UKC

Trying to get a UK passport ?

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 Babika 28 May 2022

Is anyone stuck in the 10 week queue at the moment? 

So far I've lost one carefully planned trip and had drives to both Peterborough and Glasgow passport offices in an attempt not to lose anymore. 

Finally succeeded in Glasgow yesterday when the kind official bent the rules and allowed me a 1 day passport rather than the 1 week which would have kiboshed another trip by virtue of the 4 day Bank Holiday in the middle. 

Yes, I know this is a first world problem. Not very important in the scheme of things. But the stress the current backlog has generated has been monumental and given that climbers tend to travel around a bit I just wondered how is it for you? 

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 Jenny C 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Sent mine off at the start of may - they have cashed my cheque, so assume it's being processed.

 Ciro 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

I decided not to bother renewing - they wanted me to send in my Irish passport as part of the process, and that didnt seem worth the risk.

3
OP Babika 28 May 2022
In reply to Jenny C:

Good luck! Things might clear soon.

 ExiledScot 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Been waiting about 8 weeks for my sons, luckily it's not critical. 

 BigBrother 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

I applied online to renew mine on 13/4 and had my new passport delivered on 25/4.

I thought that was very quick until I read in the media that it was really very slow and will be much quicker after it is privatised.

 Jenny C 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Last one was issued on the bank holiday Monday of the queen's diamond jubilee weekend - hope they are working equally hard this year.

 Andy Farnell 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

I'd rather have an EU passport TBH. The British passport is plain embarrassing.

Andy F

19
In reply to Babika:

applied end of April and new passport arrived in 3 weeks.

 CantClimbTom 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Yes, my son is currently on 8 or 9 weeks, since application using post office checking service. 10 weeks is not guaranteed, may be longer... Not planning to travel until August, but Mrs cantclimbtom is very worried.

 Xharlie 28 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Ten weeks! My God! Do you realise that Zimbabwe is now quicker than that land that once claimed colonisation of her?

(I've accompanied someone who wanted and needed a wing-person through Zimbabwean government office queues -- four whole and consecutive days of them, to be precise -- but she walked away with a passport in the end. Paid a pretty penny for the fastest track -- basically an officially sanctioned bribe. Fooking scary experience, though, because I'm from South Africa and don't know the cultural rules of Harare. And the sun-burn was epic because that shade-cloth under which we sat was *not* filtering UV!)

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 AukWalk 29 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Impossible, Boris says everyone is getting their passports within 4 to 6 weeks. Must be a bot!

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-office-uk-bor...

:p

OP Babika 29 May 2022
In reply to AukWalk:

Hahaha

He should try standing in the queues around the block of the Passport offices and chatting to folk! 

In reply to Andy Farnell:

Same here. I'm in the process of applying for an Irish passport through my grandmother. Once I have that, my UK passport is worthless 

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 neilh 29 May 2022
In reply to Wide_Mouth_Frog:

And yet I flew back from Chicago via Dublin 2 weeks ago. Only showed my passport once in Dublin  on the transfer. At Manchester no immigration check and collected luggage from domestic terminal. 
 

Very slick. 

 felt 29 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Applied end of March and still not got it. It's been an exercise in frustration. I sent it off last year to be renewed, along with my wife and kids' (passports). They lost my passport (not my wife and kids' ones) at the passport office, then of course denied any knowledge of ever having it. I then had to fill in a form saying I'd lost it ( I hadn't), and where I'd lost if (the passport office). The police had to be told. How did you lose it? I didn't. etc. Then the post office in Kendal had no forms for a renewal and I couldn't apply for one until it was cancelled, which took forever. Once it was cancelled the Post Office's i-Pad for application had broken. And now I'm nearly approaching the 10 weeks.

I haven't been abroad for 12 years. What's the betting it will be 13 (I'm 'off' in Aug)?

OP Babika 29 May 2022
In reply to felt:

I really sympathise. That sounds a total nightmare.

If, like me, you've spent hours trying to get through to the call centre only to find that they can't actually help you at all it can really fray nerves. 

I don't know what the solution to the current backlog is. The lady in Glasgow told me shes doing loads of overtime but it takes ages to get new staff because of the long and complex security clearances. 

In reply to neilh:

And I flew back from Kos in April and only showed my passport to board the flight and at the e-gates in Manchester. I'm not sure what you're trying to say 

In reply to neilh:

Ok. Does your UK one let you live and work in the EU? 

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In reply to Wide_Mouth_Frog:

Plenty of UK citizens still living and working in EU

4
In reply to Currently Resting:

I think we've already hijacked this thread enough without it turning into a full on discussion of the benefits of brexit

 GMohr 29 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

Sent mine off last month as I was worried about timings. New passport arrived in about two weeks. No hassles and updates every step of the way. 

Still waiting for old one to turn back up though ....

 deepsoup 29 May 2022
In reply to AukWalk:

> Impossible, Boris says everyone is getting their passports within 4 to 6 weeks.

It's that the same guy who says he's going to lay off 91000 civil servants?  The passport office being overstaffed is probably what's wrong, I'm sure they'll clear the backlog in no time when there's a bit more elbow room in the office for the remaining staff.

In reply to GMohr:

Same here in terms of old passport

 nniff 30 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

This is the same problem doing another lap of the block.

Many years ago - when the kids were born, they were added to my wife's passport.  The rules changed, so when she needed a new passport, we found ourselves in need of three.  We knew there was a backlog and so we applied early and paid for the checked, expedited service  x3. 

The appointed time for receipt came and went, but being good citizens we waited some more, and then started to get worried and hit the phone.   We eventually got the answer was that our applications had been checked and expedited, and put in the wrong workflow. He then told us that our applications were currently in Belfast, in a room that was full to the ceiling with mail bags and that there was no time stated for completion. 

We asked about the checking and expediting service, and they said they would do that again for us without charge (we just had enough time).  Great we said, except there are three original birth certificates and a marriage certificate in a room in Belfast.... 

We had to get duplicates, which you could fortunately do in person then by going up to the records office in London, leafing through the huge ledgers and you'd get the duplicates with 24 hours.  We scraped in with 2 days to spare. 

Now, had my birth certificate been involved, that would have been that - issued in Nyasaland and Southern Rhodesia;  Zimbabwe is not in the business of issuing replacement colonial certificates.....

OP Babika 30 May 2022
In reply to nniff:

Its a great story (and sounds a nightmare) but at least in the old days you could talk to a real person to explain the need for an appointment. 

Two of us spent 72 hours almost non stop pressing "request appointment" only to get "computer says no". 

Technology is marvellous until its overwhelmed. 

 deepsoup 31 May 2022
In reply to Babika:

> Two of us spent 72 hours almost non stop pressing "request appointment" only to get "computer says no". 

> Technology is marvellous until its overwhelmed. 

Nit picking - but I don't think it's the technology that's overwhelmed.  "Computer says no" is working perfectly when it tells you there isn't a real person available for you to talk to.

OP Babika 06 Jun 2022
In reply to deepsoup:

> Nit picking - but I don't think it's the technology that's overwhelmed.  "Computer says no" is working perfectly when it tells you there isn't a real person available for you to talk to.

Actually it persistently said "sorry, there are no appointments available". Which sounds like technology to me. You don't need to talk to a person to just offer the next appointment off the pile whether it's in Glasgow, Peterborough, London etc and in 1 month, 2 months etc with the ability for you to accept or reject.

The stress of pressing "request appointment" 24/7 with no idea when it might throw one up is a failure of a computer appointments system 


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