Adulting Through The Eyes Of A 16 Year Old - Passports
A lot of the things I’m learning about may seem very obvious to people. I’m sharing to show what kind of things never occurred to me and how I’m finding the world works.
Preparing for my trip to England is quite different to the things I’m used to doing. At the moment I’m applying for a passport.
I was born in Nottingham and didn’t move to Australia until I was 7 years old. We went back to England to visit family in 2012, so it’s been 5 years. I’m a British citizen, and only have Australian permanent residency, so I need a re-entry visa as well.
Old passports
The application process had to be done on a British website, and the passport cost about $180AUD (roughly £100GBP). So far I’ve had to enter my old passport details and send in a photo of myself. The photo was actually taken in our living room… and it was accepted! I also paid online, using my Visa card. It surprised me that even though my card is with an Australian bank they still accepted the payment. It took the AUD equivalent out of my account and after searching the exchange rate, it seems that I wasn’t even charged any fees to convert it from dollars to pounds.
I had to post it to the UK which cost me $12AUD, so all around it was much cheaper than I expected (under $200AUD in total).
When I get my new passport I’ll be applying for the re-entry visa. I’m still waiting on someone from a travel retailer that’s finding the cheapest flights for me. Once I have my documents I’ll book the flight and it’ll be all sorted!
All that’ll be left to do is sort out what’s going to happen when I get there. I’ll be staying with family so accommodation will be sorted, and I’m able to get to and from the airport. I need to find out how much money I need to take with me as well as when the best time to exchange will be. I have zero experience with this kind of thing so any advice or tips would be much appreciated!