With the aim to prevent fraudulent passport application, a detail plan was published on March 20, which says that First-time passport applicants aged over 16 will have to face the compulsory interviews at one of 69 centres around the country in which 200 personal questions will be asked.
The interviews will last between 10 and 20 minutes and will be conducted in a friendly and non-threatening manner. The questions designed to establish a social footprint of who they are would be asked.
Starting in Newport, Belfast, Peterborough and Glasgow, the interviews will be extended across the country to cover some 600,000 people in the first 12 months.
The cost of passport has been pushed up with the new checks and the addition of the biometric data. It is now £66 and will rise to over £90 when the ID card is added.
From next year, anyone applying for a passport will have his or her details added to the ID database. From 2009, everyone applying for a passport, either their first or a renewal will need to attend one of these centres to have their fingerprints taken.
Limited validity passports can be issued without the interview only in genuine emergencies.
Source: Telegraph
