A few things I have learnt from the 13 calls I have made to the Passport office:
-if they say I’ll put you through to the progress team they will give it 4 rings then say they aren’t there can I arrange a call back instead.
-my last callback took 5 days for them to contact me
-I was told that if you have requested a call back and they haven’t rung you, then you request another call back it will cancel out the first request so often best to just hang in there.
-Ask to be put through to the complaints team, a team leader or the HMPO itself but hang in there on hold to these ones as someone will eventually pick up even if it takes 1 hour 45 mins (yes I hung on that long).
-if they say they will put you on the urgent list it means nothing. Unless should have a medical emergency/death then it gives you very little priority over others, it just sits in a different queue waiting for an examiner. A HMPO complaints manager told me yesterday that sometimes being in this queue can actually slow it down if there has been an issue raised about your documents etc.
-the complaints team and central HMPO itself don’t work on a Sunday.
-if anyone says that it has been marked as urgent and should arrive within the next week it’s a false promise. Don’t believe any timesce they tell you as it just gives false hope.
Sorry to be so negative but this is everything I have experienced during the past 5 weeks since submitting our application.
If anyone is reading this and you are considering applying for a name change and have less than 10 weeks before departure then please pay for a Fast track appointment, I wish we’d had that that foresight.
