I've sold my Discovery to my friend in France! I was going to deliver it but now my wife's passport is stuck in the system somewhere! I can't book anything such as ferries and flights home but whilst I wait, everything is being sold out! The passport office is saying renewals will only take three weeks but in reality, more like 3 months!

Any one else out there having difficulty?

This kind of situation probably doesn't apply to adult passport applications but I had a nightmare renewing my son's passport earlier this year. I applied about 8 weeks before expiry thinking there was plenty of time and we had no imminent trips. Something came up and we needed to travel urgently. After the advertised 3 weeks from the application date elapsed I phoned them numerous times only to be told "the application is under examination" with no useful status. Eventually I got hold of someone relatively helpful and found they had written to the countersignatory 2 weeks ago and had been quietly waiting for a response I requested another letter to be sent and apparently even that didn't get through to the countersignatory after waiting another week. The same countersignatory had successfully received and returned the letter for another friend's child who applied later than us.

Despite my attempts they refused to move to the 21st century and rejected my requests to verify countersignature by email, fax or phone (all official work contact details of the countersignatory) and insisted that 2nd class unrecorded post was the only way they could do it They don't offer the same day service for children's applications and there wasn't enough time left to use the fast track service due to the inaccurate information they had been feeding me earlier

In the end as it was still valid for 6 days until after our return date, I had to withdraw his old passport (again, email/phone/fax not acceptable and had to post application to return passport, wasting another day). Waited until I received the passport, made last minute arrangements at work and booked longhaul flights less than 18 hours before departure. Wife and daughter had already flown out a day before as our situation wasn't clear. Son and I had to use a different airline as that was the only option left, forcing us to fly back in 2 groups as well.

As another trip was only 4 weeks away by the time we returned, I immediately sent another application form with different countersignatory details and got his passport renewed at last.

Someone allegedly "close to the matter" told me HMPO are now verifying countersignatures for pretty much every child application, which is a good thing, but mismanagement/mishandling means the percentage of these verification letters going missing is quite high. Another theory is that the address windows on the envelopes they use are too small for some large work addresses with departments, buildings, floors etc. forming the full address (especially NHS addresses). Because sometimes a significant part of the address is concealed, RM can't deliver these letters and they are returned to HMPO where they end up in trash. No way of confirming these theories though

Apologies for the lengthy rant but it was a stressful time and incompetence in doing what you are paid to do boils my blood.

Blimey! I'm at a loss as how to reply to that! Our wait for the passport seems so insignificant to the problems you have been having!

Yep me.

Less than 6 weeks till I go to France and my 2 year old hasn't had her passport come back yet.

Do they still do them if you go to the passport office?

Not for children. The best you can get is the fast track 1 week service.

Earlier this year, I sent all four passports to be renewed

Mine and my 8 years old came back in two weeks, my wife's was having her name changed and 4 year daughter was having it renewed with new photo, theirs came back a few days after

I am feeling very lucky to have had it so simple

fkarim wrote:

Not for children. The best you can get is the fast track 1 week service.

My British Passport has been in the process of renewal now for 2 months +. Luckily, I have an Aussie one so I don't need it to travel anywhere. The last renewal on my Aussie only took 4 days. Gone - 2008 Stornoway Grey RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2009 Buckingham Blue RRS 2.7 TDV6
Gone - 2010 Alaska White RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Gone - 2017 Chawton White RRS 5.0 V8 Supercharged
Current - 2010 Java Black RRS 5.0 V8 Aspirated
Current- 2024 RRS P400 SE Dynamic

passports and visa's have caused me nothing but problems for the last 12 months. Last year i was stuck in west Africa for 10 weeks after submitting my passport for an annual visa. After 9 1/2 weeks i was told that no one knew where my passport was !. Even though i have 2 british passports i still had to get an emergency one from the british embassy in order to get out of the country, then buy a replacement when i got home.
But ordinarily i always use the check and send option at the post office when renewing any of my passports and i always start the process at least 6 months before the passport expires, normally 6 months is the least amount of time to have on a passport for travelling purposes. 2010 RRS, TDV8
bali Blue / colour coded
side steps / flappy paddles
black perforated leather
22" overfinch
heated everything, TV,fridge ...... now with gold calipers and mud flaps !( black mud flaps that is) !!
Many years ago,,,,, 1955 series 1 landie , sometimes wish I had kept it

Yeah I made sure I did the check and send.

Got a letter saying it will take 6 weeks and we had 8 weeks till holiday

I used check and send too. Considering it includes special delivery, which I would use anyway when sending important documents, there isn't too much extra cost. It doesn't make it any quicker though unless post office staff spot a mistake and it is corrected before sending off.