I'm going to Greece ....I have no passport ...advice please

[incognitooo]

I applied for my passport 5 weeks ago.
I travel on the 1st October so obviously thought I left enough time.
It's a lost replacement (4 years left)
I did it online and it's stuck on "ID details received "
It's at Durham
Now I've rang up and been told it's in a queue to be examined ...but my sister applied two weeks after me and has had hers delivered (Also at Durham)
So how exactly does this queue work?
I did ask and she just kept saying "it's still within 10 weeks"
Basically had no answer for me

I'm stressed and worried
If it's not back in the next 5 weeks what can I do?
I allowed 13 weeks and thought that would be fine ...my sisters is back I don't understand

I think it’s pot luck when they do it. I recently replaced my lost passport and it took 10 weeks which is how long they say to wait.

If you're not travelling until the 1st October my advice would be, chill out. Revisit at the end of August if it hasn't arrived by then.

My friend has something similar. She contacted her mp. He got it sorted

I joined a group on Facebook and seeing some people on there waiting 15 weeks plus has scared me a little

@Pinkandpurplehairedlady did you need to send any documents?
They haven't asked for any from me
I linked lost reference number but that's all

My manager has been waiting 12 weeks and counting for his lost replacement and he goes in 2 weeks time

You basically can't do anything until the 10 weeks is up - on the day you hit 10 weeks, get in touch with them and they will prioritise your application. I did this, and got mine about a week later (so waited 11 weeks in total)

You’ve got ages. One of ours was stuck at Durham for 12 weeks. We emailed 2 weeks before travel with our date of travel. They emailed to say they were prioritising the backlog in order of travel. They then called us 5 days before to say it was now with an examiner and would be delivered in 2 days. We got the passport 80 hours before our flight!

Join the Facebook group ‘Passport Chaos 2022’ for all of the best contact numbers and email addresses IF you get to September without a passport. You’ve got ages yet.

^and good luck! I know how stressful it can be. On the plus side, we bought no new holiday clothes as weren’t sure we’d actually be going so saved £££s on clothes we didn’t actually need but usually get carried away with buying.

I believe that if it’s still not with you 48 hours before you travel you can join a queue at the passport office and they will prioritise you that day.
im sure it will come though-there’s still ages

Once the waiting period has ended, if you have still not received it they will prioritise your application. Friend had the same with their sons renewal recently and he called them 2 days after the waiting period was over, it then arrived within the week.

Ds1 had this with a replacement for lost passport. Went to processing then back to checking identity.

If I recall I put in the application 1st May and it finally arrived mid July. Ds2’s renewal came really quickly.

It almost certainly will arrive, give it a few more weeks.

Mine got stuck at Durham for nearly 18 weeks - it arrived 5 days before we travelled! Had to get MP involved but in the last 2 weeks before you go they will prioritise it if you still haven't got it. But Only 2 weeks and not a day more!!

This. They’ll be tearing their hair out with the people chasing them for passports for going away in August. Things will be much quieter in September.

Apparently the delay is for lost passports. They have a more rigorous check than a replacement where you send the out of date or almost out of date one in.

I applied online and then sent my old passport back recorded delivery. As soon as they registered that they had received my old one it took 48 hours to send out my new one. A friend from work put lost and is still waiting for hers. She flies next week.

With applications like this or other ones where things need to be checked which takes time waiting for other agencies to get back to you, I think some offices work by assigning a batch of applications to one worker, they start working through them at the same time - so case 1 needs a background check, that gets submitted, while waiting for that to get back they look at case 2, that hasn't included a specific document so they write to the applicant for that, start case 3 next etc etc Then they get Covid and go off sick for a week but their batch of cases just waits on their desk for them to get back.

Meanwhile, their colleague on the next desk has a batch of really easy ones with no missing documents etc so whizzes though her first batch and is onto her 15th batch by the time worker 1 comes back from sick leave.

It looks like there are people who applied after you who got their applications done unfairly before yours. But it's just bad luck that your case was already opened by someone who went off sick for a week.

It's a bit like joining a supermarket queue - sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you get stuck in the one where they can't find the price of the cheese for the person in front of you.

There was a thread on here recently about someone that didn't have it a week before travel.

There was lots of really good advice and direct emails. Apparently the calls go through to people who actually cannot access any system to do anything about your passport!