ID interview to get a passport
Posted: 03 May 2006, 21:30
ALL adults applying for new passports in GTR Manchester, must attend a 20-minute face-to-face interview in Manchester, it was announced yesterday.
More than 28,000 people are expected to undergo the interviews every year in a move to combat the growing threat of identity fraud, the Home Office said.
The centre is among the 69 that will be set up across Britain to interview around 610,000 people every year wanting to travel abroad for the first time and will have seven interviewees stationed at the office.
The Home Office insisted the interviews were necessary to stem the 1,500 attempted bogus passport applications made last year alone — 75 per cent of which involved first time adult applicants.
With 90 per cent of applications currently made by post, the system is wide open to abuse by fraudsters often filling in false forms abroad, ministers say.
They are particularly keen to stamp out the scam used in novel “The Day of the Jackalâ€
More than 28,000 people are expected to undergo the interviews every year in a move to combat the growing threat of identity fraud, the Home Office said.
The centre is among the 69 that will be set up across Britain to interview around 610,000 people every year wanting to travel abroad for the first time and will have seven interviewees stationed at the office.
The Home Office insisted the interviews were necessary to stem the 1,500 attempted bogus passport applications made last year alone — 75 per cent of which involved first time adult applicants.
With 90 per cent of applications currently made by post, the system is wide open to abuse by fraudsters often filling in false forms abroad, ministers say.
They are particularly keen to stamp out the scam used in novel “The Day of the Jackalâ€
