to think that the passport office are taking the piss?!

[Doodledumdums]

Seven weeks ago I applied for my baby sons passport, and STILL no passport. We are supposed to be flying on Friday (luckily haven't booked flights yet, just accom- which I know was stupid)

They decided to do a spot check on the person who countersigned for us, even though he has signed loads of passports before. So this has held things up, but he complied immediately, so the hold up isn't down to him.

But seven weeks?!! Really?!

I don't understand why it is so risky to issue a passport to a four month old that it would take that long and need spot checks?! DH and I both have held British passports our whole lives, neither of us have even a trace of a criminal background, our son was issued a birth certificate so he is officially legitimate and linked to us, so why the hold up?!

I've called the passport office twice, and no one can tell me what is going on with it, not even if it has been dispatched. How am I meant to know whether it has been lost in the post or stolen or anything if they can't even tell me that?

Sorry, bit of a whinge! Has anyone else experienced this with the passport office?

That's great news

Have a lovely time

So glad you got it in time. We used PO check & send for new passport for Ds and renewal for Dh. After a few weeks we had a letter saying they couldn't renew DH passport because we hadn't sent payment, photos or his old passport. I phoned, insisted we had and said we had sent it check &send. They wouldn't believe me and argued the toss until I asked about Ds application. They checked and said it was waiting to be sent out to us & confirmed it had the ref for check & send - I pointed out that they were both paid for with the same cheque and had been sent in together. We had to have new photos taken, they wanted me to get a crime ref number (?) from the police because the old passport number was lost/stolen & I told them not to be so bloody ridiculous, given that they had lost it. Eventually received passport the day before we were due to fly despite having applied 10 weeks in advance in February!

Also discovered just as we were entering immigration at JFK that the year of birth on Ds passport was wrong and the panic in case it caused a problem as it didn't match up with the ESTA! (Thankfully they didn't notice.

Now need a renewal for Ds and myself and a new passport for ds2. Would need a lottery win to pay for them though