British Passport Philadelphia

Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Founded in 1682 by Englishman William Penn, a social reformer and champion of liberty, he named the city Philadelphia using the Greek term meaning “brotherly love”. Philadelphia has the nickname “City of Brotherly Love” and is nowadays more casually known by locals and non-locals alike as “Philly”. The Philadelphia metropolitan area has over 6 million people (America’s eighth-largest metropolis) and includes cities and towns in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in addition to Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia is also known as the “Birthplace of America”. This is the city where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and submitted it to the Continental Congress at Independence Hall in 1776. This is also the location where the U.S. Constitution was debated and adopted in 1787. The concepts in these documents, specifically the concept of liberty and the notion that individuals should be free from government coercion, are ideas that many of us now take for granted but were truly revolutionary at the time. These are the ideas that had been brewing in the minds of British for centuries, and Philadelphia became their testing ground.

Today Philadelphia welcomes millions of domestic visitors each year to its historic sites, and the city also sees about 700,000 international visitors, including over 100,000 British. Many visitors are interested in Revolutionary War sites like Brandywine, Germantown, and the Continental Army’s winter quarters at Valley Forge. History buffs may also want to get some food and drink in their stomachs by visiting the City Tavern, which is a replica of the historic tavern where Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams discussed the future of America. Of course, no visit to Philadelphia is complete without a visit to Geno’s or Pat’s for a Philly cheesesteak.

The Philadelphia metropolitan area is also a center of higher education and has more than 80 postsecondary institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel, Villanova, and Thomas Jefferson University. These schools are not only a huge employer for residents of the city, but also make Philadelphia an attractive hub for information technology and biotechnology companies that need to recruit top talent. British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline maintains their US headquarters in Philadelphia, and nearby Wilmington, Delaware is the US headquarters for British biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is the primary airport for the metropolitan area and is located just 7 miles from downtown Philadelphia. PHL has nonstop flights to 140 destinations, including 3 destinations in the United Kingdom. British Airways and American Airlines both have nonstop service to London-Heathrow. American Airlines also provides service to Manchester and has seasonal service to Edinburgh. Philadelphia is located on Amtrak’s Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor, providing easy access for railway passengers traveling to Boston, Providence, New York City, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.

Philadelphia does not have a British consulate, so if you are a British national living in or visiting the state of Pennsylvania or New Jersey and require urgent assistance, you must call the British consulate in New York City by dialing +1 212-745-0200. The British consulate in New York can also provide an emergency passport if you are stuck abroad and need to return quickly to the United Kingdom. It is about a 2-hour drive to New York from Philadelphia on Interstate 95 traveling north.

Here is their physical address:

British Consulate General New York

1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza,
885 Second Avenue
New York City, NY 10017-6927
USA

For those U.K. citizens or other British nationals that live in the United States and require a new 10-year British passport, you must apply online through the U.K. government website.

If you have difficulty applying online for a British passport and require assistance with this process, please give our office a call or schedule an appointment with our company. We are a private agency in the United States providing British passport services to U.K citizens living in North America. Our number one goal is to ensure your application documents for a passport are submitted accurately to Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the United Kingdom. Our services eliminate delays and give you the peace of mind to focus on your travel plans.

We provide the following British passport services for our customers: