Panic – Any Advice?

[jrmcleod]

Applied for a 1st passport (Child) as per below:

Documents received 11:54am on 7 June 2022
Application received 2:54pm on 27 May 2022
Identity details received 2:53pm on 27 May 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 2:42pm on 27 May 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 2:38pm on 27 May 2022
Application submitted 2:38pm on 27 May 2022

I’m pretty annoyed at myself as at the time i didnt realise that the process was so long, now we are scheduled to fly from Newcastle on the 20th June (5 days). 8 of us are going away for a week, one of those is our new born baby (hence passport).

I have called the passport office and been told i cant upgrade as its less than 6 weeks and cant cancel as it’ll take upto 15 days for it to be fully cancelled. Absolutely stuck and now we risk my wife and daughter being stuck here whilst i take our 3 other kids away on my own.

I have seen others managing to go to their local office 48 hours before flight with proof of flight etc, our local office is Glasgow (4 hour drive from North Highlands), my wife is booked into a hotel in Glasgow tomorrow night with our baby to try and get to the passport office early on Friday morning.

She has a new paper application all completed, 2 photos, my and her passport and a new birth certificate.

Does anyone have any genuine experience in my situation and what are your thoughts on potential success here? So far our situation has cost upwards of £300 just to try and fix, that’s not including the possibility of cancelled holidays etc.

Unbelievably stressful, and to be honest shocking given everything is online.

[Waiiiiiiiitingggg]

@jrmcleod Mate me too I have the flight Friday evening, and almost the same time schedule on application history. I’ve been calling them really often but every single of them have different opinion from each another.someone said is printing,then due to next week Wednesday,then still in process but long way to go ahed, etc etc,
disgrace.
Tomorrow morning I will go to passport office in London, that’s my only hope at the moment so if I will be able to take my passport, I will let you know.
Best of luck.

[jrmcleod]

Thanks, please do let me know what the outcome is. You might be able to let some of my nerves relax a little.

Good luck!

[assimb]

so im in a similar situation. put an online application on 15th may & documents were received on the 27th May. everytime i ring they say i cant upgrade. we fly out on the 24th June.

I was thinking of going down to my local office & see if they can issue it then but im not sure if they would see you & do anything & might say the same thing as the agents on the phone.

[StephieC]

so I think I finally understood their “rules” after countless phone calls (they never spelled it all out clearly at any given time, I had to piece it together like bl00dy Sherlock!)
Rule is: you can apply for upgrade if it’s been at least 6 weeks since your application AND it’s two weeks before your booked travel

[wanting3]

Stephiec that is the case, yes. If it’s been less than 6 weeks you might be able to go to your local office but it’s not guaranteed. The 6 week rule I guess is to stop people trying to bypass the normal wait time without using the appropriate fast track and priority service. I guess the moral of the story is apply well in advance. Obviously if you can’t because a passport is needed for urgent travel for medical reasons etc then you have a case. Hope everyone who needs theirs gets it soon as it just seems to be pot luck at the moment which isn’t fair.

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