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Original poster

Has anyone ever had a passport go wrong? Or any kind of passport drama?

66 replies

SnoozeAllDay · 19/02/2022 21:37

Renewing passports today and I always go really slowly with the application and then stress for the next month that it’s going to be rejected (no actual reason to feel like that)

And it got me wondering if anyone has any passport tales to tell? Like you received your passport and THEY made an error.
Or you didn’t receive them in time for your trip and were left stuck at home etc.

BTW I am NOT daily fail scum. I’m genuinely just curious.

OP posts:
UnderripeBanana · 20/02/2022 00:02

DS2s passport had the wrong date of birth on it. It was about a year before I noticed and we'd been abroad a couple of times by then.

Passport office replaced it for free but it must have been my fault as the incorrect DOB was basically the same as DS1s.

So his age was quite far wrong. But no airline or customs ever commented. All babies DO look the same.

Titsywoo · 20/02/2022 00:09

I did a year in Australia on a working holiday visa in my 20s. Got pissed and lost my passport the first week I was there. It was a nightmare to replace and I can't even remember how I managed it now!

BitOutOfPractice · 20/02/2022 00:13

Only realised DD’s passport was out of date when I went to check in online 4 days before our holiday.

We made it but I didn’t sleep for those 4 days.

MistySkiesAfterRain · 20/02/2022 00:16

Changed bags just before leaving and forgot passport was in first bag. Nicely zipped. At home.

Fortunately my brother was a motorbike courier at the time.

JesusSufferingFuck22 · 20/02/2022 00:16

Was returning back to home country after 10 years in USA. Got to check in and realised my passport had expired. I hadn't realised because my visa was still valid. Minor heart attack but was allowed to travel to my home country after a lot of fuss and cerfuffle

TheChosenTwo · 20/02/2022 00:18

Dh and I were due to go to Spain on eg a Friday. We had been going out for around 10 months and I’d been spending a lot of time at his. In the meantime my helpful mum had had a clear out of my bedroom and thrown away a file containing, among other things that proved a ball ache to replace years later, my passport. Only realised on the the Thursday when I went home and turned my room upside down. Called the passport office and made a same day appointment for the Friday morning, think the turnaround was about 4 hours, fil picked me up from the station and drove dh and I to the airport, we made it by the skin of our teeth Confused
Never ever again.
Passports are all kept in a very safe secure place, if anyone needs one for ID purposes I make sure they are frisked for it as soon as they walk back through the front door!

Hawkmoth · 20/02/2022 00:32

Went away with mum and sister. After we got through customs on way home Mum informed us that sister's passport was expired. Nobody noticed!

livyaz · 20/02/2022 00:32

@BertieBotts

DS1 needed an emergency passport once, that was exciting, although a sad occasion as we were trying to get to FIL before he died (we didn't make it sadly). The emergency passport was gold, and it was a bit of a crazy trip because I was on the phone to the consulate and they said "Can you get here by 4pm?" Looked at the clock and it was 12 midday. It was about 3-4 hours drive away so DH said yes. We literally threw clothes into IKEA bags, grabbed 9yo DS and assumed we'd get a drive thru on the way although I grabbed some ham and bread as well just in case. When we go into the car it said something like 600km, 4 hours based on current traffic. Fuel gauge was at 600km remaining. DH and I just looked at each other. It was like some kind of top gear challenge.

As we were in Germany we would be going at something like 160, 180km/h on the empty bits of autobahn and the time would go down but then the fuel km remaining would go down too. So we'd slow down a bit and the fuel efficiency would go up and it would look like we'd make it but then we'd get really hot and sweaty and put the air con on for a bit as there was a heatwave. None of us had eaten all day and I was six months pregnant and not supposed to hold onto my wee because I was having kidney pains, but we didn't have any time to stop. I was getting updates from the family group so that DH could concentrate on driving.

We got near to Dusseldorf and hit rush hour traffic. I had to phone the consulate and hope they would wait for us, they did. We didn't make it there until 5pm. I had to hand my phone in to security and we went in to do the passport interview.

When I got out victorious with the passport I had about eight missed calls and loads of messages. FIL had passed away just as we got into the consulate. He loved his top gear challenges. I like to think he set us one and was watching it one last time before he turned the TV off, satisfied we'd made it, and went to bed.

I love this story!
TheChosenTwo · 20/02/2022 00:35

Oh, and travelling with a friend and she lost her passport between boarding and departing the plane. That was fun at 1am in Schipol airport Hmm
My dad once went to France on the ferry, flashed his passport through the window and drove onto the boat. Had a lovely time away, flashed his passport to French officials at the other side and boarded the boat to come home. When he got back his wife was shocked, he had taken HER passport and it wasn’t picked up on by anyone Shock
This was 30 years or so ago now, things were evidently more laid back then!

Nixbox · 20/02/2022 00:36

Years ago, kids could be on their parents' passport instead of having their own. I was next to someone trying to check in their teenage son using the mum's passport, except he was travelling alone. Mum kept saying "his name is here, my photo is here" and the airline person was repeating "he is travelling alone, he needs his own passport."
Don't know what happened, but not sure how mum thought he would get home...

Babadook76 · 20/02/2022 00:37

I’ve been waiting since august for an adult and 3 childrens passport renewals. They’ve taken my money, managed to lose every one of our birth certificates and previous passports and are now saying I didn’t send them despite me paying for recorded delivery and them sending me emails saying they’d received them. So we’re applying not getting our new passports. We’re meant to be going on a 5k non refundable holiday next month that we’ve been paying off for 3 years.

