Quote Originally Posted by lastlid View Post
It seemed to me that when I visited the UK embassy in Manila to enquire about this they made it clear that the only route was to exchange my UK CNI at the embassy. Lest problems occur at the point of visa application. Maybe they were misinformed?
We can ONLY recommend the offical line as advised by the UKBA/Britiah Embassy for the route you take when getting your local CNI.

As Terpe has already indicated, those who follow these hear-say ways do so at their own risk. You may well be able to do that without going to the Embassy, but later on when trying to get your visa papers together it might have knock on effects. Until it becomes official and published please follow the route Terpe has linked to.