Passport office glitch?

[LadyFlumpalot]

Morning, has anyone else experienced a glitch with their passport applications overnight?

Submitted both children applications online back in June, both had their identity confirmed online by the same person and both identities were accepted on the 10th June and passports progressed to the checking stage. Had an email this morning to say DS's had been printed and would be with me soon, then had an email to say DD's was on hold until her identity was confirmed!

Phoned the office and the chap I spoke to couldn't offer much information except to tell me they had heard reports of a glitch in the system and that he'd ask for me to have a call back from the progression team.

I'm not in any rush, we're not planning on going away til May next year, but was just wondering if anyone else had received an unexpected email this morning?

If it is the Durham Passport Office you are dealing with, I wish you the best of luck I applied for my son's passport on 2nd February and it is only 12th July and no passport in sight! They have terrible communication and no complains/disputes resolution system. I have been talking with my MP. Next I will probably have to sue.

So, I tried calling the passport helpline again later in the afternoon and a different chap gave me a different answer, I bit the bullet and got someone else to verify her identity. Lo and behold, an email this morning saying her passport is approved and has gone to be printed.

And yes, it is with the Durham office! That seems to be the one that is having massive issues. My husbands renewal and sons first passport both went to Bootle and they shot through with no issues at all.

Thank you LadyFlumpalot. I thought I was going crazy. I only ever dealt with the Peterborough Passport Office, and never had a problem. I think Durham may not know what they are doing.

It's odd because my children's were done through Bootle and for my DD, it was a nightmare. I had the same 'glitch' as you, OP, but they ended up asking me to do a paper form in the end. They'd lost DD's online data but were still using her reference number and wanted the same person who verified her ID online to do the verification on her paper application. In all, it took DD 12 weeks to get her passport. When they did the paper application, it was handled by Belfast in the end, rather than Bootle. The whole thing was weird and inexplicable. We finally got there in the end but what a shambles. Glad things went relatively smoothly for you.

And now both passports have arrived! Found the helpline to be a bit pointless tbh as all they could tell me was that they definitely had my paperwork/applications but they couldn't tell me where they were or what was wrong so it was mostly just guess work.

Good luck anyone else applying!