RandomMess · 20/02/2022 00:48

I worked as a tour operator and had a group of school DC traveling to the USA from UK.

I checked the passports before sending them off for visas and one had been issued for a few months rather than a 5 years 🤦🏼‍♀️ The Dad had to take his DD to some far far away passport office do an emergency appointment to get it redone in order to get the visa done in time. I think had got in person in the first place so we couldn't believe that no one had checked it at the time!!!

This was back when we were moving over to EU passports.

Marzipanfruit · 20/02/2022 00:51

When changing the name on my passport post marriage they managed to lose my original birth certificate with a baptismal signature by a family member on the back, and also my marriage lines. As the replacements I had to order are typed I still wonder what happened to my lovely originals.....

TheChosenTwo · 20/02/2022 00:54

Oh, sil was going on a family holiday a year or so after getting married. They were going to America I think. Husband had booked the tickets and they arrived at the airport - he’d booked the tickets in her married name presuming that she’d changed her passport! Think they ended up just having to pay to name change at the airport. What a palaver!

HerNameIsIncontinentiaButtocks · 20/02/2022 01:03

@BertieBotts My passport in my 20s-30s had a misspelling of my surname - and similarly to you, only German passport control ever noticed! And only once.
They let me through in the end, since I was going home and it would be way more trouble than it was worth. Also possibly embarrassed they hadn't noticed it on my inbound flight...

drspouse · 20/02/2022 07:55

@Titsywoo

I did a year in Australia on a working holiday visa in my 20s. Got pissed and lost my passport the first week I was there. It was a nightmare to replace and I can't even remember how I managed it now!
This reminds me, I am a dual national but I was born in the UK. I used to only travel on my non UK passport which had my ILR in and said "refer to previous passport" as when I was a child you didn't pay for them. I lost my previous passport on a bar crawl and turned up at Heathrow with only my later passport with no ILR. Immigration woman let me in on the strength of my accent and UK driving licence and an ambiguous stamp referring to a non existent ILR. I declined to pay £1000 for a new stamp and got my UK passport sorted out properly.
ThatsNotMyGolem · 20/02/2022 07:56

@PugInTheHouse

Teenage brother forgot his was in his jeans pocket and put it through the wash and the photo page had come apart. He didn't tell anyone and was hauled off the plane before holiday (no idea why it wasn't mentioned at security). They let him travel in the end as he was with my parents.

Friend sent her DS on a school trip with her passport by mistake. He ended up going but I can't remember how they sorted it.

Another friend lost her DDs passport in a cab a week before a school trip. Called the cab company several times and they denied they had it. She couldn't get a passport appointment to get a new child passport so she booked an appointment anyway. I did the ID verification before she left but completed it wrong (I've done loads but think the pressure got to me lol). She just turned up 80 odd miles away to the passport office and cried. They did it for her, she stayed overnight and it was ready lunchtime the next day. The day after she got home the cab company called her to say they had the passport after all.

This isn't what OP means! Did you read it? She specifically asked for incidents where the authorities made a mistake, not of people losing passports.

Oblomov22 · 20/02/2022 08:12

I love all these. I know OP asked about authority mistake, but these are better.

I went on a school trip and some didn't even bring their passports. I don't know how we got away with it, group passport?

cliffdiver · 20/02/2022 08:32

@TheChosenTwo

Oh, and travelling with a friend and she lost her passport between boarding and departing the plane. That was fun at 1am in Schipol airport Hmm My dad once went to France on the ferry, flashed his passport through the window and drove onto the boat. Had a lovely time away, flashed his passport to French officials at the other side and boarded the boat to come home. When he got back his wife was shocked, he had taken HER passport and it wasn’t picked up on by anyone Shock This was 30 years or so ago now, things were evidently more laid back then!

When I was a teen (20 years ago) my family and I went on a few ferry / shuttle trips to France.

At passport control they would just count the number of (closed) passports against the number of passengers in the car.

Different times!

AFingerofFudge · 20/02/2022 08:37

@BertieBotts I love your story

DownWhichOfLate · 20/02/2022 08:53

@ThatsNotMyGolem - op asked for any passport stories.

Original poster
SnoozeAllDay · 20/02/2022 08:55

Thank you everyone I’ve loved reading these.
Lots of very bum flappy moments!
Good to know the majority of you were able to be sorted.

OP posts:
princesssparklepants · 20/02/2022 08:57

My work used to organise social trips and one Christmas they organised a trip to Belgium. It was via ferry and coach.
None of us we're asked to show passports when we left the UK but on return we all had to get off the coach and go through passport control. Q massive panic as some didn't have passports and one had packed her passport in her bag which was under the coach.
The ones who didn't have passports were let through once checks were done but the one who had packed her passport away had to get everything off the coach to find her Bag.... she was American.

And as a child me and mum
Had to do a mad dash to
London for a quick passport as she only realised a few days before we were going abroad that I was no longer on her passport.

PennineWayinSlingbacks · 20/02/2022 09:09

Was on the way to the Eurotunnel, having checked all the passports. Thought that younger DS's expired a month later but misread the year - it had expired 11 months previously. Phoned Passport Office and luckily got a cancellation appointment in Newport the following morning. We were staying with friends in Surrey overnight and taking two cars to France. So one group headed off. DS and I hotfooted it to Wales, rebooked the tunnel tickets and arrived 24 hrs later in the second car. Lucky escape!

Borderterrierpuppy · 20/02/2022 09:16

Babadook76 we had passport problems in the past and after a thread on mumsnet I emailed the PA to the head of HMPO.
Sent them a very polite email and they sorted it in 2 days, worth a shot.

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