Tamstar

Hi

I am flying out 29th May for UK a week tomorrow (29th May). At the end of the day I have flights back to UK booked and my reasons for going are just as valid as anyone else's etc.

I sent my passport renewel in with approx 6 weeks (thought the processing time was 4 weeks) and it was received/sign for on 18th April. They took my money out of my account 7th May. I still don't have my passport!!!

I rang them yesterday (and paid the $$$) and the lady gave me a strict line about the processing times BUT she was nice enough to request a status check and for me to ring back in 48 hours (and pay again). She said it would only advise me which stage of the process it is in begining, middle or end.

So after tomorrow's call i could start to panic..

The questions I have for anyone out there is....

Any one got any durations from when the money was taken out of your credit card to when you got your passport back.

If I find I am in the begining of the process, can I request my passport back and get it back within a few days and then renew in UK?? I know I can renew in UK but i was more concerned with being able to get my passport back. It hasnt expired, it is just under 6 months. Is it easy to get it out of the system

How do I go about getting a temporary passport for travelling ie a year one??

Does anyone else have any tips or secrets they can share for me to get it back in time. Any contact names/numbers I can call.

I know there are a lot of people out there as frustrated as I am about the whole lack of information etc.

Who else thinks they should change the website to indicate 6 weeks instead of 30 working days - I just saw 30 and figured it was a month - yes my bad - but who states 'working days'!!

anyway - someone please offer me a little ray of hope - my flights are non refunable and I have to leave for UK on 29th May to be there in time for stuff.

Any comments are welcome and appreciated and I thank you in advance

Tamstar

quoll

Heavens, I took my passport in in person on 10 April and picked it up 9 May - so something should be imminent I would have thought. I believe you can request emergency documents but you should contact your local consular office and see what they say - links to your closest office can be found from here. I very much doubt you will be able to get it out of the system once it has got in though.

koalakim

Hi Tamstar

See the other thread a bit further up - same problem here!

We sent OH passport off it said 25 working days on the website - so counting up 25 working days plus one for Anzac day should mean it was back at the end of last week. Now I see on the website it's 30 days so that should mean about now.

They took our money around the same time as you but we sent off on the 8th April and got the slip back dated the 10th.

So in theory we should still have time but as you say when do they count 30 days from, hopefully not when they take the money.

We too HAVE to go as our trip is for business. I was awake most of last night worrying about what to do - we have a stop-over in Singapore for 3 days so we could push leaving Melly back if SIA would be kind enough to transfer the flight etc.

As you say the most frustrating thing is no info as to where your application has got to. Surely it must all be logged in a database somewhere? Seeing as they insist now on these high-tech bio-metric passports surely being able to find one in the system should be easy?

I'm beginning to wish we'd not sent it off and just gone and sat in the passport office in London for a day to get it renewed - we were only doing it because it didn't quite have 6 months remaining on it by the time we get back.

It would seem that Quoll has been lucky living in Canberra and able to take it in!

If you do get a temp passport what happens about your VISA to get back into Oz - as presumably by the time you get back your old passport with your visa will be sitting waiting at the courier for you?

Can you come back in on a visitor visa? Or is it another palarva contacting the Aussie embassy to get back in.

Good luck - fingers crossed.

Kim

koalakim

Hi Tamstar

Just to let you know the passport arrived back 5 mins ago!

Just under the 30 days - as we seem to be on the same timing hopefully yours will arrive soon!

Kim

quoll

Phew! Just in time. I reckon the "receiving by mail" and "sending by mail" adds about 10 days to the entire process and even though they tell you that the processing time is just the same if you can drop off and collect, that it does make quite a difference!

moneypenny20

Erm, just about every business going and always has, both here and the UK.

I didn't quite understand the my reasons for going are just as valid as anyone else's etc. comment but regardless, I hope you get it in time and don't lose your flights and more importantly the money. I understand the non refundable bit but have you looked into changing them (at a cost obviously)?

For anyone else like KoalaKim and wanting to renew because of having less than six months left, it's not necessary for travelling between the UK and Aus unless you are stopping off in a country that requires more than six months. Neither the UK or Aus do.

koalakim

That's interesting about the 6 months - thought you had to have that for Aus. Still we are coming back via Singapore so in our case it counts.

I would just say - get it done in plenty of time as they add any outstanding time onto the passport.

Kim

Tamstar

OK - so the latest....

I rang back the passport line - pretended i havent rang them for my status before so I didnt have to pay again.

So he told me the same - in the middle of processing could be another 10-15 working days away.

So I said i wanted to withdrawl the application, he gave the fax number again and i asked him a lot more questions about it this time.

The chick before didnt give me a reference number - he did!! He also said to write down my date of travel and fax through immediatly.

He also said he would place a follow up on the fax - as I wanted confirmation it was going to be recieved. he said to ring back Monday and they would give me the status on the withdrawl too! and he placed in my file notes there would be no charge - how nice!!

it takes 48 hours to action the fax/withdrawl it from its processing point and then it is next day delivery - so if I faxed through now it shoudl be Ok for Thursday - which of course I did!

Anyway, thought this was an interesting option - not feeling as sick anymore about it all and would rather lose the $300 odd dollars fee and be able to travel. (The cost of cancelling flights fees, having to sort out A/L from work again,etc is worth $300)

Any tips on getting my passport renewed whilst in UK??

Tamstar!