in post.

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 10:20

Reply to MSG 5





Fact 1. The former Consul a Miss Claire Lawley left last spring and the consul jobwas made redundant. We now have a part-time consul based in Athens who has visited less than once a month.

Fact 2. The present Vice Consul in Nicosia is Mrs. Gail Adams who leaves in June by the look of it as the advert placed by the High Commission for the Vice Consul post in the Greek Cypriot Cyprus Mail and other Greek Cypriot papers back in February.

Fact 3. I have contacted all the newspapers in the North and none were asked to publish the advertisement for the vice consul post

Fact 4. Six Turkish Cypriots were made redundant from Shakespeare House last month, the office manager Tucel Bey having retired in January has not been replaced.

Fact 5. I just had it confirmed by a member of the BRS that the person appointed is a Greek Cypriot dual national who goes by her married name Ms.Christina Smith.



I could go on but find out for yourself if you have any doubts .

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 10:36

So Santababy, in other words, you have no verifiable information.

I call that irresponsible scaremongering.

Geoff

Famagusta City.

mamachina


Joined: 22/11/2008
Posts: 730

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 10:50

I may be wrong but I believe a Consulate and a High Commission are two different things.

We have a British High Commissioner - he was away or he would have been at the BRS AGM on Saturday. Both British representatives from the High commission did attend as visitors, they both live in the north.

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:08

I have attempted to convey to you what I believe are the facts and as such have been accused of being a Greek Cypriot scarmongerer. What I have said is true and will no doubt be confirmed or otherwise when the new V Consul takes up her post which from the advert in The Cyprus Mail will be around June. Instead of bickering with me, why don't you write to the High Commissioner and ask him if what I have had to say here is true or untrue rather than sit in front of a computer to ridicule someone who is genuinely trying to inform. You will no doubt get a 'diplomatic reply' from him so copy it to your MP or MEP.



mamachina might like to get his facts right. I was at the AGM on Saturday and Gail Adam the present vice consul was there from the BHC along with a colleague Ms Woodward. Gail Adam lives in South Cyprus and not the north.



So carry on ridiculing those genuinely trying to inform if you will. All will become clear on or around the Ist of June 2011.

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:23

Well why should WE have to verify YOUR (what appear to be un-substantiated) revelation/s?

If you post stuff on here it should be readily verifiable.

I'll wait for the film on this one, but I sure ain't holding my breath. I suggest no one else does either!

Geoff

Famagusta City.

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:29

From msg. 7 "Fact 4. Six Turkish Cypriots were made redundant from Shakespeare House last month, the office manager Tucel Bey having retired in January has not been replaced."



So is the office now open and if it is what do they do? I presume that if they shut down the place, they will carry on their services on the Greek side. I see no reason why they should stop renewing expired passports.

ismet

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:38

For info you can no longer renew British Passports in Cyprus at all, North or South - they have to be renewed at the nearerst regional office which is is Spain.



http://ukincyprus.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/passports/

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:39

Elko, they have already stopped renewing expired passports on the Greek side.

There may have been staff changes, but where is there any clear evidence they plan to close the office in Shakespeare House completely?

I am not saying the report by Santababy is a fiction, I just don't know. If true it could be quite serious for us Brits living here.

Geoff

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:45

I see I am headlining as the latest member and going by the unpleasantness show thus far am begining to wonder why I bothered.



To answer ismets polite reply. My wife and I went over to Shakespeare House last week but the computers had broken and we were asked to come back on another day. There appear to be two Brits working there doing their best to cope with a large number of customers. The six Turkish Cypriots that worked there have gone.

As I understand it, you cannot actually renew your passport there anymore but you can make an application there which they will check and forward on to Madrid where the application will be considered. You will be charged a fee to have your application sent by courier to Spain. So yes, in effect they have stopped renewing expired passports.



They have stopped issuing visa stamps at Shakespeare House and as I understand it, applications are now processed elsewhere, Rome has been mentioned. You can apply for a visa in Istanbul and Athens.

newscoop


Joined: 23/12/2007
Posts: 2197

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:46

What did the British council/High Commission ever do for northern based Brits anyway?



Open hours two hours a day three days a week. (and they moan about the TC's)



Allowed the GC's to discriminate against the Brits re licenses for GC mot.



