In 2007 the Home Office introduced the requirement to attend a face-to-face interview with officials from the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) as part of a first-time passport application. Essy received her British Citizenship last month and immediately applied for a British passport and today she had to attend the interview. Getting the passport will mean we can pop over to France or visit my daughter in Italy without the hassle and time involved in getting a Schengen visa put into her Zimbabwean passport each time.

Just before we left for the interview I stumbled by chance upon an article from the Daily Telegraph of a couple of days ago. During the past 3 years the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has interviewed over half a million first-time applicants and as a result refused …… wait for it …… 8 passports! Just for clarity that’s ‘eight’.

The service cost £93m to set up with running costs of £30m per year. Therefore the total cost so far has been around £183m equating to a cost of £22.87 million pounds per passport refused!!

17 June 2010 update. Essy’s passport arrived today, 48 hours after the interview. Now we’ll have to christen it!