Passport Office fuck up (1st child passport) means Christmas is cancelled...

[Umlauf]

... and DSs Christening.

He was born at the end of September. Knowing it would take 6 weeks to apply for his passport I rang the passport office before his birth to triple check what we would need. Was given a list over the phone.

Rang back after his birth to confirm again as was ready to send everything off. Was told to add his four grandparents' birth and marriage certificates to envelope. As these now had to be ordered urgently they were at a cost of 25 pounds each (Spoke to 2 different people at both gave a different list of required contents, but went with the longest list.)

Obtained birth certificates exactly 6 weeks before our flights home for Christmas. Rang a fourth time to go through everything. Everything ticked off and ok to send, hurrah!

Yesterday we get an email to say they need his Spanish birth certificate as well as the international one the previous four people said was the correct one. This needs to be officially translated first which takes 3 days. By the time its done there will be 3 weeks until our flights, not to mention the one week postage time either way..

We're not going are we. Our friends and family aren't going to meet DS, all DHs (and my!) Christmas presents are there, I'll have to cancel his Christening... The total costs of the palaver comes to over a grand now taking the flights, passport crap and car hire into account.. Plus my grandfather is pretty ill and I'm not sure he'll even get to meet his first and only great grandchild now..

How do I complain? On the phone they keep fobbing me off. I'm really upset. I know its a first world problem, but still!

[Tonixx97]

I have the exact same problem with the passport my little cousin has got cancer hes only 7 i have tried for a spanish passport they told me i hes not entitled to a spanish passport unless me or my partner are spanish i now have to wait till after christmass for his passport he was born 23 september after getting his libro de familia an bc sort have finally sent off for a passport i rung the embassy up 5 times i was getting told diffrent things by everyone at the embassy they told me i can get an emergancy passport i went for 1 an got sent away i also have to get back to see doctors as the spanish hosspitals are now refusing to see i had a really bad time in labour i had an epedural they gave me to much wich caused me to have a fit since having the babby i have been blacking out everytime i go to hospital they send me away its awfull the way they treat people

[CiderwithBuda]

Fab!

[HopeForTheBest]

:) Yay!

[PontyPants]

Hooray
Enjoy your christmas

[Clutterbugsmum]

So glad you have the passport, and can have the christmas and christening you have planned.

[OddBoots]

So pleased. :)

[SolomanDaisy]

Yay! Glad you get to have the Christmas you planned.

[Umlauf]

ITS HERE!! After my very dramatic OP I feel a bit sheepish that it's come with 3 weeks to spare! Very pleased! Still a bit about the extra costs but alls well that ends well.

Thank you for all your help and advice!

[HepsibarCrinkletoes]

I was told that DD3 could Not have a Spanish passport until she was 16, at which point she will be eligible to hold both at the same time. Is that because both ex-P and I are British? I have the Libra Familia which was issued with her birth certificate that would allow her to get her NIC without jumping through hoops, but both the Guardia Civil and Policia Nationale said no Spanish p/port until she's 16.

Not that I'm fussed particularly, just interested to know what is actually the case.

[WestieMamma]

I applied for DSs first passport in July. We got it back 2 weeks after sending it all off to Liverpool. We're in Sweden.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Wibbly - at the moment, I think you can still get a British passport issued in Washington. But not for much longer, as all passport operations are transferring to UK. And I think the instructions now, as it is in transition, are to apply via the UK rather than in Washington. Unless, of course, you know someone at the Embassy who can pull strings. But once it has gone, it has gone, and it won't matter who you know - they won't have the machinery at the Embassy to do it.

[runningmad]

Hmm not everyone living in the EU are EU nationals, and the only way to prove you are an EU national when you're a British citizen is to have a British passport, for most other EU nationalities, they are lucky to have national identity cards, so they get a choice of document to prove their EU nationality.

