jjghana

I have applied for my son's first UK passport (I am british and his mother is Ghanaian). We applied at the start of July 14 and there is still no progress - roughly 20 weeks so far and counting....

We applied for a certificate of birth registration from the British High Commission in Accra which was included in his application. We have not been contacted for any further documents.

Another family we know that has applied from Ghana, about 6 weeks after us have been contacted for more documents. We have heard nothing.

I have called numerous times and its the sam old lines.... "in progress"

Due to the nearby Ebola risk I have complained to them that I do not have the ability to relocate my family away from Ghana if Ebola becomes prevalent. This was not answered apart from a cut and paste email reply.

Does anyone have any update on processing times or experiencing similar issues?

old.sparkles

There is a thread in the moving Back to the UK section on the subject - http://britishexpats.com/forum/citiz.../#post11481063

colchar

Didn't they have a massive backlog at some point this year?

BritInParis

Any country which is considered to be at high risk for fraudulent applications will experience delays of varying lengths of time. Ghana is one of these countries. If you included a consular birth certificate with the application then I'm surprised it's taking this long unless they are rechecking the original documents. Did you also include your son's original Ghanaian birth certificate as well as the consular birth certificate?

jjghana

Yes, I included his two (there are two types you can get in Ghana) original birth certificates as well as his consular birth certificates. He was born at the best private clinic in the country so I can't see a reason why that would be a reason for delay.

If the high commission have already approved the documents surely the certificate will be enough. If they themselves are looking into all the documents without support of their local high commission staff then this is crazy.

jjghana

I should add I included all documents that I supplied for the consular birth certificate within his passport application.

The countersignaturer has not been contacted.

BritInParis

I would be interested to see if you had a similar delay if you only had supplied the consular birth certificate. I note from your other posts that you have been in contact with your MP. I would keep this up. It's usually the only way to speed things up.

jjghana

Meaning I actually gave them documents to look into rather than just included british high commission certify documents?

That would have gone against application guides though...?

BritInParis

That is a distinct possibility.

No, if you have a consular birth certificate, then you don't need to supply any other supporting documents beyond a copy of any foreign passports the applicant may already hold. It is in the supporting documents guide, albeit in very small print (my emphasis in bold).

Quote:

Table C

Applicants born or adopted outside the UK – parents’ or adoptive parents’ documents

Please provide the following:

The passport you entered the country from which you are applying, or any non-British passport held. If the birth certificate you provide has not been issued by a British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate showing parents’ details, also provide evidence as shown in the table below:

jjghana

damn it!!!

windsong

Yes, I am. Twenty+ weeks also. Ridiculous!

I applied to renew my old blue book passport. I am in the USA and sent the app and docs to the UK - Durham. The embassy in DC is even less help than they were five months ago.

I still don't have my passport and I am very worried about it. Tonight I plan to write to a UK MP and even the newspapers over there. I am horrified at this mess.

SanDiegogirl

Have you tried calling the following number:

Telephone: +44 (0) 300 222 0000 Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm (UK time) Saturday, Sunday and public holidays, 9am to 5:30pm (UK time)

It's the Passport Advice Line.

This problem has been known about since the middle of the year. There was a backlog of approx 500,000 in July 2014

Derrygal

My 3 grand-children were all born in the US but their mothers (my daughters) were born in England, so they are British citizens by descent. My youngest grandson's British passport (his first) took almost 5 months. It took a while, but it came eventually. Hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer.

Nanyukiboy

Here's what I did on the advice of a friend who had done the same after six frustrating months of waiting for the first passport for my Kenyan born son. I wrote to the new interim Director General of Her Majesty’s Passport Office, Tyson Hepple explaining his predecessor's incompetence and complaining about the number of times I'd been hung up on, racially slurred and generally badly treated by the Durham PP office when I had called. I also included a subject access request (and pointed out that I did not have to fill out their stupid form to request this legally) and the £10.00 statuatory fee. The request was for all information relating to my son's application and that is going to take someone a long time to put together.

Two days later I got a phone call sying the passport is ready and on it's way to Nairobi. Strangely the exact same timing as my friend after two days of the letter being received!

Contact him at;

4th Floor, Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

if you feel like giving it a go!