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Just a possitive message for anyone who needs some hope 🙏.. flying Monday got the call today at 4.. passports approved and will be ready to pick up at 1 o’clock 2moro in belfast! Relieved is an understatement!
Before this I contacted my local MP and radio show and they both contacted HMPO on my behalf and I really believe they pushed this to happen for me. I would advise everyone to do the same. contact as many people that you can to help u there is nothing to loose.
Can I also thank whoever started this online forum and everyone who’s posted keeping us informed on what to do and all the possitive messages of hope. It really helped relieve my stress. I kept calm and got the call. And you will too 🙏 goodlu k 😊
We dont fly until the 17th June and we put in sons renewal on the 5th May – Currently waiting on them to receive sons birth certificate which has just sat there for two weeks now in that state
I did try the MP route but he just quoted the 10 week statement from HMPO so that was a waste of time in my case
I think we will have to change our fly dates to 15th July and hope we get before then
We will have to pay a lot of money but its the only option I can think of
Our 6 weeks is two days before we fly so I just cant see it happening so we will probably wait until 1st or 2nd of June to see if there is any progress and if not we will have to re-arrange
Its just horrendous
Hi everyone
Its so nice to see people are actually being successful when going to the passport office gives some hope.Ive managed to book a fasttrack for one of my applications that got withdrawn but i haven’t had a confirmation email but they have taken money from my bank im worried now that i don’t actually have the appointment and no evidence i booked it has anyone had this happen and had confirmation later on or have i just lost more money 😭
Hello.
And thanks to all for the useful advice. Quick question to everyone who went to Peterborough.
Is this at Aragon Court? Thank you.Been on the phone with a man at the progress team. He’s told me that we won’t get our passports as we don’t qualify for an upgrade. The reason being we don’t meet the upgrade criteria. I have an automated response email from Peterborough saying that to be eligible to upgrade I need to have submitted my application at least 6 weeks ago and be travelling within the next 2 weeks and i meet both as it’s over 6 weeks since I applied (11th April) and i fly in a week (2nd June). He is trying to tell me the 6 weeks starts from when it changed to processing and that he’s aware of these automated emails and they’re wrong!!! He then hung up on me. Fuming isn’t the word.
@bugs1987 – ring again and try someone else. I’ve seen many people who have been 6 weeks from the point of application
I agree, try again. Some of them aren’t very kind at all and others have been absolutely amazing. You can only keep trying, I don’t qualify at all but I think my absolute perseverance and the fact I was sickly sweet on the phone helped!
I just found out about this forum and wish I had earlier. My case is a bit more complicated so please bear with me and I would greatly appreciate any advice.
I submitted my passport application for my 1st British Passport (naturalisation) on 31st March. Initial waiting time was 6 weeks. Documents received on system 19th April, Application being processed 13th May.
I upgraded my application on 6th May because I needed to travel to a funeral on 18th May. Heard nothing until 17th May, but missed the call as coincidentally I was on the phone to the passport office advice line. requested a call back. Nothing. So desperately rang the General advice line several times on 18th May and after getting through to a few people who couldn’t care less, and simply asked me to wait for my call back, I finally spoke to a sensible bloke who advised I applied for an emergency passport. He emailed me a link for an application form and advised to send evidence by way of funeral arrangements and death certificate which I did. (I was not informed I needed to send these when I initially requested the upgrade so only sent my flight booking). Missed another call the following day (poor signal whilst driving) and so requested another call back.
I cannot even begin to explain the emotional turmoil I have been through these past few days given that I have now missed the burial. I am still desperate to travel to be with my family. I rebooked my flight for 1st June and reapplied for another upgrade.
On Monday I received a call back which essentially advised me to wait for the London upgrade/emergency team to contact me. I also emailed both teams and got a call back today from the (generic) processing team asking me to withdraw my initial application since I cannot have two active applications. They promised to contact the upgrade team to inform them of the changes and was told to expect another call today which never came through.
I am at a loss for where to go from here. Although my flight is over 48 hrs away, I am thinking of going to the London Passport office tomorrow as I cannot get any time off work next week before I fly. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Copying this from what I posted on a fb page, hopefully helps some people out….
So my stress has ended finally, still haven’t got my sons passport after 11 weeks, was due to go on holiday in 9 days.
For anyone booked with TUI, I called this number 0203 636 1931.
They have a new policy if your passport is over 10 weeks in application and your due to travel in 10 days you can move your holiday with free admins fees. There seems to be some been told different things, like have to have booked in store or by phone originally, but I booked online, also some been told have to move holiday to dates before October ‘22.
I sourced this number from a TUI store (Which also told me I would have to take holiday before October ‘22).
But when i called this number I was told no limit to dates for changes, infact you can make whatever changes you like.
Can change destination, Airport, duration etc..
Basically you get to pick a new holiday and they use your current booking Total price paid towards new holiday and minus admin fees.
They require proof over 10 weeks, I just emailed a screenshot of application progress!
So we was due to go Spain for 2 weeks on the 5th June, we just moved the holiday as it is and changed dates to go 7th May ‘23.
(Hopefully passport arrives by then 😂)
We payed £40 extra for difference is holiday cost, which also wasn’t due until so many months before the new holiday day but being £40 just paid it.
A total of £1,690.74 admin fees were removed!
So just to help out people and possibly saves family’s £1,000s call this number 0203 636 1931Just to add to post, the free admins charges can only be applied once 10 days or under to travel and no later than 3 days until travel, so don’t leave until last minute. If less than 72 hours until travel the admin charges will be applied again.
Hi All just wanted to share my experience of the upgrade Service and give you all some Hope as I was successful in obtaining 3 passports from 3 different offices.
I applied for the upgrade of 3 Child passports, 1 renewal and 2 new ones. Was due to fly on 25th May applied on 11th May. I had to apply to Durham, Peterborough and the Belfast Team. Call the main passport helpline to confirm which office has your passport.
When emailing the teams, include the PEX number name and date of travel. You will not always get an auto reply back. I found that if I applied late at night I was successful in receiving an auto reply.
48 hours before you fly email them again but this this time include the word RESEND in the subject line as well as the PEX number, Name and date of travel, I was advised to do this from the Progress team.
I was successful in obtaining all 3 passports. but it went right down to the wire. Be prepared to to travel to a passport office the day before you travel.
I was flying on Wed 25th May. Had a call from the Durham office on Mon 23RD May @ 9:30 advising thy would approve and put the passport in the post for next day delivery by 1 pm. Had a call later that afternoon to say the second passport had been approved and that I would need to collect the passport form Peterborough as it was too late to post it out. On the 24th as I was coming out of the train station at Peterborough received the 3rd call from the Belfast teams advising the passport had been approved and I could collect from the Peterborough office.
The upgrade service does work, BUT it will be done in the last 48 hours.
My advice would be to email every 3 or 4 days and make sure you put RESEND in the subject line when you have 48 hours to go. Calling the helplines is pointless as the Progress team is impossible to get hold of, although I did get a call back from them on the Friday advising I had a good chance of receiving my passports.
I was also not charged for the service. Belfast team tried to charge me but I mentioned my application was 9 weeks old and that they were unlikely to meet their 10 week target unless I had applied for the upgrade.
Good Luck everyone.
We fly out on 2nd June. We had been trying the upgrade route but nothing was working. MP came back saying nothing can happen since we applied 4 weeks ago and not 6 weeks ago. The status of my son’s passport has just changed to Application Approved. Now we are asking if there is any way to pick up the passport and they keep telling us that it will follow the standard process of courier picking and delivering.
Does anyone know if there is a way to collect the passport from wherever rather than be at the mercy of the courier (TNT or another)?Can I ask has anyone gone to there office before the 48hours of travel 72hours say ? And been successful in obtaining a passport??
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