Can't believe it... so close to getting the visa stickers in our passports and Royal Mail have lost them!!

Our agent sent them by recorded delivery to Australia House in London to be evidenced over the 3 weeks ago. We kep chasing our agent to find out how long it would take but only yesterday have we discovered that our passports were never received by Australia House!!!!

What a nightmare... we now have to go through the process of reapplying for new passports and then sending them off to Australia House again to be stickered.

Has anyone else had this happen to them... does anyone know if there is a quick way to get new passports and get the stickering done any faster. We had planned to leave the UK end of Aug, but luckily havent actually booked our tickets yet so at least we don't have that pressure!

I guess we were lucky with the whole process as we didn't have any hiccups... but why NOW!!



C&V

Bloody hell, that's terrible. Royal Mail again, they seem to do a lot of this.

This is our biggest nightmare for when we send ours off. Hope they find them.

Good luck

Walla

Call the UK passport servise and explain, they will tell you exactly what forms you need to fill in and which sections. You can also make an appointment with them, I know you can do it in London buut there might be closer places. For a fee of about £90 you can get them done in 4 hours, means hanging arround for a bit but at least you get it quickly and don risk royal mail loosing them again to one of there trusty members of staff

Kala

Steve Bannister had a similar experience and posted on the forum some time ago. Maybe he might be able to help........?

Good luck and I hope you get it sorted.

Warren

Whilst I would normally agree about Royal Mail - it sounds a bit suspicous to me! If the agents DID sent it recorded, they will have a receipt - why have they waited this long b4 telling you they haven't arrived? Have the agents told you the receipt number so you can check with royal mail???

I sent a lot of stuff recorded and registered and have never had anything go missing, unlike normail mail

Have you checked with agents????

Good luck!

I can't imagine how you are feeling. Royal Mail are so Careless. I chased my agent up a few weeks ago, because our visa grant was long over due and we found out from Adelaide that the letter had been sent in May and got lost in the post.

I was not impressed with RM as I held off buying the $Aud when it was at one of it's highest points, because we were not 100% sure if it was granted!!!

We have so much trouble with of normal mail as well!!!

A thought that occured to me, I'm not sure if you will need to contact Adelaide and let them know as your replacement passports might be a different number to the ones that you lost and not tie up with the documentation???

Royal Mail are a joke. We paid almost £8 to have something sent guaranteed next day b4 0900 and it turned up at my agents at lunchtime with the normal post...it's a shambles!

How terrible!! I sent mine registered mail and tracked it all the way. It was supposed to arrive next day before 9 and arrive at 4pm the day after!!

Not much of a delay really but still, when it's that important (and you PAY for the service) you'd think it would get done.

Hope your new passports come fast, fast, FAST!!

Siren

Sorry to hear the bad news.

Unfortunately you may have to trust them to RM again! Because I lived in London, I personally went to Australia House to hand over my family's passports so they could do the visas. I was told that they no longer allowed people to do this in person (for security reasons). I had to walk across the street and get it sent from the post office opposite Australia House.

On a positive note: I learnt that I could buy a second recorded delivery envelope, self-address it, and include it with the passports, for the return journey. Make sure you get the tracking number for both envelopes so you can check their progress on the RM website.

Cheers
Alistair

The reason it took 3 weeks is thats how long royal mail wait before they acknowledge a parcel is missing, and not just 'in transit'. If youve seen the channel 4 dispatches, with special delivery envelopes on the floor being walked on, and people taking jobs specifically looking for 'used' passports - i.e. not brand new, but still active, you'll be surprised more dont go missing.

Unfortunately, until they take hand deliveries or at least couriers, its a gamble we have to factor in as we have no choice.

In terms of the new passport, if you need to travel urgent, either use the same day thing, or for 2 weeks turn around use the post office check and send, and ask australia house to reevidence it. From the sound of it, this happens quite a bit.

Generally the rm is good compared to most countries, but in special delivery and international signed for, they suck IMO.

We had the same happen to us just before Steve bannister.
What happened was the charming Royal Mail postman never bothered leaving a card to say he visitied (he didnt I was home that week on holidays) and of course we never knew to pick it up. Our case officer just went off on a month holiday too, so we had to fax AHC and they tracked the parcel through their internal mail and got the tracking number. I rang RM and they told me which sorting office it was waiting at.

BASICALLY they cant really LOOSE a registered piece of mail, it is somewhere on a shelf. BUT you cant delcare your passports missing for three weeks or fifteen working days. If you can get the tracking number off the agent then u will be in business, but without the tracking number the people at royal mail cant really help you. Your agent should really be doing all this!
Reapplying for passports is a drastic thing, and I wouldnt do it until the 15 working days is passed and you have exhausted the possibility of the passports sitting in the local sorting office near your agent or near AHC. POUND them on the phone!

GOOD LUCK! I know firsthand how incredibly stressful the entire situtation is......

reply to the above -
RM are meant to refund you if the parcel doesnt get their in time. However on their computer system I think it must automoatically generate that it was delivered at that time by no answer etc... that way getting out of refunding anyone any money!