[News] The National Embarrassment That Is . . . HM Passport Office.

[Westdene Seagull]

I struggle to have sympathy here. So many people have waited due to lockdown to renew their passports at the correct time - i.e. when the passport was coming up to the expiry date - why ? Now many have booked holidays without a thought about their passport - why ? Never booked a trip abroad without checking my passport date before booking. Yet for some reason it's the Passport Office's fault !

 

[Change at Barnham]

I've completed an online renewal application for mine this morning, and I'll be returning my old one in the postbox to them this afternoon.

I'll keep you updated.....

 

[keaton]

Lot of people having to cancel holidays as passports not come back, normally I would say idiots. But you would expect them to be back in 2 months.

WFH isn’t suited for all.

The gov need to sort this out.

And WFH is causing this issue how?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

And WFH is causing this issue how?

The people wanting to renew were working from home eating cheese and drinking wine ( as suggested by Boris ) so forgot to renew ?

 

[ropey9]

Renewal online with a photo, paid, sent the old one back registered post, got an email telling me to send it back, an email telling me that they received it, and email telling me that it was approved, an email telling me it was being printed, and email telling me the new one had been sent, took 7 days from online application to getting new passport.

I guess when its good, its good, when its bad its bad, pretty much like anything.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

This website claims to obtain actual wait time data from people stating how long they waited. Currently they say an Adult Passport Renewal is 27 days, whereas a New Adult Passport is 49 days. Their graph seems to back up others saying they got theirs within 3 weeks etc. earlier in the year.

A tad less than a month then on average for a renewal? I'd so love to think that is right. Maybe they are just giving a 10/12 week waiting time as a very worst case scenario, and to cover themselves in case of longer extended delays.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I've completed an online renewal application for mine this morning, and I'll be returning my old one in the postbox to them this afternoon.

I'll keep you updated.....

I'll race you! See whose comes back first.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

I śaw Kay Burley interviewing a chap on Sky News this morning about passport renewals. I can't find a link to the story but he was part of a group or campaign or something ... where they were recommending to people that if they wanted to try and beat the system they should buy a cheap single flight to anywhere which could then be used as 'evidence' that they needed their passport urgently!!!

He then went on to admit that from the data they had that most people were receiving their passports within the 10 weeks!!

 

[Pretty Plnk Fairy]

I share the pain of everyone trying to get their passports renewed, but trust me, the shortcomings of the Passport Office pale into insignificance when compared to the complete and utter mess that is Clown Central the DVLA. I would list the problems I've had with these idiots since I made the classic mistake of changing my car back in Feb, but life is too short.
Complete and utter Tw*ts.

People have a go at me for not being able to spell, but you spelled Twits wrongly.

Regards

DF

 

[Thunder Bolt]

And WFH is causing this issue how?

Just another excuse to point the finger. Just one department I know was cut from 32 to 12 to do the same volume of work.

 

[RandyWanger]

They take some time for the French / Dutch company to print and post from Poland too.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Can you do an emergency in person renewal in London, near Victoria?


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[DarrenFreemansPerm]

I sent my renewal and an application for my son’s first passport on the 30th April via the Post Office’s Check and Send service. It was ‘received’ on the 17th May. 8 weeks and it’s not been looked at, we have a holiday booked for the 31st, as of Sunday I can pay an additional £140 to ‘try’ and speed them up, I have to give evidence of our travel booking and then keep our fingers crossed that they will arrive in the next 12 days. I’m not hopeful

 

[Boroseagull]

Received my new passport back via DHL here in Spain 31 days after applying on line. Old one returned separately 7 days later by same method. My only comments are as to why we are charged £85 for applying on line rather than £75 if I was in UK - why the difference, and before you say postage cost we pay £20 extra for that making a total of £105.

But what does annoy me, and for the life of me I fail to understand why, is the following massive price difference; my English friend lives in La Linea but works in Gibraltar and as such is allowed to renew his passport at the Gibraltar Govt. office and receive exactly the same passport back as mine except it has 'and Gibraltar' on the front all for a total cost of £42! No extra for handling etc.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Can you do an emergency in person renewal in London, near Victoria?


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Horrendous queues by all accounts.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Can you do an emergency in person renewal in London, near Victoria?


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In theory yes, that's the Prestige service, and would be my preferred method, but just try getting an appointment, none are available.

I did after many days trying finally manage to obtain one in Belfast, but l'm not going there!

 

[Pavilionaire]

It sounds from the comments on this thread as though the Passport Office is doing a reasonable job in difficult circumstances, with few delays at off-peak times.

Inevitably, if people put off making their holiday decision until the Covid problems began to ease at the end of March then there is going to be higher demand in a tighter timescale at a time when civil servants are themselves on holiday or catching Covid.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Had to go there a couple of weeks ago to get a passport for my newborn son as we need to travel urgently on compassionate grounds. Got a call on Thursday saying to come and collect it on Friday at 2pm.Turned up, waited in line for an hour to be told sorry it's not ready. Come back in 2 hours. Came back in 2 hours. Not ready, come back in 2 hours. I pointed out they'd be closed in 2 hours. Ok, come back in 1 hour then. Eventually got told sorry it's not ready yet, come back tomorrow. Great. So why did you call me and tell me it was ready to pick up then you TARDS!? There were half a dozen or so others in there at the same time as me who'd been waiting since 8am and still didn't have a passport by the end of the day, and were told to come back Saturday morning. It is a bit of a shambles really.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Just renewed mine online. The new mug shot, snapped by Mrs T, makes me look like a pissed-off drug dealer -

I wonder when It will arrive....

 

[Happy Exile]

Renewed mini-Exile's passport online in March. At the time we were told to allow for 12 weeks, came back 10 days later. Might be different load now with it being summer maybe.