Is anyone else playing passport roulette?

[mayaknew]

Couldn't get a fast track appointment so took a gamble and applied normally.

We leave 8 weeks tomorrow for a wedding in Spain 😷😷😷😷😷

Is anyone else at risk of not getting their holiday? Or are the stories in the papers the exception and most people are getting them within a few weeks 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

I hope this is bullshit... otherwise I'm in trouble

2 child to adult passports.

Online application for both on 28/4. Bootle one arrived today. Peterborough tracking one not even acknowledging receipt of old passport yet.

Both old passports sent signed for on 29/4 and showing received at each passport office.

I think the passport office are liable if you incur costs due to not getting your passport back in time with fast track, but not with the regular service.

So they'll be prioritising those over the ones, like us, who used the normal service.

So rather than getting better it will get worse

That fits with our story - 2x first child passports applied for on 23 March, docs to Peterborough and stick in “processing” since 7th April 😤

Ours is stuck at Peterborough too so clearly all is not well at Peterborough!

Ours is stuck at Peterborough too so clearly all is not well at Peterborough!

I don't think the problem is Peterborough. The passport chaos FB groups has similar stories from all the passport offices. Issues of huge demand, shit IT systems, broken processes and staff shortages

I'll be honest and say that all the frontline staff I came across at Peterborough yesterday were great. Exceptionally professional despite dealing with huge pressures.

The point is, the Senior Strategists at HMPO should have seen this surge in demand coming. It stands to reason that after 2 years of travel restrictions lots of people would jump at the chance for a foreign holiday and lots of passports would have expired and not been renewed during 2020 and 2022. They should have been planning for this.

My child’s renewal was done in 2 weeks. Posted 19th April and new passport received on 3rd May. Was very impressed but actually thought I was being scammed at first. My sister, however, is still waiting on her daughter’s first passport, which she applied for before mine.

Got no idea which office they’ve gone to.

Applied for both child renewals on 29th April. One was approved and printed yesterday- says delivery should in a couple of days. The other approved yesterday and awaiting printing.
They both went to Corby office.

So DHs has been approved. His is in Liverpool.

No word on mine or the DC's yet

We sent DC's old passports exactly two weeks ago to Durham. Received an automatic reminder today to send them! Argh! Spoke to an old school friend who said that there is a backlog of taking things due to sheer volume and that all I can do is ring the number, but I won't thanks to this thread. We aren't traveling for two more months so there is time. I will give it another week... but I am a bag of nerves.

Sorry, school friend works in the Durham passport office. That wasn't clear.
She cannot pull any strings for me. Bah.

So… good news on my end but not for everyone still waiting :( we received DS passport today.

timeline as follows, at Peterborough office:

Applied and countersigned online 19th April
Sent old passport 22nd April
Old passport actually delivered and signed for 25th April
Old passport marked as received by them 9th May
Passport approved 11th May
Passport printed 12th May
Received today, 17th May

this was a child renewal, standard service

I wouldn’t worry too much that they haven’t updated yet if you have a while to travel. Ours took exactly 2 weeks to update after they received them (and that included a bank holiday) and I kept getting reminders even though I knew they had signed for it but since then it’s gone through pretty quickly

Applied 26 April
9 may they confirmed received old passport
11 may my online photo rejected
Paid 15 quid at photo shop for dogital one which I submitted 13 may
16 may application approved
17 mat passport printed

So just waiting for delivery from hemel Hempstead passport office.

When do you think the best time to call them is?

I've now received both my child renewals ( applied for on the 29th April ) - phew!

That's amazing milky. All ours were applied for around the same time 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Still nothing on ours 🙄😤

Nothing on mine, I have 10/14 days before I have to move my holiday. Gutted.

@mayaknew - there honestly isn't a good time to call. Tried for weeks and weeks. If you have been in the system a while and fly in less than a week, you'll do better going directly to a passport office.

I read yesterday someone called a few minutes before 8am when they open and they were placed on hold until 8 then got straight through

We applied for our son's passport renewal on 25 February and it still hasn't arrived. He's 10.

We're meant to be going abroad on Saturday, and can't change the flights (they are from flights originally booked in 2020 and have been cancelled and rebooked multiple times already because of Covid; 31 May is the last possible date to use them).

DP rings the passport office (or tries to) every day to try to get it sorted, but usually the call times out and goes to that system where you have to leave your details for a call back. They literally never call back.

Obviously even if we could get a fast track or premium appointment now, it wouldn't help as HMPO have his old passport! Feel like hostages to this system, and absolutely enraged.

Looks like I will take our other two DC on holiday by myself, leaving DP and DS at home.

Woke up this morning to a message from the Passport Office confirming DDs passport has been approved 🎉we applied around 22nd April for it.

MotherofPearl- that's terrible! Where about's is the application up to on the tracking system? You must be devastated.

It's saying "Your application is being processed." We were hoping to upgrade to fast track (and pay the extra £70) but it is impossible to get through.