The ferry companies at non juxtaposed ports are legally required under Carriers Liability, same way as airlines are, £2000 or whatever it is these days fine, for bringing in anyone without documentation, in reality the fine is only imposed for asylum seekers who then become a cost on the UK (they should all be returned to where they came under Dublin but France signed up to that one and then almost always ignore that convention in practice). For juxtaposed ports like Calais and Dunkerque, UK Borders check at the border, only British citizens can plea with good reason to enter the UK without their passport, but they'd be held up and the passport database checked. Now if you've never been issued with a passport, a baby British born at birth is going to have immense difficulty proving their nationality, unless carrying full birth certificates for 2 dozen family members!

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

Posted too soon...

Glad things are looking up Umlauf - fingers crossed for you.

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

Running - that's not what the embassy here told me the other day - but then we do have quite a few friends who work there so who knows which strings they can pull? I've known quite a few people get passports in an afternoon here...

[VivaLeBeaver]

You could drive and ferry though depending where in Spain you are it could be a long journey.

I've been to France twice on the ferry with no passport. I just argued that we're all in the EU and don't need passports.

[chloeb2002]

Hope you get it! Obviously things are different here in aus. Only recently we needed a passport urgently for dd. it was eventually courier delivered by fco to the airport! It was a one year temporary passport as they needed " proof of further identity"but on the grounds that I am a British citizen they granted it! Fingers crossed for you!

[somersethouse]

I think you'll get it within a week OP, I certainly hope so.
I got mine within a week, although it was a renewal, but you have plenty of time and they are aware of your case.

Best of luck!

[Umlauf]

Things are looking up a little! Collected the translation and couriered it off this morning. The courier cost £40 on top of £60 for a translation. You pay per word and they count names as word. Cheeky!

So it will arrive at the passport office tomorrow, and I have exactly a month until we fly...

Not too bad! Keeping positive.

[BaronessBomburst]

Funny how nationality laws vary so much. DS was born in the Netherlands and has only ever lived here. He goes to school here, speaks Dutch, sings Dutch nursery rhymes and celebrates Dutch holidays and has Dutch friends. He can't have a passport until he is 18 though. He can have an Irish passport despite never having set foot in Ireland, but is currently on a British one.

[runningmad]

No baby cannot enter with Spanish passport 1) because baby doesn't have one and 2) baby is not Spanish and cannot be until a year old when can naturalise! how many people do not read the facts???? No you're not automatically Spanish cos born there, same goes for the UK.

Umlauf is getting to know British nationality law quickly, lots of ifs and buts which means those born abroad get the extra scrutiny.

Sorry Wibbly you'll never get a British passport from a British embassy anywhere, they haven't been made abroad for a few years and the "via" service stopped in the last year. It all goes directly to the UK now. Full birth certificates including grandparents ones etc etc, at least you don't need translations though. Please tell me you don't need to translate US birth certificates :-)

[Wibblypiglikesbananas]

Hope you get things sorted.

If it's any consolation, we're in the same boat. DC born here in the US three weeks ago, his birth certificate and social security card have his name spelt incorrectly and so until those mistakes are rectified, we can't get him a passport. And we don't have a timeframe, hence no flights to the UK for Xmas for us.

There's a slim chance we could get everything in time, but don't want to spend the best part of £2000+ only to find we can't use the flights.

On a more positive note, once we have a US passport for him, we can get a British one from the embassy here relatively quickly. It costs way more than applying via the UK but it's quick.

[CiderwithBuda]

Ah - ok - phew! Missed that.

[Stevie77]

Apologies if this has already been suggested, can't you enter the UK with his Spanish passport then sort the Britush one while you're here?

There's obviously no visa issue, as an EU citizen he can travel here and stay. Just get an urgent Spanish passport out and deal with the rest later.

[Umlauf]

Alas, not Irish! There's an exotic sixteenth of me that's Scottish but other than that completely English on all sides as far back as we know, both for DH and me.