Always helped out Brits stuck in the nick legally or otherwise (I'm being sarky)



Now they don't even do passports.



So what do they do?

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 11:55

(off topic) I went to renew my UK passport at the high comission in the North a few months before they stopped doing them there. They refused to give me a passport in the surname that was on my previous UK passport, that is on my UK birth certificate and that is on EVERY single piece of UK documentation for me from being born there and living there for nearly 40 years. Instead they said I could only have a British Passport in the surname given to me by the TRNC 8 years ago when I came to live here. This was apparently because the new border agency computer system might get confused if I were to enter the UK under my British surname and leave it under my TRNC one. So rather than fix the computer system they simply refused to give me a passport in my UK surname, that is on my previous passport, my birth certificate and every other peice of UK documentation about me but said I must have one in a surname given to me by a government they do not recognise as legitimate 7 years ago !

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:01

No one is trying to be unpleasant to Santababy, I/we only asked where his report can be verified.

If it cannot be verified, or if he cannot verify it for us fellow foum members, we can only assume it is not necessarily a correct or completely accurate report.

Geoff

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:03

Let's assume that Sanababy acted in good faith when he made the original posting. Then if the facts are not correct (and we don't actually know one way or the other) then someone has been winding him up.

Geoff

Biggles


Joined: 14/06/2009
Posts: 165

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:09

Christina Smith rings a bells somewhere in my little brain. Was she involved with The Friends of Cyprus group a few years ago?

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:16

Geoff, There are times when things cannot be 100% verified especially when the subject matter is something that the BHC would dearly like to keep underweaps until the new appointee is in place. I know for a fact that the present vice consul leaves her post soon, she said as much at the BRS meeting on Saturday. My wife also heard with her own ears that the new Vice Consul was a dual national Greek Cypriot. The VC job was only advertised in the Greek Cypriot press and those interviewed for the Job were restricted to people living in the south. Like it or not, I am as sure as I can be of my facts and I most sincerely hope that some of you who are concerned enough will take the trouble to investigate further. I have written to my MEP who will probably be in a better position to get the truth out of the BHC than we are. I stand by what I have said and I am genuinely concerned about having to rely on a Greek Cypriot for assistance when I live in the TRNC.

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:19

I would like to thank Santababy for all the information he has given. Some of it is hearsay and it may prove wrong but he stated the facts in good faith and to the best information available to him.



Thank you Erol for the link you provided but you got me worried. It says that the name in the renewed passport will be in the same format as the Cyprus Birthcertificate. Now the questions:

1. Would they accept the Birth Certificates issued by TRNC or insist on a ROC Birth Certificate i.e. force Turkish Cypriots to apply to the ROC authorities?



2. The GCs have the habbit of writing out the names in Turkish and in Latin alphabet as pronounced, i.e. Djemal instead of Cemal or Oustouner instead of Üstüner or Ustuner. On my current British passport it is Ustuner and I have no objection to it but I would object to Oustouner.



3. In my current TRNC Birth Certificate my surname is Üstüner but my original Birth Certificate from ROC is Vehbi. We did not have surnames in those days and our fathers first name became our surname. In my particular case even that was not true but that only complicates things. Say no more

ismet

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:34

Well I am happy to wait and see what transpires, and would like to thank Sanababy for his info even if we cannot yet verify it. It may be just a malicious rumour, it may not be.

Geoff

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 12:59

Sorry Elko I cant help you re your questions, I just do not know.



All I know is that they refused to give me a passport in the name on my BRITISH birth certificate, that was on my previous passport and is on every other piece of information about me in the uk, tax records, nhs records, qualifications, UK driving license, property deeds, bank accounts - everything as well as the surname on my parents UK marriage certificate and my fathers UK passport. Instead they would only give me one in the surname on my TRNC kimlic card. I have no Cyprus birth certifcate at all, neither north or south, as I was born in the UK.



In the end I had no choice but to accept a British passport in a surname I have never used in the UK, did not even know existed before I came to live in the TRNC and that does not match a single piece of documentation about me in the UK including my UK birth certificate. All appreantly to meet the needs of some new border agency computer system !

