Chinese Passport Renewal in the UK 2026 (中国领事 App / Chinese Consulates)

Chinese citizens living in the UK must submit passport applications through the Chinese Embassy or Consulate-General responsible for their place of residence. The current UK jurisdiction division assigns most UK territory and overseas territories to the Embassy, Greater Manchester and several northern English counties to Manchester, Scotland to Edinburgh, and Northern Ireland to Belfast.

The current UK passport-renewal rule covers passports with less than 12 months remaining, passports with fewer than 2 blank visa pages, and passports that have already expired. A passport with more than 12 months remaining can also be renewed when a legitimate reason exists.

Install the official 中国领事 App and complete the required account/real-name verification. Select the Chinese Embassy or Consulate-General responsible for your UK residence, then choose the ordinary passport service.

Enter your personal information exactly as it appears in your current passport and identity records. Complete the Nationality Status Declaration and sign electronically. For applicants under 10, the parent or legal guardian follows the minor-signature procedure displayed in the App.

Upload the recent digital passport photo, current passport information page and any annotation pages. Children under 16 must also upload the parent's/legal guardian's identity documents and proof of the guardianship relationship. Each image should match the original document.

The 中国领事 App may perform facial-recognition identity verification. If facial verification fails, the current London Embassy procedure allows the applicant to skip that stage and complete identity verification when appearing at the consular office with valid identity documents.

The current UK Chinese consular fee for an ordinary passport issuance, renewal or replacement is £14. London's current online-plus-offline system allows payment through the 中国领事 App using the payment methods displayed by the App, including UnionPay QuickPass, WeChat Pay, Alipay and bank-card payment.

After submission, monitor the order under My Orders or Message Centre. The consular office can ask the applicant to upload corrected or additional documents. Applicants should not send original passports by post before the office instructs them to proceed to the physical stage.

When the application status reaches the required physical-review stage, attend the relevant mission with the original current passport and original supporting documents. For the London Embassy's current process, applicants go to the Consular Section at 31 Portland Place for original-document verification, photograph and fingerprint collection.

The physical stage includes identity verification and required biometric information such as photograph and fingerprints. The electronic application therefore does not mean that the entire passport process is completed remotely.

The current London Embassy guidance states that ordinary passport processing usually takes about 10 working days from the time the originals are physically submitted. Manchester's published ordinary-passport guidance also states about 10 working days, with up to 20 working days where additional verification is required. Edinburgh publishes about 10 working days from physical submission, subject to identity verification.

Follow the order status in the 中国领事 App and the messages sent by the relevant mission. The system can show review, supplement-document, production and completed-document stages.

The collection process differs by UK mission. London's current system uses physical collection at the Consular Section after the App shows that the document is ready and does not accept postal application packages under its current online-plus-offline procedure. Manchester and Edinburgh have separately published postal-return procedures after the application reaches the document-production stage, so applicants must follow the instructions of the mission they selected.

Check the new passport's name, date/place of birth, passport number, issue date and expiry date immediately. Where the old passport is retained after cancellation, keep it for historical visa and identity records. A passport that has been reported lost cannot be used again even if later found.