GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – UK passport holders who need to renew or anyone asking for a new passport should be aware that the system changed Monday 3 June, and their requests must now be directed to the UK. British passports for Swiss residents have been handled by the Paris embassy hub office  in recent years. Here is the press release from the office, but one GenevaLunch reader says the information on the web site is not up to date and if you’re trying to track a passport that’s already in the system you may run into problems and delays.

“The British government is making important changes to the passport service for British nationals living overseas. Up until 3 June 2013, British nationals living in Switzerland submitted passport applications to a regional processing hub in Paris, France.

“From 3 June, the application process will be centralised and passport applications from British nationals in Switzerland will be processed at the Passport Customer Service Centre in Durham. This important change follows reviews by the National Audit Office and is designed to achieve economies of scale, greater security and consistency in decision making. All the information required to make an application can be found on the GOV.UK website. There will be no change to processing times.”