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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be pissed off with the passport office

68 replies

loueytb3 · 17/10/2011 21:44

I know some of this is my fault for not applying earlier so you're probably going to all say IBU...

Sent off passport application for DS3 (4 months old) 3 weeks ago tomorrow. I did it through the post office check and send service which is supposed to take 2 weeks, except for busy periods which this isn't. I've always got passports within the 2 weeks when I've used this service before.

2 weeks pass, no passport. I phoned the passport office last Wednesday to find out what was going on. They said they had sent a letter to the counter-signatory to ask her to confirm in writing that she had signed the photo. She wrote a letter and put it in the enclosed envelope on Thursday. I phoned again on Saturday and twice today and they still haven't received it. The person I spoke to today said the envelope they enclose is 2nd class. We go on holiday on Friday morning so we need the passport by Thursday. They won't let me apply again because there is already an application open. I can't speed it up until they get the letter. I've phoned my friend and she is going to do another letter tomorrow which I can send recorded. They won't accept faxes, we've already tried.

I'm fuming because 1) they left it until right at the end of the 2 weeks to send a letter to the counter signatory and 2) what is the use in sending a 2nd class envelope when you have a 2 week turn around (allegedly). If we can't go on Friday, I doubt we will be able to go at all because I'm sure all the flights will be booked as its half term.

OP posts:

LineRunner · 17/10/2011 21:50

TBH I'd courier the letter to the passport office, if you can't take it up yourself.

I'm a bit at the 2nd class letter palaver. I counter-sign passports occasionally and I've only ever been rung up on my landline to confirm that I did indeed counter-sign for the applicant.

Sirzy · 17/10/2011 21:54

Although I can see why you are annoyed I don't think 3 weeks is unreasonable to wait for a passport back.

I wouldn't be shocked if this was quite a busy time with people coming back from holidays and realising they would need renewing for next year, or people starting to book for next year and getting first passports to avoid the rush nearer the time.

Hope it arrives in time!

EdithWeston · 17/10/2011 21:55

The two week timetable is only for renewals according to the direct.gov website.

First applications, whether child or adult, take longer as entitlement has to be carefully checked.

So, though I am sorry you're in this fix, I don't think it it the Passport Service at fault.

mountaingirl · 17/10/2011 22:05

Took 10 weeks for ds2's renewal. Missed Easter and half term possible holidays. Finally arrived and there was a mistake! Kept it over the summer holidays in case we went away. Need to send it back as soon as we get back from half term holidays as I know we won't be going away again. louey didn't you have to ring the Outer Hebredies or some such place at the cost of £10+ a call? I did 3 times and still the information was wrong. Bloody useless lot!

NewShooz · 17/10/2011 22:14

I don't think YABU but I think you were being very optimistic as far the passport office goes IME

We sent off for DD 1st passport, to be told 3 weeks later that her photos weren't good enough. (I was very tempted to invite them to take my then 14 month old to a photo booth themselves and convince her to sit still for a photo, but I didn't)

Anyway, got new photos sorted, and sent off. 2 weeks later they write to tell me that I have sent the wrong birth certificate. Obviously my fault, but it would have saved a lot of time if they had told me at the same time as they told me about the photos.

They are a PITA I hope you get your passport by Thursday.

NewShooz · 17/10/2011 22:15

BTW when I say wrong certificate, I sent the shorter one, rather than the long one. Not one for a completely different person

PattySimcox · 17/10/2011 22:20

I feel your pain - we went right to the wire with ours this summer causing much stress. Was totally our own fault as realised at the last minute that one of the DCs passports had expired with 4 weeks prior to us leaving.

Did 2 week check and send via Post Office after much assurance that allowing double the time for a straightforward renewal would be fine....we finally got the passport the night before we were due to set off.

Lots of grey hairs.

Fingers crossed yours turns up on time

Original poster

loueytb3 · 17/10/2011 22:35

Mountaingirl - I can't believe you missed 2 holidays

They've told me that the only thing they are waiting for is this letter and then it will be issued.

Linerunner - I don't know anyone who has had a letter sent to the counter signatory, but maybe they've just changed the process more recently the arses I mean, his photo won't look anything like him in a matter of weeks

OP posts:

wonkylegs · 17/10/2011 22:45

My DS's passport photo like mine has never looked anything like us as apparently we're officially too pale so both mine & his were darkened to be machine readable but no longer look like us (altho DS is also no longer a small baby)

bottleofbeer · 17/10/2011 22:45

For a first passport you're supposed to allow at least six weeks. It's usually less but even so...

bottleofbeer · 17/10/2011 22:48

But tbf I think it's absolutely ridiculous kids can no longer go on their parent's passport. I mean, a picture of a baby that lasts for five years? surely it'd make abductions even easier.

LineRunner · 17/10/2011 22:54

Louey, I counter-signed for a child's passport recently and wasn't written to; but that application was a renewal not a first passport.

