If anyone has a holiday abroad planned for this year and are looking to renew or get a new passport do it right now because the passport office's thoughout the country are in complete disarry. I'm currently waiting on two of my daughters passports that I applied for at the start of april and I am supposed to be going on my honeymoon(with the kids) in 13 days.
The whole process has been a joke. I initially applied for four passports, one for my wife(for her change of name) and one for each of my daughters. i applied online and was told two days later to send in the supporting documents, so i put them all in individual envelopes inside one big envelope and posted it recorded delivery. Two weeks later my wifes and one of my daughters was approved(dont ask me how my daughters was approved). I then got a notification to send in proof of my wifes name change for my other two daughters applications. Because they already had the marriage cert to prove the name change, I gave them a call thinkign it would be a straight forward process but how wrong could I be?! Whenever I spoke to someone from the passport office I got conflicting info: one person would say that the marriage cert would be linked to the other applications, and that it would just take time, and the next person would say that we had to send it back in with a covering letter giving them permission to link the accounts. Fast forward umpteen phone calls and my marriage cert was posted back to me 4 weeks later without it being linked to my daughters applications. So I then sent it back in with the cover letter and it's now been sitting in their office for 3 weeks. The people on the end of the phone tell me that they know they have the cert but that they're waiting for it to be scanned in!!
Last weekend, to rub salt in the wound, I got an automated email to say if I dont send in the docs for my eldest daughters application that it would be cancelled by the thursday. I couldn't believe it! My wifes mum suggested contacting our local MP so we emailed him and he managed to stop the application from being cancelled, thankfully. They, apparently, have made it a priority but we've still not had the cert scanned and when my wife phoned 2 days ago they told her that the applications had been moved to their peterbough office from bootle.
I zero confidence that they will sort the passports out in time. There are no appointments available for the fast track and, even if there were, I can't usew the service because I've already started the onling application. I've read online of people just turning up to the passport offices with proof of their departure date and being seen. I believe it has to be within 48 hours of the flight though.
My wife and I are beyond stressed at this point. As you can imagine, with it being a honeymoon, we pushed the boat out for this holiday and now it looks like we are going to loose the lot. What's even worse is that almost half of the holiday was paid for by our wedding guests...
Anyway, please, if you need a new passport for a holiday, apply now.
The whole process has been a joke. I initially applied for four passports, one for my wife(for her change of name) and one for each of my daughters. i applied online and was told two days later to send in the supporting documents, so i put them all in individual envelopes inside one big envelope and posted it recorded delivery. Two weeks later my wifes and one of my daughters was approved(dont ask me how my daughters was approved). I then got a notification to send in proof of my wifes name change for my other two daughters applications. Because they already had the marriage cert to prove the name change, I gave them a call thinkign it would be a straight forward process but how wrong could I be?! Whenever I spoke to someone from the passport office I got conflicting info: one person would say that the marriage cert would be linked to the other applications, and that it would just take time, and the next person would say that we had to send it back in with a covering letter giving them permission to link the accounts. Fast forward umpteen phone calls and my marriage cert was posted back to me 4 weeks later without it being linked to my daughters applications. So I then sent it back in with the cover letter and it's now been sitting in their office for 3 weeks. The people on the end of the phone tell me that they know they have the cert but that they're waiting for it to be scanned in!!
Last weekend, to rub salt in the wound, I got an automated email to say if I dont send in the docs for my eldest daughters application that it would be cancelled by the thursday. I couldn't believe it! My wifes mum suggested contacting our local MP so we emailed him and he managed to stop the application from being cancelled, thankfully. They, apparently, have made it a priority but we've still not had the cert scanned and when my wife phoned 2 days ago they told her that the applications had been moved to their peterbough office from bootle.
I zero confidence that they will sort the passports out in time. There are no appointments available for the fast track and, even if there were, I can't usew the service because I've already started the onling application. I've read online of people just turning up to the passport offices with proof of their departure date and being seen. I believe it has to be within 48 hours of the flight though.
My wife and I are beyond stressed at this point. As you can imagine, with it being a honeymoon, we pushed the boat out for this holiday and now it looks like we are going to loose the lot. What's even worse is that almost half of the holiday was paid for by our wedding guests...
Anyway, please, if you need a new passport for a holiday, apply now.
