They definitely OVER delivered!! Background - I was stupid and inadvertently shredded Mrs G's…read morepassport by mistake while shredding mountains of confidential paperwork and she was traveling a week later. Yikes!! We managed to get an appointment at 8am on a Friday morning. There were long lines for visa applications but Mrs G was allowed to walk right in and about 40 minutes later walked out clutching a brand new Emergency Passport (valid for a year) and could fly to LAX the next Tuesday!! God bless America. Thank you :)

The staff was professional and the process was organized. Security was tight, but expected. Make…read moresure to bring all required documents. Overall, a smooth experience.

They have a fun service I went today to renew my son passport which is still fails for two more…read moremonths first they mad me wait for 1hour and 20mints until my turn came then the women at the counter said you need to bring the boy birth certificate so I said you guys should have all this details on your system then she said I need guarantor to sin the photos So I asked first you should put some one to check application before making people wait and in all respectable embassy if passport is still valid no need for guarantor such as UK and Germany and Swiss uae Then I asked for her senior or manger to talk to me then she brought some old women who was very not nice and confirmed what her colleagues said so I said at least make not of the way that your system and up date you so notes of the inn convince was closed many they update the system she replied system will never change . That's why for this reason people are moving away.

Book the tour online well in advance. Take your passports. An embassy that doubles as a masterful…read moreshowpiece for Canadian arts & culture in trafalgar square's 2nd oldest building. Glad we did this. Highly recommended for all Canadians.

All my previous experience of embassies is based on a long visit to the US embassy last summer, so…read moreI was just happy that my trip to the Japanese embassy this morning was a quick in and out affair. Staff were perfectly pleasant and very efficient, there was plenty of space to fill out forms in comfort and best of all I was leaving again a mere 15 minutes after I showed up. There was a problem though - I'd convinced myself the building was on the Mall when it's the other side of the park. I would have got there exactly on time if it had been where I thought it was, but as it happened I had to peg it across Green Park in sweltering heat to arrive, red faced, ten minutes late. I can't blame the embassy for that though.

The queues are usually long long long, so come early in the morning. Fortunately, this being German…read moreterritory, there is no queue jumping - just take a number and wait until you are called to the counter. Staff here isn't overly friendly, but nevertheless very helpful. While you are waiting, have a look around, they often also have good information on tourism, language learning or scholarships.

I used to get very jealous of other embassies which are based in palacial old buildings with wood…read morepanelling and old-fashioned counters until I realised that the 70's architecture of the German embassy actually perfectly reflects the overall look and feel of my home country. Fortunately, staff at the passport and visa office are a lot more friendly than the tone of the website suggests. Security has been hightened since I queued for my last passport ten years ago. I was also caught out by the fact that you now have to make an appointment well in advance to apply for a renewal. You are then given a 15-minute slot for crowd control purposes. Apart from that the procedure remains the same. Once inside you are given a ticket and wait until your number is called. The waiting area has a very German feel to it and seems to be stuck in the 70's I don't think they have changed the posters on the walls since they first opened apart from the addition of a TV screen which allows a glimpse into modern-day Germany: daytime soaps and reality TV interspersed with the best of German advertising. Provided you have followed the instructions you received when your appointment was confirmed, the whole process is extremely efficient (what else would you expect).

Getting my visa to Egypt was a piece of cake. It usually takes 2 working days to get it done, but…read morethey managed to speed it up for me due to some circumstances... All the staff were nice, friendly and ready to help... I am not giving them 5 stars because I arrived once at 4:02pm to collect my passport and they were closed already: no way around it. A bit of flexibility on that side and they would really deserve 5 stars...

I have visited this Finnish Embassy when accompanying my wife about 2 times now…read more Not much has changed in the 5 years of the first visit. It is located in 'foreign embassy land' - left, right & centre you'll find either an embassy or consulate of nearly every country that has friendly (or not so friendly) connections with the United Kingdom. The Finnish Embassy is easy to find and not too far from city centre. The building is historic and has impressive doors. However in contrast with the other embassies I found it a bit understated. Oh well that my be the Fins for you :o) Their passport services on Friday's is from 14:00 - 15:00 only - you 'intercom' & 'camera check' to get through the security entrance and into a brown and green coloured waiting room. Comfortable sofas, a water cooler and some plants, Finland posters and a painting. Notably no Finland president picture, not that I could see. You draw a 'number' and on your turn you get to the counter (bullet proof) and conduct the passport exchange motions - everyone needs to do the same for the new biometric passport; pictures, fingerprints and signatures - then pay and kittos, you're done On this occasion, we arrived at 14:00 sharp we were 5 in line and left around 14:30 After a underground trip, we were well on to Piccadilly Circus when the embassy called us if we could get back ASAP as they forgot to take my wife's fingerprints- with only 10 min left before they close we abandoned our city visit touristy plans at that point and flagged a black cab to bring us to the Embassy, pronto. we arrived with 2 min spare and all was sorted. In their defence though, they tried calling before we surfaced at Piccadilly Circus, but as you know the underground system doesn't carry any mobile phone service. Oh well it was all sorted in the end.

I booked an appointment via the embassy website for 2pm (the earliest available). got there early…read moreso queued outside which is fine. I was allowed inside at my appointment time only to find out that the appointment time is not an "appointment time" as we know it. it is, in fact, the time they let you in, join another queue inside and wait for the (usual) slow service to get to you. This, however, shouldn't surprise me as this office has always been slow and inefficient. I was just hoping that they could find a more effective, faster and efficient way in delivering their services. Shame as the staff are nice and polite, the system is letting both them and us down. Please change for the better - this is just embarrassing.