AIBU not knowing what to do about holiday debacle (child passport renewal)...

[Flockameanie]

I've been posting about our debacle of trying to renew DS's passport on the Holidays board.

In short, we're due to go on holiday in 8 days. DS's passport renewal may, or may not, arrive on time. We have no way of knowing. Flights are on EasyJet, accommodation is indepenently booked. Up to the end of today, I can change the date on the flights for no fee. From tomorrow onwards it will cost £350 to change them. I can change them up to 2hrs before the flight. We've paid a deposit on the accommodation (Abourt £300) that we'll lose if we change or cancel.

My AIBU is that I don't know what to do and I'm so bloody stressed. Mostly about potentially having to tell the DC, who are so excited about this holiday, that it's cancelled.

Options:

1. Sit tight and hope passport arrives. Do nothing. If by the night before it hasn't arrived, change flights (for £350) for some random date in future. Lose deposit on villa
2. Cut our losses now. Change flights to some random date in the future. Cancel villa. Only loss is villa deposit.

What do I do?? I'm so stressed about it all I can't think straight...

When did you renew the passport?
Have you had emails to say where it is in the process system?

Well a lot depends on how likely it is the passport will be back.

Did you only send it off a week ago?, or 2 months ago? Did you pay for fast track / special delivery to have it returned etc etc

It’s all a bit how long is a piece of string without more info

This site is good for crowd-sourced info on current turnaround times

www.passportwaitingtime.co.uk/

Standard online application submitted 4.5 weeks ago. Only update on system is that they’ve received the documents - that was 10 days ago.

Have spent so long on hold on phone over past 3 weeks. When we finally got through they advised to withdraw application and do an in-person fast track. We did that and got to the apt yesterday only for them to tell us we couldn’t withdraw the original application.

cancell what you can without cost. Suck up the cancellation of the accomodation cost.

And remember that people have been talking about how long passport renewals take for years and years and don't cut it so fine next time.

So is the original application still “live” then? I think I would be inclined to leave it and then see what happens over the next 8 days. Worst comes to worst can one of you stay with DH and the others go on holiday, then you join them ASAP once passport arrives. But yes it is shocking the level of service and incompetence we’ve been conditioned to accept as normal from these kinds of public services- remember this when it is time to vote!

Based on that timeline I would be surprised if the passport arrived in the next 8 days.
I'm applying, albeit for a first passport, for DC and every stage is taking an age.
It was apparently printed a week ago (and yours isn't yet at this stage) but still not even posted.

This is what it still says:
What happens next
Your new passport will be transferred to our delivery supplier in the next few days. In most cases it will be delivered by TNT delivery services. When it’s ready for delivery, they will contact you with a tracking reference.

So my timeline says docs received 14 (I actually sent them recorded and they were received on the 7th ), approved 17, printed 24 and still not dispatched!

www.passportwaitingtime.co.uk/ has crowd sourced times which might help you make a decision on the likelihood of it arriving.
If you receive info that it's been dispatched with tracking I'd be more confident, but even then I've heard bad things about TNT delivery services recently.

@Brefugee - yes, I know! It was a last-minute decision to go on holiday at which point we remembered DS passport had expired. We're completely kicking ourselves for not opting for the fast track application in the first instance. But at that point the HM passport site said applications were taking 3 weeks, so we thought we'd be ok as we had 6 weeks until departure at that point. Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

@Heronwatcher my initial thoughts too. But there's only 4 of us, so a holiday with just one parent and one DC while the other two stay at home, I realised, won't be fun for anyone. We've agreed that it's either all of us or none of us. Kids are quite young (6 & 8), so will hard to rationalise all this to anyway.

@CheeryTreeBlossom I fear you're right. We know they actually received the documents on 2nd March, but it took them 3 weeks to acknowledge that. What absolutely baffles me is that they said at the in-person apt yesterday that the application was 'too far along' to withdraw, but at the same time they couldn't tell us anything about what stage it was at. I wasn't actually at the apt as DH has been doing all of this as I'm just at the tail end of a hellishly busy time at work (hence really needing this holiday).

Ugh ugh ugh. The whole thing is making me want to lie on the ground and sob - which is pretty much what I'm sure the kids will do when we tell them we're not going.

@Flockameanie sorry, my post came across really mean, i didn't mean it to. Just at this stage I'd be cutting my losses (mad at myself for not realising about the passport) and trying to get on with life (in reality it would peck at me in the middle of the night for years to come)

I'd cancel it all and book something in the UK. If you're that desperate for a holiday then anything anywhere will be a lovely break with the family. And then you can forget the stress of the passport not arriving in time.

I know it's not the same as a holiday abroad but it's better than nothing and/or days of stress!

So one way you could lose £350, the other £300?

Tbh, at that difference, I'd be tempted to gamble on it arriving.

cancel now. If the passport comes through in the next couple of days, book a last minute deal. Otherwise, explain to the DC that you can't go this time but will make up for it with a wonderful holiday later in the year

Just to add my two pence worth - we recently renewed our DS passport - it took c. 4 weeks from start to finish, but even once the passport office notified us it was 'ready' it also took nearly a week for it to arrive, even though it came via courier. I had an email from the passport office on the Thursday to say it was going to the courier and I'd be notified directly by the courier to give me a delivery time; but I didnt hear from the courier until the following Wednesday and the passport was delivered that day so nearly a week after it was 'ready'.

Really tricky one OP - if you sit tight but worst case scenario plays out, you'll lose £600? But if you cancel now you'll lose £300? Is that right?

Emergency passport? We had to do that a few months ago - additional cost but less than losing the holiday. Process was fast and straightforward. Just costly.

Sorry - posted too soon…. We were in exactly the same situation, waiting for renewal of child’s passport to be processed.

OP, we once had an issue with dd's passport. It wasn't actually our fault, we had allowed loads of time for processing. However, there was a problem with one of the people who was supposed to be verifying dd's identity. They insisted that they had sent some paperwork to him, and he insisted that he had never received it. This resulted in a delay of weeks and weeks, and in the end, we had to start all over again!

Anyway, that's by the by, but we were getting desperate and DH contacted our MP to intervene. I don't know if it was coincidence but suddenly the passport was with us after weeks of going back and forth about it. Might be worth trying to contact your MP just in case?

Just checked the gov website and realised that it’s only for if you are already abroad. (Which applied to us as we are expats and had travel booked back to UK to visit family in the school holidays). But it seems that it’s not an option if you are living in the UK. Sorry to give false hope!

I applied for a child renewal on the 16th. Got a message yesterday that it’s approved and they will let me know when it’s despatched. So two weeks for approval. Maybe another week for it to arrive? Have you had an approval message?

@mnahmnah - no notification of approval. Nothing since the 'we've accepted your documents' about 10 days ago.

DH finally got through on the phone this morning and they've asked someone from 'processing' to call him back tomorrow. So now I'm in even more of a quandary. Wait to make a decision until tomorrow - at which point it will cost us £350 to change the flights. Or just change them today...

To clarify @siestalady and others - yes, if we cancel today I'll just lose the villa deposit of £300. If I wait and cancel between tomorrow and departure we'll lose the deposit + have to pay the £350 flight change fee (so £650)

What flight options/costs are there for you and DS to join your family part way through the holiday if passport comes late? Is it an option to join them once they are there?

@LoveAGoodToddlerTantrum - at this point, only cost implication with that option would be if the new flights are more expensive. Changing after tomorrow would be approx £90 for two people for just outgoing flight.

But my fear with that option is that the passport doesn't come through in time for the new flights and then two of us are on holiday on our own while the other two are stuck at home. I don't think any of us are happy with that risk as we really need a holiday as a family. So we (DH and I) have decided we all go together or none of us go.

If cancel. It's still got several stages to go through and realistically even with the call back tomorrow it's just not going to get here in time.

It's disappointing but far better to lose the £300 than risk it and lose over double that.

We have just gone through this for both our children. Paperwork was noted as received on the 4th for one, passport was with us by the 18th, for the other paperwork received on the 4th, passport with us on the 26th.

Once the application was marked as approved then the rest happened quite quickly.

I’d 100% cancel and suck up the £300 loss over a potential £650 loss.

I would cancel.