19 December 2023

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office London branch closure on 29 December 2023

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) Premium/Same day centre in London will soon be closing on 29 December 2023. This will have a huge impact on businesses and clients in the coming weeks.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

For many years, the FCDO’s express service has provided apostille services to countless clients throughout London and the surrounding area, especially to ones with time critical documents. This central location ensured documents were processed efficiently and quickly.

Here at Woodcock Notary Public, we have so far used the London office as part of our apostille services, as we work with them to help our clients get their documents issued with an apostille. This has allowed people to use their documents overseas.

However, as they are soon closing their London office on 29 December 2023, access to the FCDO’s service will be impacted.

How the FCDO’s services will be impacted

The FCDO’s main office will be in Milton Keynes, so processing times will take a little bit longer for fast track services.

Additionally, FCDO fees are increasing for the first time since 2016. For example, the FCDO’s standard service fee will be increased from £30 to £45.

It will no longer be as easy for people in London to access the FCDO’s services. Same-day apostille services will also no longer be available, so anyone who wants to use this service will have to wait longer. They will need to use either our standard or new fast-track service that is replacing the existing premium service on 29 December.

How our services will be impacted by these changes

Our prices for our standard and fast-track (previously premium) apostille services will also change after 29 December 2023, because we will now have to use the Milton Keynes office of the FCDO.

Standard apostille processing times will also be shorter than they were before; however, fast-track apostille times will take slightly longer than they used to.

Our updated costs and times are: