Adding names and Deed Poll Certs advice.

[Keeper83]

I wanted to share the appauling service we have received in the hope it helps someone else.

We applied 13th January for a passport renewal with a change of name as my husband added 2 middle names to his name via Deed Poll.

We sent the required documents:
-Deed Poll Certificate
-Driving Licence

A week later we received a generic email that said send us your documents even though they had already been received.

I made lots of calls and complaints over the following 7 weeks and we had to cancel a trip. I got sent around the system, spent 90 mins at a time waiting for processing teams to answer (it often takes this long for someone to pick up)

No one could ever give me a definitive answer about why it was taking so long, some promised me it was being processed, others told me it was awaiting printing but none of it was correct.

9th February it was moved to application processing and stayed here until now.

I called on the 10th March to finally be told that the examiner had sent us a letter to say that the Deed Poll Certificate was not valid as it only had a signature in husband’s old name and it needed old and new and that driving licence was not valid as his name was so long it had cut off half of one of his middle names.

We finally received the letter which fortunately contained an address label for sending new docs direct to the examiner.

We had to pay a solicitor £180 for a new deed poll certificate with 2 signatures and sent 8 other pieces of evidence (us being pedantic to make sure it was approved) posted these on 17th March and today on 21st it has finally been approved at almost 10 weeks processing.

If the examiner had explained in the first place what the issue was rather than sending generic emails then I’m sure it would be processed sooner.

The guidance given at application does not state that the certificate needs 2 signatures. My advice is to check the document guidance handbook for examiners that you can find on the government assets website prior to sending your documents to make sure you tick their boxes.

Application approved9:03am on 21 March 2022
Application being processed7:02pm on 9 February 2022
Documents received1:38pm on 21 January 2022
Application received11:06am on 13 January 2022
Application submitted11:05am on 13 January 2022

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