Equestra

If I was needing to renew my passport in a hurry I would have probably done the same as kittycat1, but the situ stinks when trying to get a new passport for a new born baby. 9 weeks is just too long to sit around here all stinking summer when all I want to do is go home for a month with my little fella (the ONLY time in my entire life I'll get the time to go home for a month and the passport debarcle will prevent this)

When booking my travel dates earlier in the year I'd allowed 9 weeks from birth to flights when the estimated turn around time was just 6 weeks. Now with the turnaround time being 8/9 weeks (sometimes longer) I'm stuck not knowing when to move my flights to and also leaves me no time to get the residential visa in the passport within the 90 day deadline. (ie if passport comes back just in the nick of time for my flights then I will miss the 90 day visa deadline by the time I've spent time in the UK), I also have to allow a day to go to immigration for some special stamp because baby's passport won't have an entry stamp.

And, what really worries me is, if I move my flights forward by 3 weeks and the passport STILL doesn't come back in time then I'm totally screwed on all fronts ...... :-(

Nothing anyone can do, thank you for allowing me the space here to rant.

Yours,

Fedupdoesntcomeclose.com

busybee2

yeh to get it back in 4 hours you need to check depending on which office you are at whats the latest appointment it does say on website etc.

BritInParis

It's a cost-cutting measure, pure and simple. The FCO is facing massive real-term budget cuts over the next few years and all those consular staff who used to process your passport application in country were expensive and required expensive real estate to operate from. The FCO couldn't afford to handle it any longer so they passed the responsibility onto the Home Office who decided to onshore all applications. Now they're gone the FCO can save on their salaries and downsize their real estate portfolio to boot. The same thing is happening with those staff who process UK visa applications as the Home Office wasn't willing to pay the FCO for the office space.

Equestra

Surely they could make (or at least recoup some of their costs) by charging an outrageous surcharge fee for an oversees application FAST TRACK option! Frankly I'd happily pay whatever it cost to speed up this application.

But no, there is no option for us expats other than to 'post and hope'. I feel they truly have us over a barrel!

Grumble rant grumble rant .......

Yours,

stillverypissedoff.com

makhtar

I applied for my son's first passport from Saudi. They received it on 25th March and I still don't have it. When I call them all they say is its being processed. We want to go back for the summer.

hong_konger

Its a big issue in Hong Kong at the moment. The consulate stopped issuing passports in December 2013 and although it was initially ok it has gone down hill since to its current state !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/a...-delay-problem

Debowing

When I did mine in 2012, it took about 5 weeks, and I was in Thailand at the time, had to sent the papers to Hong Kong, but the passport came to me by DHL from UK to Thailand, it was pretty straightforward...My advice would be for anyone who does this to request for the thicker passport (that has more pages) Living an expat life fills a passport with stamps, especially if you move around a lot.

busybee2

the issue is since they have moved it from germany as of late last year... and it now all goes thru uk, even people in the uk are having major issues, they have cut back on staff and with the peak rush hour they are failing quite miserably..... someone in the uk should get their mp onto the case and complain as they cannot continue to do this waiting over 2 months for your passport..... as sometimes you dont have a big window of opportunity to loose it for that long! as i said before they should let you send it anytime like in the last 2 years to renew and just add that time to the duration.

the_red_sheep

Does anyone know how long the waiting list for the “Premium 1-day Service” is at the moment, it’s mentioned online it may be up to 3 weeks? I’m going to be in the UK next week so if I can get an appointment might use it.

Millhouse

Mine took 3 weeks, roughly, in September 2013.

The bastards sent me a standard one and not with extra pages (and sent a refund for the difference with the passport). It's now full and I have to start again

hong_konger

Its hit and miss ! when I did mine I rang up 2 months before and they said im too early to make a booking and told me to call back just 3 weeks from when I wanted an appointment. I have a friend who managed to book an appointment the day before. There are a number of passport offices where this service if offered so if you are prepared to travel then you should be ok.

busybee2

it depends just ring up and see each office will be different time scales, but i would say that the peeps in uk who are suffering same sort of issues will be using them all up too!

Mogs

I got my new one on 28th May - they received my application on 3rd April - so about 8 weeks.

Still not received my old one back.

busybee2

well it seems old ones taking a week to get here apparently

hong_konger

and a further update :

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/exp...headaches.html