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 13:03

Erol,

Now you can do all the naughty things in the name that nobody recognizes



I am glad to hear that the TRNC Kimlik card overrides all others, that suits me fine.

ismet

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
13/04/2011 13:20

Unfortunately as I am neither a terroist or a criminal having a paasport in a surname that does not match any other piece of UK documentation or identification about me at all is nothing but a major pain in the behind. Still what do my diffuclties as a citizen and human matter when compared to the needs of a computer system ? Apparently they matter not at all.

The irony is that I could get a RoC passport with no trouble in my UK surname, they certainly would not insist that I could only have one in my TRNC surname, which would mean I still could come into the UK using one surname and leave using another anyway, which was the supposed 'reason' why the UK government refused to give me one in my UK surname.

In effect I am a victim of identitiy theft, perpetrated on me by the British government ! Sheer madness but you try getting anyone in UK government to aknoweldge the issue. I tried and was passed from IPS to FCO to Border Agency to Home office and back to IPS where I began.

Zoots


Joined: 05/02/2011
Posts: 669

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 00:07

Erolz,

Perhaps another way of looking at it would be that the British government will not accept paperwork from the TRNC on the basis that it does not recognise it and they go by who the RoC decides you are.

elko2



Joined: 24/07/2007
Posts: 4400

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 00:16

Zoots,

Don't let the truth get in the way of your politics. Sorry to say but the British government insisted that Erol uses the same surrname as stated on his TRNC ID card :(

ismet

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 09:45

As Ismet has pointed out, yet again Zoots you have simply ignored what was actually written in your rush to try and push your agenda here.



The British government forced me to have a UK passport in the name given to by the TRNC 8 years ago and refused to give me one in the name I was born with in the UK 47 years ago, is on my UK birth certificate, is on my Fathers british passport (and mothers) is on their UK marriage certificate and was on all my previous UK passports and indeed on every other single piece of UK identification I have.



It was not a case on not acceting TRNC paperwork, but a case of not accepting UK paper work but inisting that TRNC ones superseeded and overuled the UK ones !



As for the RoC they have no paperwork relating to me what so ever.

waddo


Joined: 29/11/2008
Posts: 1966

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 17:48

Erolz,



Little confused here. If the British Government do not acknowledge the fact that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus actually exists, then why would they then insist that you had to use the paper work from that country?



I have no love for the British Government by the way and find them to be far more crafty about things than any other government I have come into contact with, you may think that its jobs for the boys here but the UK has had that system for hundreds of years and is far better at it. Did you ask to see the law and regulations regarding their request by chance? They can not just make it up as they go along anymore and I have had occassion to catch them out by simply asking to see it in print on more than one instance.



Bottom line is if it is not in the big book of rules then it is not agreed by parliment and therefore can not be enforced. Now onward with my battle over OAP proof of life requirements.

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 17:55

Waddo you are not the only one confused.

I was told that the reason why I could not have my UK passport renewed in the name on my previous UK passport and on my UK birth certificate and on every other single piece of UK identification about me was that they had introduced a new border agency computer system that would track people both comming into the UK and track when they went back out again and because it was possible that I might enter using my UK surname and leave using my TRNC one, this would confuse this new computer system. So the solution they came up with was to force any UK citizens with different surnames in other countires to only be allowed a UK passport in the name that matched the other countries name.

It may well be that such a rule can not be enforced but the the simple reality was that the high comission would not give me a passport in any name other than the one on my TRNC Kimlik card. It was either have a UK passport in that name or dont have one at all.

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:03

I have since then visted the UK and did eventually manage to get the London passport office to give me a passport in my actual YUK name that I was born with and is on my UK birth certificate, but this was itself no easy task. I had to make 4 seperate trips to the London passport office, and make up a statutory decleration form, based on a template for Statutory Decleration of Name, but replacing everywhere it said 'I absolutely and entirely renounce relinquish and abandon the use of my former name ...' with 'I absolutley and entirely relinquish and abandon the use of my North Cypriot name outside of the TRNC..' and then have this witnessed by a solicitor and stamped by them. I then had to pay another 120 pounds , having paid similar 6 months earlier to get the passport in the TRNC with the wrong name on it. The whole thing was a costly in time and money and all to get a UK passport in the name I was born with in the UK and have always used in the UK.