I guess first passports are now under different stricter rules - unless maybe your counter-signatory didn't put a landline number that was checkable eg in the BT phonebook?

Anyway it goes without saying that I hope you get your baby's passport in time.

Could you have the counter-signatory's letter same-day couriered? Or take it in yourself?

wonkylegs - my latest passport photo is so 'treated' I look ten years younger. Yay.

KD0706 · 17/10/2011 22:54

Fingers crossed it arrives on time op.

I agree it's a bit of a nonsense that children get their own passport which lasts five years. DDs passport is only six months old and already the photo only looks vaguely like her.

Original poster

loueytb3 · 17/10/2011 22:54

I thought the 6 week thing was for first adult passports as they say you have to attend an interview. Clearly they can't interview a baby.

OP posts:

KD0706 · 17/10/2011 22:56

I don't think they check every counter signatory on a child's first passport. I counter signed one a month or so ago and wasn't contacted (though we are in Scotland, so might be different...). I think it's just random bad luck.

Oggy · 17/10/2011 22:56

"Linerunner - I don't know anyone who has had a letter sent to the counter signatory, but maybe they've just changed the process more recently the arses I mean, his photo won't look anything like him in a matter of weeks hmm"

Funilly enough there was a thread a few weeks ago in WWYD where someone who had been a counter-signatory that got this letter, but in this case the applicant had tampered with her counter-signature.

I personally would never bother with check and send. Check it yourself, the post office person doesn't know any more than you can know by reading the instructions properly and by using check and send you are more likely to be complacent about checking it yourself.

My friend used check and send and post office woman didn't even twig that she had applied for renewal of a passport in her maiden name but asked for the passport in married name but without enclosing her marriage certificate. It was only when I asked had she enclosed her marriage certificate that she realised it was wrong.

Anyway, yes you are being a bit unreasonable to expect a first passport within 2 weeks although, to be fair, they do usually arrive within that time.

heleninahandcart · 17/10/2011 22:59

OP I feel your pain. It seems they are finding more and more ways of buggering about being thorough. Not wanting to take a risk after having my initial renewal application returned (Passport Office confirmed it was actually their mistake).

I paid for the one day service where you take it in and I had my countersignatory with me

When I went to collect the passport I was told

my countersignatory hadn't signed and had been sent a letter
my last contact with the passport office was a phone call I had made the day before I should go home and encourage my countersignatory to hurry up and reply.

In fact my countersignatory had signed in front of the counter clerk when I was there that morning and was still with me. As was my receipt for my application that morning.

I got the passport after a LOT of badgering discussion.

heleninahandcart · 17/10/2011 23:00

YANBU as its your first go

SleepyFergus · 17/10/2011 23:03

I don't think YABU but I would always allow well over the odds for stuff like this, I never trust them!

That said, back in April I used the check and send service for my DDs first passport and it was really quick. Sent on the Friday and had the passport back the following Weds. Talk about gobsmacked.

Really hope it comes through in time for your hold, best of luck.

EdithWeston · 17/10/2011 23:03

bottleofbeer: the inclusion of children on adults passports ceased (more or less worldwide) in 1998. It was to give better control of children's travel documentation in the event of parental difference and to prevent unilateral inclusion of a child on the passport of one parent - as most child abduction is by one parent, it has led to a reduction. It's also clearer in terms of setting out the child's entitlement to citizenship.

Also, there's been another MN thread today about a delay whilst a countersignature was checked. They are (rightly) meticulous about first issue passports, whether child or adult.

gallicgirl · 17/10/2011 23:05

You should be grateful you're applying within the UK.

Friend in North America applied for a passport for her dual nationality son. It has to go to Washington who may or may not call mum and dad in for interview. Dad is in UK.

They take so long processing, his passport for the other nationality has expired and therefore can't be issued with the UK passport. Renews his non-uk passport and has come into country on a visa instead of a UK passport. Has been notified that application has expired again or paperwork sent to non-UK address (not sure exactly what happened this most recent time to be honest) so parents have decided to abandon that overseas application and now child is in UK, just apply from here. Amount spend on couriers fees transporting documents = £1000s

PattySimcox · 17/10/2011 23:11

gallic

bottleofbeer · 17/10/2011 23:16

I just don't really see how it offers the child more protection. Passports are pretty much the best form of ID because of how stringent the checks are (at my recent interview they even knew which catalogue accounts I had and what I owed on them) and because of the photograph. If you no longer resmble that photograph...?

I could get hold of some random six year old girl's 4 year old passport and pass it off as my daughter's.

EdithWeston · 17/10/2011 23:30

Have you been through a border recently with a child with a non-matching surname? They've really tightened up, and it's advised that you travel with BC or other official document linking your names (I was asked about DCs for the first time last year).

bottleofbeer · 17/10/2011 23:32

No but my parents regularly take mine out of the country and they have different surnames. They've never been asked for further documentation.

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