to want to scream at the incompetence of the Passport office?

[HomeIsWhereTheGinIs]

I did a check and send at the post office and my passport arrived within the three week timeframe. However, they'd misspelled one of my names (despite having it on the old passport in front of them). I was told I had to go to the London office to get that rectified. So I did so, and had to queue for two and a half hours. When I finally saw a cashier she took my passport, told me that I'd get a corrected one back within a couple of days and sent me on my way. That was last Monday. I've been calling them since yesterday and only just managed to get someone to pick up the phone (after literally hundreds of calls yesterday). He told me the woman ought to have given me a new reference number (which she didn't) and without it there's no way of tracking my passport, I just have to wait and see if they send me a new one. Or I can go to the London office again, and see if they let me in to track it in person (he couldn't guarantee that they would let me in).

I am honestly at my wits end. THEIR mistake has already taken up too much of my time, and now I'm stuck here with this "With Compliments" slip with no idea how to get my passport back!

I hate them - WIBU to make a formal complaint? The chap on the phone told me he had no escalation process (unlikely) so of course I'd have to find one first. Or WIBU to go to the Evening Standard about this?

you do not need 6 months remaining for Spain, only for the duration of your visit: From .gov website:

Your passport should be valid for the proposed duration of your stay. No additional period of validity beyond this is required. This applies to the whole of Spain, including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera).

Sorry aout the triple post I was on the phone and it said it hadn't sent

Last time I got a passport renewed was nine years ago when we went to the Dominican rebuplic for our honeymoon I went through the stress of filling the forms out several times as kept making mistakes this was for both me and dh ,than we went to our nearest passport office in Liverpool to submit them on time and I realised there was a mistake on one of the forms so I started panicking ,the lady took it off me and said it was fine and we got our passports about a week later so they are just pedantic with the perfect form nonsense!

I've just renewed mine with the normal service and it came back in 4 days

Passport valid for 6 months after your return is for the US I believe.

Last time we got DP's done it ended up on someone's desk with a "query". We had the most unbelievable run around "You need to speak to someone on Green Team" "All the Green Team have gone home" etc. but finally someone said "I can see it on Jane's desk, I'll just go and get it". We badgered them (thank god for Check and Send) till they sent it.
We never found out what the query was, but if we hadn't badgered them we'd never have got it back...
Good luck!

That is bloody awful.

I'm in Germany & we used to be able to send to the Embassy in Frankfurt, I think.

Now we send to Liverpool.

My husband had filled in my DOB wrong (neater writing than me), & they emailed me & fortunately corrected it & issued it.
(had old passport to refer to.)

It's bloody expensive though.

About £135!!!!

Ours were returned normal service in 3 days, a few months ago. I was amazed. It must have arrived, sorted out the same day and despatched the same day.

Agree with SirChenjin about ringing the embassy (or consulate) of the country you are visiting. A few years ago I was visiting Spain and had seen something which said my passport had to be valid for 6 months when I was due to fly in less than a week. I checked with the consulate and they said as long as it was valid, it didn't matter. I got the impression at the time that they were always being asked that.

I really did have the run around re the validility on return from Tenerife - gov.uk website said as long as passport was valid in return Im fine- my travel agent insisted that was wrong, I needed 3 months left on-passport helpline said 6 months, another person at my travel agent said none- I did not know what to do- so reluctantly renewed- I know I have left this a bit late as I travel in 2 weeks -and now have had to upgrade the application at an extra cost when I did not have to renew yet in the first place! MY old passport would have been valid, now cant get new one any time soon, cant get old one back- and have had to pay extra 55 !hopefully I should get new one within next few days as I have paid to upgrade to premium service!!

We need clear guidelines on the validility, most people think you need 6 months, for anywhere , but this is not true I have found|!

www.spain.info/en_GB/informacion-practica/consejos-viaje/consejos-practicos/requisitos/ - Spain website says:

A full British passport, valid for the duration of the visit only, is required to enter mainland Spain, the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Wish I had believed/trusted the above post, and not checked or questioned it with travel agents and passport helpline! never mind, a lesson learnt- roll on the courier bringing the passport very soon- fingers crossed!

Sympathies, OP, it sounds like a real dogs dinner. My DD was working for a couple of months in Africa last year and during this time her passport got a bit wet on the information page, causing her photograph to fade at the bottom (her mouth disappeared!).

She obviously needed a new passport and sent off for it. They sent an email asking exactly what happened to the passport. She'd already explained this on the form and had sent the passport back with her application so they would see it for themselves. She had to explain again and eventually did receive her new passport. What a palaver!

The previous poster knows she doesn't need 6 months validity on her passport but she was told that she did. Which is his why her passport is stuck with the passport office. Telling her she didn't need 6 months validity remaining doesn't help!

I think the 6 month validity thing is in response to another post by Bubble which claimed you always need 6 months on your passport

I'm worrying now. I'm (probably) going to Vegas, last week of October, returning 1st November. My passport is due to be renewed mid May 2015 - so is that ok? I'm going to check the renewal date right now.

11th May.. I just about get 6 months clear upon return date.

we were advising BubbleButt79 that you didnt need 6 months remaining as they stated that you did and that the OP was wrong.

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/entry-requirements - this says you dont need extra validity for USA

www.usembassy.org.uk/visaservices/?p=485 - also says British passport holders only need it to be valid for the duration of their stay

Thanks for the link, reading it now :)

I've never used check and send and have never had a problem, always got it back within 2 weeks. I fill in the form and pay online, then print the form off- much easier than filling in little boxes by hand.

I feel your pain.
Getting dd2s passport was one of the most stressful times of my life. Everything that could have gone wrong did, and I had to travel ( we live overseas) when she was 3 weeks old.
An overly officious staff member would let me use a guarantor who was on mat leave - holding us up for an additional week. The staff were unsympathetic despite losing her passport after calling to let me know it was there, and the staff were snarky at returning a mobile left in a private office. A million phone calls later, and several trips to London with a newborn, we still had very little info. It was hell.
I hope you get it resolved.

Furnishings is right. Contact your NO.

OP that is really awful and especially galling given that you only applied for a renewal due to their incorrect advice.

I am travelling in 10 days and we are 12 weeks and counting for DS's first passport, overseas application. On Friday we were told by the Durham office that they have approved the application and it is just waiting to be printed, but that will take ten days, so looks like we might not get it in time. I had thought we were an odd case, but long waits seem to be the rule this summer.

OP I sympathise. They spelled my name wrong (repeated the first two letters and missed out the next two) just before I was due to fly to visit my grandmother who was dying and show her my baby. I didn't dare send it back to be corrected, as the bloke I spoke to after denying it could happen, was so vague as to when it would be ready.

In the end I kept the misspelled passport for 10 years. No one ever noticed. Fine until I had to renew it. I went to Belgrave Road in person as I knew it would be trouble (luckily I worked nearby), the women on the counters were helpful but their supervisor told me that I was unable to change the spelling, we had a shouting match in the middle of the office and in the end the office manager was called. They agreed to do it but it was still wrong when I collected it. I pointed this out and agreed to come back the next day and they had made yet another mistake. I was finally able to collect my corrected one that afternoon. Three attempts and had to pay extra for the service.