[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:09

The irony being that they actualy forced me to do the very thing that was supposed to be stopped by making me have a passport in my TRNC name. That is I went to the UK with a UK passport in my TRNC name, the one issued to me by the High Comission in the North, but left the UK on a new passport in a different surname, my UK surname. If they had just given me one in my UK name in the TRNC then this would never have happend. I would never have entered or left the UK in any other name than my UK one. So they very thing I was told was the 'reason' why I could not have a UK passport in my UK name came to pass and only because of thier 'solution' to the problem.

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:12

Sheer madness. I think I finally got them to give me what I wanted when I started suggesting that the newspapers might be interested in a story about the UK government insisting that my passport must be in a name given to me by a government they do not even recognise as legitimate and not in the name on my UK birth certificate and all other UK ID. I also suggested that this rule was in effect discriminating, in that if I did not have TRNC citizenship, I would be free to change my name by deedpoll to 'Mickey Mouse' or 'Elvis Presley' and could have a UK passport in those names, but because I did have TRNC citizenship as well as British I could not even have a passport in my actual UK name that I was born with and have used all my life in the UK.

waddo


Joined: 29/11/2008
Posts: 1966

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:21

What can I say? It is typical of the British Government to pick on something so small as to be almost invisible and then to blow it up out of all proportion - finally ending up with shooting themselves in the foot as a way of proving they were right all along.



My sympathy with you indeed, but how stupid can they get? The question now is when they do another count up, will it be correct and anyway, will it matter? I presume you left (originally) under your UK name and again (after you had "sneaked" back into the UK under another name) left under your UK name? So you have definatley left, but how did you get back in is the question they need to answer - lol.



Its for reasons such as these that we left - and have not returned!!! Take care.

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:31

It has hardly been a well kept secret over the past few years that the British Government intend to quit Shakespeare House and are not prepared to pay the cost of the service to the British in Cyprus.

Brinsley


Joined: 04/04/2009
Posts: 6858

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 18:50

I'm confused over Erolz's posting. You were given a new passport via TRNC in a name you didn't want and paid for it. You received your old passport back with the top right-hand corner chopped, so why didn't you apply for another one when you were back in the UK under your original name with birth certificate etc. documents in hand claiming the new one was stolen? You've paid for two passports so why not have two in different names? All sorts of advantages in that but don't tell DC (Hans), he hates double ID's!



Richard

gooligan


Joined: 30/01/2007
Posts: 1591

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 19:04

Erol,why on earth did the TRNC government give you another name when the one you were born with had worked perfectly well all your life?

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 21:15

Well thats another story Gooligan. Basically in the 50's when my father got a British passport Cypriots, espically TC, did not have surnames / family names in the English style that passed from one generation to the next. So Cypriots who took on British citizenship under British rule would adopt a surname in the British manner. All well and good, but the surname my father adopted was not the one on my Father's cypriot birth certificate. So when I ended comming here to live some 50 years later the TRNC officals refused to give me a Kimlik card in any other name than that on my fathers Birth certificate. I begged and pleaded with them to give it to me in my UK surname, but to no avail. They were admanant that under TRNC law it could only be in the same surname on my fathers cypriot birth certificate, even though that name was not a real surname in the current sense. So from this point I had a UK surname and a TRNC one that was different.

[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 21:21

I did not forsee that because of a new Border Agency computer system in the UK in 2008, this would cause the UK government to refuse to give me a UK passport in my UK name, but that is what happened.

Re Brinsley post 37, I suppose I could have tried to get a new passport and lied about loosing the previous one, but really I have no need for 2 passports in two different names and there was also a chance that the IPS (Indentity and passport service) would have know that my previous and alledgedly 'lost' passport was in another name. All I really wanted was a single UK passport in my UK name, which I consider to be my actual name, but it seemed that was asking alot.

I have also investigated if I could change my name here in the TRNC to match my UK one but was told by a solicitor that it would cost 1000 pounds to try and it was 95% certain that the judge would turn down any such request any way.

Brinsley


Joined: 04/04/2009
Posts: 6858

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 21:38

Erolz

Beyond belief; you write extremely well and probably articulate in the same manner and assuming that you're bi-lingual (by your name), I cannot understand why you didn't take on the bureaucratic bastards who have cost you money!



Richard

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 21:51

Actualy I dont speak Turkish at all really, my mom was english and I was born in UK and lived there for first 40 ish years of my life.

I used to be the kind of pig headed stubburn and bloody minded indivdual that would not have let this lie, but after 8 years of living in the TRNC I am becomming more of a 'lifes too short' kind of person I guess.

