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...

I agree. Cancel, take the smaller loss and end your anxiety over it. If you keep waiting you’ll be a drivelling mess, it may not arrive anyway and might pay double for the ongoing stress.

Cancel and pretend a squirrel grabbed the cash from your hand as you walked in the park. They are cute, it has a family too, you didn’t chase it 😊

Change flights now to avoid fee

Wait on villa - sunk cost anyway

If passport comes in time, miraculously - rebook flights if affordable (can you even change a second time, move your old flights back??)

If passport doesn't come, cancel villa.

We applied to renew my sons passport on March 15th, all done online and we received the new one in the postbox today.

@CheeryTreeBlossom just a note to say that I got that same message and next thing I knew DS passport arrived without any dispatch notification or tracking no.

@Utilityroomenvy how long was it for you between notification that your documents had been received and that the application had been approved?

@Mumski45 this is the only thing that's giving me any hope - stories I'm hearing of people receiving no updates beyond notification of receipt of documents and then the passport just arriving. So maybe it will arrive? Added nugget of hope along this line is the fasttrack people telling DH yesterday that the application was 'too far along' to withdraw (although claiming they were unable to give any indication of how far along it actually was). Arrrggghhhh. @tcjotm drivelling mess is right! I can't take the stress on top of being manic at work at the moment...

Do you know which office your DC's passport was sent to? Mine went to Glasgow and none of the stages were updated until I received notification of dispatch.
The DC's were sent to English offices (can't remember which) and were updated on the system at every stage.
All of the passports were sent for renewal at the same time but I received mine a week before the DCs. Wondering if they might have different processes depending on where they are allocated?

@Flockameanie

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.

I would cancel and move

See if deposit can be moved to a later date

4w isn’t long enough. They said can take up to 8/10w

Silly you didn’t fast track but can’t change the past

@Jijithecat. I don't. How does one find out?

There do seem to be wildly different timings going on, according to this thread and other forums. Some people getting theirs back within 3 weeks of sending everything of. Others still waiting after 5+ weeks. Yet another thing that makes the whole process so frustrating.

Oh how I wish we hadn't had faith in 'the system' and instead just done a fast track application to start with. Let this be a lesson to anyone else needing to renew a passport and planning a holiday. If you're leaving any sooner than 4 months time, I'd do a fast track.

When we applied @Blondeshavemorefun it said 3 weeks! But yes, see my PP about how much I'm kicking myself. I'm never as cross as when cross with myself for fucking something up...

I think there will be a lot of people who think “ok, my holiday is in 6 weeks and it’s saying 3 week turnaround, It’ll be fine” - so don’t beat yourself up, you definitely won’t be the first or the last. Ive read a lot about some passports taking forever and it doesn’t make sense. I also sent my sons passport renewal off about 5 weeks ago and it came back 2 weeks ago and have a friend who did hers two days later and is still waiting even though they haven’t been in touch to say there’s any queries on her application (they were both done online). I know that doesn’t help you at all and I’m sorry - but it does seem like it’s completely at random how they process things.

As much as it sucks, I suppose you have to ask yourself the question “can I afford to lose that £600?”. Everyone’s financial situations are different. For me I couldn’t let that amount of money go, I’d probably rebook the flights for later on in the year, and as much as it sucks take it on the chin and learn not to trust the passport office in future. I hope you get it sorted, it’s a rubbish situation to be in 💐

I only got notification of passport being sent yesterday (renewal) that was applied for 19th February so I would unfortunately change as I couldn’t deal with the stress. Brand new child passport applied at same time I’ve had back 2 weeks. There’s no rhyme nor reason at the moment.

The timings seem to be so random. Why aren’t they done in order? I did mine, DH and 2 DC mid feb. Same person validated our documents, all on the same day. One DC was back in 3 weeks, everyone else is still document checking!

We’re going with my Mum who did hers two weeks after us and she got hers this morning.

It was four days after the old passport had been received back. They were sat on the application till that was returned.

Really depends on how easily you can afford to lose that £350.

Recent child passport renewal here-went from "processing" to just appearing in the post. No email or text.
Expired passport turned up a week after the new one.

@Flockameanie can you remember where you posted the documents to as that should be the office dealing with the application. Mine went to Liverpool but a friend who lives very close had to send hers to Glasgow.

DS's renewal took 17 days from online application to the day passport arrived.

@Yespmed. Yes, I've just spent a despressing 5 minutes on the 'Passport Waiting Time' forum and it seems that the office our application went to (Peterborough) is just incredibly slow at the moment... Although I'm assuming that people only use that forum if, like me, they're experiencing delays in receiving a passport. So it's probably a non-representative sample (she says, still hopeful!)

DS's renewal took 17 days from online application to the day passport arrived.

17 days is exceptionally quick. I'm on day 23 and I only got the approval notice yesterday. It took more the 17 days to acknowledge they had received my documents.

I really wish I could say it is likely to be fine and just a case of it not updating tracking but unfortunately OP I don't think that's anything more than optamism for the situation you're in.

I'd probably change the flights now and loose the deposit on the villa. There's a small chance the passport will arrive but if it's not showing as approved it's unlikely to arrive. Make a mental note to send the applications earlier next time, these delays cause so much stress.

It's so odd that some take so long and there seems to be no logic to it! I applied for 2 dc passports on 7th March, documents sent same day renewal had old passport acknowledged on 18th, approved on 23rd and arrived today. New passport had documents acknowledged on 24th and not approved yet.

I would probably cancel-I am not a gambler and things like this stress me an incredible amount

Dh IS a gambler and has nerves of steel-he would absolutely hang on til the last possible second and somehow things always work out for him

I just think the stress isn't worth it. Cancel and book a nice UK break.
Abroad will be there for next time.

I got my child's renewed and it took 25 days including the time to post it. It took a week to arrive after I had the message to say it had been posted so if you haven't even had that message yet I would cancel today as it's so unlikely to come

Really is no rhyme or reason to the times at the moment. Applied for mine and DDs renewals on 6/3. They arrived on 22 & 24/3.

Ok, I think I would ask if the villa will allow you to move your dates without losing the full deposit. They might not but it’s worth a try.

I applied for my child’s renewal on the 7th, docs sent on the 8th. Acknowledged receipt of those on the 21. Approved in the 24th. Message today to say it’s been printed and will be heading to the courier who will update timing - same message as someone posted above. So 3 weeks and 3 days to get to this point.

I would want to take the risk, especially when you are clearly in need of a trip away.

This happened to me, I called them and magically my passport was despatched within 24 hours and arrived 2 days after that. I would hold on until the last minute today in case they call you and say it's in the post

One final call to the passport office. Insist that you remain on the line and speak to someone rather than them calling back. It sounds suspiciously like the passport is lost in the system which happened to DH a while ago but once they acknowledged this they fast tracked the replacement.

If you don't get anywhere I would move the flights now and avoid losing more money. It is worth asking the villa very nicely whether they would be willing to transfer your booking or part of the value or something. If they won't and the passport comes through you can try and get new flights.

My daughters was approved on the 17th. Printed on the 18th and still not despatched.

I submitted the original application for renewal on the 17th February.