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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Help with a passport crises

102 replies

SettlerofCatan · 09/03/2022 19:33

We are going to Austria skiing on Sunday and our son, who’s at Uni just texted to say his passport ran out in December. We are checking all the passport offices to see if there is an last minute appointment before Sunday. If he turns up in person without an appointment is there any chance they will help him… ?I know I ABU posting this but I am soo stressed.

OP posts:
TakeYourFinalPosition · 09/03/2022 22:28

His punishment is going to be missing out on the trip, and his 18th birthday present.

He doesn't need to make a trip to a passport office and get turned away as well. He won't stand there all day anyway, they'll make it clear that they won't see him without an appointment so he'll go home, but it's a wasted trip anyway - and he's already being punished.

godmum56 · 09/03/2022 22:29

has he tried online premium? www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/online-premium-service

bridgetreilly · 09/03/2022 22:32

This is not, in fact, a crisis. It’s a young man failing to do his own admin and as a consequence, missing out on a holiday.

oishutup · 09/03/2022 22:33

I've just had a look at the online premium service as I used that recently and the earliest date for collection is next Thurs 17th....
Sorry OP - it's not looking good...

Shipoftheseus · 09/03/2022 22:35

I would expect an 18-year-old at university to be completely in charge of their own passport and to know when it expired. They have the document in their possession.

BuanoKubiamVej · 09/03/2022 22:39

You can only use the online premium service to renew an adult's passport. It's not quite clear whether an individual's first adult passport havibg previously held a child's passport counts. If it does then the earliest he might get an appointment is Monday.

Do you have travel insurance that will cover postponing the trip if you all come down with covid and can't travel? Because I hear that a positive test can be arranged by use of a bit of acidic beverage onto the testing slot.

JellybeansJelly · 09/03/2022 22:40

Can he even use a premium service? This will be his first adult passport so I think it has to be the usual service. I could be wrong though.

moonbedazzled · 09/03/2022 22:43

Hey op, I think you're getting a rough time on here. I can't see that you've done anything wrong.

Sorry to say, I went for a new passport in January 2019 at Liverpool. It was collect the same day. It was bitter but we all had to queue outside on the street. You were called in for your time slots and weren't allowed in earlier. You had to show proof of your appointment and be checked off on a list before you were llowed in the building. So I don't hold out much hope for him just showing up. However waiting outside in that cold would indeed make him suffer. 😅

Hope you manage to get something sorted.

moonbedazzled · 09/03/2022 22:43

I am amazed, though, that no one has tried to make this the fault of Brexit. 😂😂😂

Shipoftheseus · 09/03/2022 22:45

@Tiredcatmum

To be honest at 18 it’s your responsibility.
No, it’s not. I’m not one of these people who thinks an 18-year-old is a completely independent adult and should have no ties or support, financial or otherwise, with parents, but a passport is basic and simple- it’s his responsibility.
IKnowYouDontTurnTheLightOn · 09/03/2022 22:45

@moonbedazzled what an unbelievably stupid comment Hmm

Bleedinheck · 09/03/2022 22:49

Surely whoever booked would have had to put in passport details for the flight including expiry date?

Cancellation slots do come up but I would be jumping on to check late in the evening and again first thing

RampantIvy · 09/03/2022 22:50

Hey op, I think you're getting a rough time on here

I agree, because all the posters on here have DC who magically turn into organised, efficient and responsible adults at one minute past midnight on their 18th birthday.

DD is at university, but her passport, which has run out, is in our house.

TBH I'm surprised he is able to take time out from university and not worry about being behind with his work.

MurmuratingStarling · 09/03/2022 22:57

@moonbedazzled

Hey op, I think you're getting a rough time on here. I can't see that you've done anything wrong.

I can't speak for anyone else, but with me, I am just exasperated with the amount of people on here who (as I said earlier,) book a holiday abroad and pay in full, and then suddenly, just DAYS before the trip, they discover a family member has an invalid passport. And it's ALWAYS one of their children.

IDGAF if he is 18 or 20 as the OP now claims, her son would have been a primary school CHILD when he got his last passport. How can the OP not have known his passport was due several months back? She seems to have successfully renewed HER passport, and every other family member's who is going on the trip, yet amazingly she has not been arsed to check the passport renewal date of her 18/20 year old son!

Oddly, I don't know a SINGLE CASE in real life, of someone booking a holiday, and only finding out a few days before that the passport of one of their children is out of date. ONLY on mumsnet. And it seems to be a weekly occurance on here now!

TheHoptimist · 09/03/2022 23:01

MurmuratingStarling

I once found out my DS passport had expired when checking in for a flight 24 hours before
He had travelled on it whilst expired at least twice (ferry) and once by plane (back from Spain)

We had an emergency appointment- straight to airport and joined family who had flown out as planned day before

RampantIvy · 09/03/2022 23:02

I agree with you @MurmuratingStarling about people not checking passports before booking a holiday.

DD's passport ran out during the first lockdown, and she didn't see any point in renewing it at the time. I keep reminding her to get some photos taken so she can renew her passport.

MurmuratingStarling · 09/03/2022 23:05

@TheHoptimist

MurmuratingStarling

I once found out my DS passport had expired when checking in for a flight 24 hours before
He had travelled on it whilst expired at least twice (ferry) and once by plane (back from Spain)

We had an emergency appointment- straight to airport and joined family who had flown out as planned day before

I rest my case ... Only on Mumsnet.

Why on EARTH did you not check the validity of ALL PASSPORTS before booking?! Confused

NippyWoowoo · 09/03/2022 23:09

@SettlerofCatan

I know drip feeding is v. frowned on… It was his 18th present but with COVID we haven’t been able to go until now.. he’s 20 in a couple of months.. and we had lots of conversations about checking passports once we decided to go after New Year as my passport was out of date and we had to get a new one.. which went to the neighbours and they didn’t tell us!
...and what did he say in those 'lots' of conversations about checking? Confused
MurmuratingStarling · 09/03/2022 23:09

@RampantIvy

I agree with you *@MurmuratingStarling* about people not checking passports before booking a holiday.

DD's passport ran out during the first lockdown, and she didn't see any point in renewing it at the time. I keep reminding her to get some photos taken so she can renew her passport.

Thank you RampantIvy! I just don't get the batshittery of booking a holiday overseas and not making sure all the passports are valid for travel! FFS! Confused

And once AGAIN, with the poster I just quoted there ^ it's one of the CHILDREN again, whose passport validity got 'overlooked. ... ' Why is it ALWAYS one of the children whose passport is out of date? Confused

olympicsrock · 09/03/2022 23:09

OP - I sympathise massively . I was the last poster who had a similar problem and was roasted by those who would never do something like this.

Your best chance is to keep checking . Urgent appointments do come up but you have to be ready with your credit card details and passwords for bank checks etc. if you are too slow or dither to make the appointment , it times out and you lose the appointment that was in your basket.
Hope you have better luck than me ( there was only one cancellation slot that was doable and I missed that one.

I would also suggest call the helpline on govuk website The advisor was really helpful.

Cocomarine · 09/03/2022 23:12

Tbf, it’s more likely a child passport will be out of date because they have half the length of an adult one. But I agree - I don’t know why people don’t check when they book.

The is frustrating and a shame… but it is not a crisis.

TheHoptimist · 09/03/2022 23:15

Why on EARTH did you not check the validity of ALL PASSPORTS before booking?!

We went abroad most weekends

Why is it ALWAYS one of the children whose passport is out of date?

Because they expire every 5 years not every 10?

roxisolerenshaw · 09/03/2022 23:17

@moonbedazzled

I am amazed, though, that no one has tried to make this the fault of Brexit. 😂😂😂
Grin
RampantIvy · 09/03/2022 23:18

Why on EARTH did you not check the validity of ALL PASSPORTS before booking?!

The passport was valid when it was booked, but the holiday got postponed. I agree that the validity should still have been checked.

MrsRonaldUlyssesSwanson · 09/03/2022 23:23

Don't send him to stand outside a passport office, they won't see him. You need to pay the fee and you can't do that in person it has to be online. Just keep refreshing appointments, my local passport office had none so I ended up doing a 10 hour trip to Durham and back to get one. Belfast usually has appointments and he can fly internally in the UK without his passport but with other photographic ID

Don't be too hard on him, these things happen