Any help, tips or real life experiences much appreciated and desperately needed.
My husband electronically applied for our daughters passport renewal at the beginning of May so we could go abroad on holiday within the 6 week school break.
On the 5th May he returned what he believed to be her expired passport as part of the renewal application.
Fast forward several weeks, mid June I realised he didn’t return our daughters expired passport but accidentally sent his very valid passport in its place by accident.
We tried over several weeks to get his valid passport returned, speaking to numerous different people on a variety of very long drawn out phone calls and in the meanwhile returned the actual expired passport which was processed and returned.
Eventually we were informed his passport was lost and he must apply for a replacement. We made an electronic application early July and have been waiting ever since.
Today we were informed it will not be treated any differently and we must expect to wait at least 10 weeks.
We were desperate to go abroad this year after a very tough year this was something we were massively looking forward to.
I don’t know what to do. If you read online guidance it says once you have made an application and “are in the system” you can no longer expedite or fast track your application but then I have read and heard of people fast tracking, having holidays booked and at worst visiting a passport office with 48 hours to go before departure and getting their passports in person.
I feel so heartbroken at the thought of having no summer holiday which I know sounds hideously extreme but we’ve had a particularly hard time and this was so badly needed.
Any tips, experiences etc would be much appreciated