British Passport San Francisco

San Francisco, known as the “City by the Bay”, is one of America’s most famous and beautiful cities. Located in Northern California, San Francisco is just one of the many cities that together make up the San Francisco Bay Area, or Bay Area for short. The 14-county combined statistical area (that comprises the Bay Area) has nearly 10 million people, making it the fifth-most populous region in the United States. The Bay Area includes cities such as Oakland, Berkeley, Concord, Pleasanton, Fremont, San Jose, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sausalito, San Rafael, and Novato.

The Spanish were the first Europeans to reach the Bay Area, but the British certainly have made their mark on the region. The legendary British explorer and naval officer, Sir Francis Drake, landed on Point Reyes in 1579 claiming the land for Queen Elizabeth I. Andrew Smith Hallidie, born in London, is considered the inventor of the San Francisco Cable Car. William Richardson, also born in London, was the founder of Yerba Buena (later known as San Francisco) and built the first independent homestead in the area. James Marshall, of British descent, was the first to discover gold in the American River, prompting the California Gold Rush in 1848.

With over 200 British companies operating in the region, business ties between the Bay Area and the United Kingdom are strong. The economy of the Bay Area is one of the most vigorous and entrepreneurial in the world. Silicon Valley (in the southern part of the Bay Area) has attracted British engineers for years and is home to many successful technology startups. Silicon Valley produces more patents than any other part of the country and it also has the most millionaires and billionaires in the United States per capita.

While the list of internet and software companies in the Bay Area is long, there is an even longer list of semiconductor and electronics companies such as Seagate Technology, Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Hewlett-Packard, and Western Digital, among many others. The Bay Area is an important financial center and is the headquarters of several traditional banks and new-age financial technology companies. Food and drink is also a huge industry, taking advantage of the region’s abundant agricultural resources and pristine growing conditions of Napa and San Joaquin Valley.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the largest airport in the Bay Area and seventh-busiest airport in the United States. British Airways, United Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic all have nonstop service to London-Heathrow and Norwegian Air has nonstop service to London-Gatwick. San Jose International Airport is the Bay Area’s second-busiest airport and has nonstop service to London-Heathrow through British Airways. Oakland International Airport, on the other side of San Francisco Bay, has passenger flights throughout the United States and international flights to Mexico, as well as cargo flights to China and Japan.

San Francisco is home to one of eight British consulates in the United States, providing services to British nationals in Northern California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. If you are a British national and require urgent assistance, you can reach the consulate by calling +1 415 617 1300. The British consulate in San Francisco can also provide an emergency passport if you are stuck abroad and need to return quickly to the United Kingdom.

Here is their physical address:

British Consulate General San Francisco

1 Sansome Street, Suite 850
San Francisco CA 94104
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: