Help with a passport crises

[SettlerofCatan]

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.

Can you change your flights and/or your hotel and have a different type of trip without him? You don’t especially enjoy ski-ing and he isn’t coming so can you double-down on this teachable moment and demonstrate some problem-solving by fixing your issues with this situation and leaving him to stew with his own?

In all likelihood the passport wouldn't be with him in his student house but at home in his parent's house,

Bizarre. Students need their passports, if not for travel, for ID purposes, if they have a part-time job, to prove they have the right to work in the country etc. Mine also has her birth certificate and NHS card as well as passport in her possession.

So she could go abroad? For ID? Surely she wouldn’t have to travel maybe hundreds of miles to pick up a passport from home to do a quick trip to France with friends or whatever

She wouldn't travel abroad from university because most of her holiday clothes, suitcases, rucksack etc are at home. Besides there has never been the opportunity. She has never needed her passport apart from registering, and due to the pandemic she didn't renew it. She isn't doing a language degree, and her friends doing languages will go home before travelling abroad.

Interesting that some people don't see how the son would have his own passport with him. Since I was 18 I've always held all my personal documents - passport, birth certificate etc. I'm an adult. When I go on holiday I have my passport, DH has his. Interesting how setups vary.

"I expected this thread to be about someone's Ukrainian friend or relative being prevented from escaping the war due to a passport issue."

Is this the new dismissing phrase that's taken over from 'don't you know that there's a pandemic on"?.
He's lost out on a sking trip, his fault. I don't know any 20 year olds who can't manage their own passports. As said you need them for I.D, online verification etc, not just travel. You've got to step back or 'Mother's work' takes over from wife work and you've got a whole new mental load going on.

Just to warn you since his last passport was issued when he was 15 he may not be able to renew at the passport office. I renewed DS’s passport last year (17) and because it was changing from child to adult there were more security checks. Instead of 5days online it took 5weeks. We had to send off his original birth certificate.
He has got a lovely new blue passport now.

@Angrymum22

Just to warn you since his last passport was issued when he was 15 he may not be able to renew at the passport office. I renewed DS’s passport last year (17) and because it was changing from child to adult there were more security checks. Instead of 5days online it took 5weeks. We had to send off his original birth certificate. He has got a lovely new blue passport now.

I had no problems with DS2's last year. Just a standard renewal from child to adult passport with no extra checks at all. It took maybe 3 weeks (the same as DD's standard child renewal, sent separately)

You don’t need “holiday clothes” to go abroad for a weekend, or a suitcase or a rucksack. And why wouldn’t she keep a suitcase or rucksack with her at university? My DC keeps her suitcase and rucksack there - in case she needs it. How did she get her stuff to university without a suitcase or rucksack? Anyway, I digress. Has she not got a part-time job or voluntary work where she has needed to prove her ID? I’m truly baffled why she doesn’t have her passport with her. A birth certificate I can understand. I handed it over with strict warnings about how important it was, not just a scrappy bit of paper.

That's good to know @Angrymum22. I will make sure DD gets new passport photos done when she comes home at Easter. She just doesn't have the headspace to do it now, being in the middle of dissertation hell.

I remember, as a University student, saying I'd go on the Music Tour in four weeks then realising that my passport (which I had with me for such eventualities) was out of date so having to sort the renewal myself. Picture getting rejected, having to send a new one... passport arriving days before the trip.

My mess up. I sorted it. My parents only response being to check I didn't need any details from them for the renewal form.

However with foreign travel being what it has been the past couple of years I can see that students haven't had the same opportunities for impromptu travel we did in the late 2000's.

Its not much comfort but he's probably learnt a valuable life lesson about checking documents.

My son is at uni and has his passport with him for ID purposes. We have holidays booked for this year but I know when his passport expires because, owing to his age, I was the one who renewed his passport. If you're the one arranging the holiday you should also be responsible for checking passports. Do as others have advised and keep checking for appointments, otherwise move the holiday.

If he is willing to travel he might well be able to get a fast turn around passport appointment. Keep checking the website and get him to travel to whichever place as an appointment.

My 19 yr old flew to Australia last year (gap year job) with an expired UK passport because we'd focussed on the status of her Australian one which she was planning to renew over there. She thought she'd checked both...

It also took a few months of hassling from us and two separate grandparents before she sorted them out. Not to mention I had to send documents to the Australian High commission in London to be copied and emailed so she could get a first adult Australian passport - hadn't expected to need that for a renewal!

My DD went abroad quite a few times at uni so always had her passport with her.

Thought I should update… DS got the early train to his nearest passport office .. I tried to stop him after all your advice ( and I’d calmed down and didn’t want him out in the cold) but he went and didn’t get anywhere BUT he has got a cancellation in Durham on Saturday so if it goes to plan he can get to us Saturday night with the passport to fly out on Sunday.. yay massive lesson learned for all of us and we are all friends again. Thank you all for your help .

Fantastic that he managed to get an appointment. Now badger him to have every conceivable piece of paper work, photographs and completed form for his appointment!

My DD went abroad quite a few times at uni so always had her passport with her.

There has never been the opportunity for DD during the last couple of years TBH.

My son is at uni and has his passport with him for ID purposes

DD got a provisional driving licence for this purpose, although one of her friends who has epilepsy has to carry a passport for this reason as she can't have a driving licence.

I really hate to condone enabling helplessness, but if you paid that much money on a holiday for his 18th, you or DH should have checked his passport.

@thinking123

Not helpful to you now op, but all these stories about expired passports stress me out so I have put reminders in the family calendar. I have set reminders for 9 months, six months and three months for all the passports. Only took five min but makes things like this less Likely to happen.

I did this after a reading a similar thread recently!

@SettlerofCatan

Thought I should update… DS got the early train to his nearest passport office .. I tried to stop him after all your advice ( and I’d calmed down and didn’t want him out in the cold) but he went and didn’t get anywhere BUT he has got a cancellation in Durham on Saturday so if it goes to plan he can get to us Saturday night with the passport to fly out on Sunday.. yay massive lesson learned for all of us and we are all friends again. Thank you all for your help .

Check if the photos need countersigning

This isn’t a passport crisis. I thought you were Ukrainian stuck at a border or something

🙄 Haha. Typical self righteous MN post.

Expensive mistake op

Because after registering DD didn't need her passport. Why on earth would she need It at university?

Because....it's hers and she's an adult?

@Arabellla

I really hate to condone enabling helplessness, but if you paid that much money on a holiday for his 18th, you or DH should have checked his passport.

Unhelpful comments. Have you never forgotten something ? Give the op a break fgs

@SettlerofCatan A practical note - I agree with @TheHoptimist - do check re countersigning - on the website there is a very helpful list of those who can - It would be beyond disappointing if he were turned away because of not having a countersigned photo / form. If it were me ( & I do not think I am a helicopter parent ) I would be reminding him of that because not everyone is available at 5 mins notice to be a counter signatory

But if he has done it - ignore my post & I hope it turns out well - do let us know
Best wishes