All applications for full validity British passports from residents of Canada and the USA should be sent to:

North America Passport Production Centre
British Embassy
19 Observatory Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20008

If you are facing a consular emergency, please contact your nearest Consulate or Consular Section

Please note that the North America Passport Production Centre is not able to provide a telephone information service about passports or other nationality questions.  The Production Centre will issue more than 75,000 passports each year in the US and Canada.  The vast majority of these are issued well within our 10-day target time.  

In order to maintain this level of service we have had to rationalise a number of areas of our work. Our primary tool to help you apply for your passport is this website.  It contains the most commonly used information.

We also offer a user-pays information service via our information partner, Abtran.  If Abtran are unable to answer your question they will contact us for advice and guidance.

You can access the Abtran service at the following numbers:

1 900 528 7277 (Premium rate $2.90 Cdn/minute)

1 800 809 3777 (Credit card rate $2.60 US/minute)

Calling from the UK? Please call 0906 664 1717 (£1.50/minute)
The ABTRAN service is available from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM EST Monday to Friday


Complaints about ABTRAN

Abtran Services are committed to providing our customers with the best possible service. We make every effort to ensure customers are happy with the advice and level of service they receive from Abtran.
However if you have an unsatisfactory experience with Abtran and wish to register a complaint please send the complaint to:

BHCCanadaCustomerServices@abtran.com

Please provide the following details:

• Name:
• Date and time of call:
• Length of call (approximate):
• Phone number used when calling:
• Contact Phone number:
• Reason  of complaint.
  

All calls to Abtran are recorded. Abtran requests these details from the customer so that Abtran can find and replay the call that has caused the customer to complain. This helps Abtran understand the customer's position and helps speed up the resolution of the complaint.

Abtran will acknowledge receipt of email complaints by the end of the next working day. Abtran will make initial investigations into complaints and contact customers within 48 hours with their initial conclusions.

If the matter cannot be concluded at this stage they will give the customer an outline of the approach that will be used to investigate it further and will outline the anticipated timeframe for resolution. If the customer wishes to escalate the complaint they will have the potential options explained to them.

Comments and Complaints about the High Commission

If you wish to comment, complain or make a suggestion about British passport services in North America, please write to:

Head of Passport Services,
North America Passport Production Centre
British Embassy
19 Observatory Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20008
If you wish to make a complaint or send us comments about other consular services in Canada we offer, please email or write to Neil Kavanagh, the head of Consular Services at the British High Commission at:

British High Commission
80 Elgin Street
Ottawa ON
K1P 5K7

consular.assistance@fco.gov.uk

All complaints will be investigated and the Head of the Consular Section.  A reply will be sent within two weeks and where this is not possible, we shall send you a brief interim response explaining why.