Bob

If they're first time passports rather than renewals, wouldn't be able to get ETD's.

renu5idhu

fingers crossed you get it in time.. in the US u can usually get next day delivary...

mshedden

So, who's got the oldest 'payment taken date' with nothing to show for it?

Mine was rec'd March 23, Payment taken April 15

10 Weeks of processing following payment is June 24th.

Beat that...

mshedden

You're a month behind me and I don't have mine yet. Unless the escalation 'works' (my wife's did NOT, twice) your only hope it to get a appt for an ETD ASAP and get to the consulate in person with 2 photos and whatever paperwork they ask for (green card etc).

renu5idhu

Seriously i think were all in the same boat, waiting for our passports, this is just a nice way of being able to see if other pple are having any luck with chasing applications as you can not track them on line. Its not to see who gets their passport first. Its meant to be helpful and pple are meant to be understanding each other as most of us are waiting everyday for either a call back or a passport.
I think all of us here agree that this process is ridiculous, but unfortunately, had most of us had known it would take this long, we would of sent it to a relative in the Uk and had it back with in a month. Nothing can be done apart from wait and wait a little longer, spend more money talking to the wonderful careline and read some more entries on here hopefully great stories of pple actually receiving their passports.

renu5idhu

forgot to say, yep urs has been a while... so what i dont understand, is why this situation hasnt come across any headline, might help other pple who have applied and dont know about this web site.

mshedden

If it hit the news, it would just get worse - anyone even thinking about a passport would immediately send in their application...which seems to be what happened in the UK in 1999 when they had a similar problem.

renu5idhu

yes and they also compensated many pple and got in more staff to deal with that situation. If nobody knows about it or investigates this really is going to take a long time to clear up. Next you will hear that they are temporarily not accepting any applications until they clear their backlog. ( i really hope that doesnt happen... just saying, they went from 4 weeks, to we are facing some delays to 4 weeks from card payment to 10 weeks from card payment all in one month!)

JAJ

Probably worse. The backlog in the UK was inflated by a lot of applications that people brought forward from late 1999 into the early part of the year, after reading newspaper reports of the backlog.

There has been no similar media or political focus on the problems at the Washington Embassy so the same inflation of the backlog doesn't exist ... on the same basis, and based on anecdotal accounts on this forum, it may be up to 5%.

And unlike the situation in Britain, there is no external pressure on the Foreign Office to sort things out. Even the phone line situation is different. While in Britain, the phone backlog caused huge problems for the Passport Agency, the premium rate phonelines used by the Foreign Office mean, if anything, greater profits for the company running them.

renu5idhu

and the greater profits will continue until someone actually looks into it. I have put towards their profits 5 times in hopes that they are actually doing something apart from saying, we have put in a request!

JAJ

Exactly. The Passport Agency in the UK were forced by media and Parliamentary scrutiny to do something about the crisis - quickly. This included allowing Post Offices to extend valid passports for 2 years (the same thing could be done by British consuls, if the Foreign Office was so minded), and compensating those who missed their holidays.

As of now, there is no sign of anything similar for those caught in the passport mess at Washington DC.

renu5idhu

im wondering if we start some kind of petition it might help? It may not get passports straight away but perhaps come up with a suitable time frame. As it stands Jersey has a 6 week wait right now... that was on bbc news web site.

JAJ

The Jersey government maintains its own passport service. If this is inadequate, then the people in Jersey need to put pressure on their government to sort it out.

mshedden

Indeed - this is a different game than in 1999. There is no incentive to perform. Those customers (and I hesitate to say taxpayers because we are not most likely) who do not receive service may at their own inconvenience purchase an ETD for 75% additional fee (if they qualify). Responsibility for losses incurred by customers due to non performance has been taken care of by the disclaimers, and customer complaints have been insulated and buffered by careline. (In fact, customers who complain to careline by email are instructed that their complaint can best be handled by calling careline, at the regular rate of extortion!! Who dreamt that up?).

Finally, what is the true cause of delay? The system ought to work like a production line. Normally, in the case of extra demand, there would be a delay in the process (ie starting of processing of later passports would be delayed due to backlog), but the actual time to WORK on each passport should remain the same, all things being equal. This does not appear to be the case here - the time to process each passport seems to have increased to 10 weeks once processing has begun. One could infer that they find it acceptable to have 10 weeks worth of work 'in process' rather than completing a smaller amount in the normal time frame. (Or alternatively, the priority is to take the $$$ as quickly as possible, call it 'in process' from then and leave them in a pile somewhere, to be completed as and when they catch up to them).

Lastly, we are currently at step 3 of a 5 step process to move all passport processing back to the UK. They were supposed to be printing all passports in the UK from April, but they are not. Something has gone wrong in this process and that is probably what is upsetting workflow. Most likely there is actually no extra demand, just a screw up in the process.

jagruti6

My guess would be she meant until it is complete and mailed out. I say that because my payment was taken on April 19th therefore 10 weeks for me would actually be June 28th. She gave me July 5th as the date she would estimate me getting my passport. I assume she factored in a week for delivery.