When I first went to the passport office in London to try and get this sorted out, having gone through security, which is like an airport, got my ticket, waited and finally got to a human being I explained at legnth what the problem was, why I had a different name in the TRNC and how the High comission in TRNC refused to give me a passport in my UK name I was told to 'write it all down' so they could send it of to northampton for a decision to be made. So I duly wrote it all down and they took my current passport (in TRNC name) my previous passport (in UK name), my birth certificate (original), my fathers old UK passport,

[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 21:57

my parents UK marriage certificate and a letter I made the TRNC write me when I got my Kimlik card stating that [TRNC surname] was one and the same person as [UK surname], along with a description of what I wanted - namely a passport in my UK name and to not have to pay for it again. This was all sent to Northampton and I was told to come back in a week (I got a hand written recipt for all the documents I gave them). One week later I return, through security again, another ticket, another queue and get to see another human differtn human being from the last one. I explain everything once more and miraculously they find a 'reply' from northampton that basically said 'IPS can not refund or give a free one as if an incorrect one was given it was the responsibility of the FCO and not the IPS'. It also suggested I change my name by deed poll (change it back to the name I have always used in the UK) to solve the problem. However I had already explained that I could not

[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 22:02

just change my name by deed poll back to what it always had been inthe UK, because such a decleration requirend me to solemnly state I would not use the old name (TRNC one) any more, which I could not do as I have to use it in the TRNC. So I asked them for a copy of this decision from Northampton, so that when I went to the FCO and said the IPS had said they had made the mistake I had some proof. I was told that I could not possibly have a copy of this letter as it was an 'internal document' and could not be given to anyone outside the IPS. So one week later and 2 visits to IPS in London and no further forward except and absolute decision that I would have to pay again if a new passport was to be issued.

As I have said in times past I would have pursed a refund to the bitter end, even knowing that doing so would cost me more in lost time than the cost involved, but these days I am more relaxed I guess.

Brinsley


Joined: 04/04/2009
Posts: 6858

Message Posted:
14/04/2011 22:47

Erolz

I empathise with you, do wish to borrow my bazooka?!



Richard

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
15/04/2011 16:24

This thread seems to be getting off the subject with stuff about a guy's passport.

Anyone got any news about the rumoured closure of BHC's offices in Shakespeare House?

Geoff

Famagusta City.

malsancak


Joined: 23/08/2009
Posts: 2874

Message Posted:
15/04/2011 17:00

Geoff, yes, it's still a rumour

santababy


Joined: 13/04/2011
Posts: 8

Message Posted:
16/04/2011 09:58

I didn't say they had closed Shakespeare House, what I said was they had got shot of all the Turkish Cypriot staff and replaced them with two lonely part time Brits. There is an easy way of finding if this is rumour as I said before get off your duff and go see for yourself as I have done. Failing that, pick up the phone and ask to speak to Tucel, Serefe, Hamide, etc!

Geoff


Joined: 25/06/2008
Posts: 1370

Message Posted:
16/04/2011 17:01

I don't understand why passports aren't renewed in UK, rather than Spain, if they don't want to do them in Cyprus?

After all, in UK they are making loads of civil servants redundant, don't they deserve the work?

Geoff

Famagusta City

Lilli



Joined: 21/07/2008
Posts: 13081

Message Posted:
16/04/2011 17:13

i have read in cyprus today that the consular team will be holding a special open day in may. Together with representatives from the UKs DWP. May 19th with two seperate sessions. Its open to all british passport holders and info will be given on pensions, benefits and healtcare. The rights of british citizens and question time . you can register on line at http://unkicyprus.fco.gov.uk.

Geejay


Joined: 18/04/2009
Posts: 475

Message Posted:
16/04/2011 19:06

Thanks Lilli for the info. However the link should be http://ukincyprus.fco.gov.uk./

deputydawg


Joined: 30/03/2010
Posts: 1727

Message Posted:
16/04/2011 19:26

Geoff. Do not expect sense and logic from governments. They maintained a passport office as a sop in Belfast at a time when security was a bigger issue than now in spite of very large numbers of new passports being lost (allegedly in transit !). With regard to Shakespeare House those there who may have definite information, by the nature of their employment, are loathe to say too much. Suffice to say they anticipate it's closure.