37100

I'm 'dispatched'. 9 weeks on the first of Sept.

Atilla

Complete shambles this isn't it. Typical efficiency drive (read cost cutting) stuff. Amazes me when they talk of demand over and above the norm. Yah but you just shut all the regional international processing offices so you thought the applications would go where exactly??

My passport still has 5 years to run but is full already and my supporting docs were received at the UK HMPO on 1 August. Still showing as 'Being Processed' 4 weeks later. I dare say there will be a few more weeks yet!

Unacceptable delay IMO but at least we're all in the same boat. Or are we? Maybe not always and what does grate is the MARKED disparity in the level of service people are getting.

As an example, the BBC website recently carried this article (BBC News - British passport delays: HK website tracks wait times) about a woman from Hong Kong who holds 3 different passports, HK, UK and Canada. She started a website to draw attention to the delays and track her own application: Has My Passport Arrived?.

Aside from the fact that the story attracted a lot of 'spoilt brat' responses from people, what is difficult to understand is that after only a 10 days wait, for an overseas application, her passport was printed and delivered to Hong Kong!! The details below are all from her site (which is still up) complete with her EMS tracking sheet and scan of her newly received passport.

The timings for the application:

1/8/2014: Applies online to HMPO

13/8/2014: Sends the required documentation (the application is SO urgent she waits 13 days before sending the documents). The important factor here is that HMPO state that an application WILL NOT commence processing until the declaration and supporting documents arrive.

15/8/2014: Her documents arrive at HMPO via EMS courier

20/8/2014: Her passport is issued (from the issue date from the passport she scanned to her website). That's just THREE working days!!

25/8/2014: Passport arrives Hong Kong after just 10 days!!

While I am not one to gripe about the fortune of others per se, given the situation thousands of people are in, with cancelled holidays and what have you, how on earth is it that an overseas application can be processed from start to receipt in Hong Kong within 10 days when HMPO guidelines say overseas applicants can expect to wait AT LEAST 6 weeks? Even those resident in the UK would be delighted to benefit from a 10 day turn round compared to the 3 weeks they are advised they will need to wait, IF they are lucky that is!

So what is it about this application that made such a rapid turn round possible? Something to do with the applicant, something related to applications from Hong Kong or, being somewhat cynical, was it the website she created with some bright spark at HMPO accelerating the process so that that particular spotlight on HMPO inefficiency gets shot out ASAP?

While I am very impressed with the seemingly remarkable improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness in service levels offered now by HMPO, one hopes it's an improvement from which we will all benefit. That the shambles happened in the first place is bad enough, particularly the original Home Office denials that there was even a problem, until there was no choice but to 'own up'. The realisation that all you need to do to get preferential treatment it seems is to throw a 'spoilt brat' tantrum and create a website in order to obtain a, frankly, outstanding level of service will, I'm sure, please the dozens, if not hundreds of people, who really did / do have an URGENT need, no end!!

I've raised the service disparity by email with the 'Mail No 10' service and also the the Minister for Immigration. I guess I'll be lucky to get a response to the email within 10 days, let alone a passport!

Another triumph for UK Gov PLC!

BritInParis

It would've been treated as a first time application as well given her child passport expired more than ten years ago. That BBC article was published two days before she even posted the original documents so no doubt someone at HMPO got wind of it and decided to turn it around asap. At least their PR skills haven't suffered with the cutbacks.

Atilla

Indeed! Also grates that what are considered 'developing (2nd World) countries' like Thailand and Malaysia manage to supply THEIR citizens with a 60 page , 5 year passport within 4-7 days at a cost of £20 (in the case of Thailand) and a 48 page, 5 year passport within 4 days at a cost of £50 in Malaysia.

Such a benefit being a citizen of a 1st World country! Having abandoned the sinking ship long ago the only thing I need from it is a passport and the current service levels I'm sure couldn't be designed to be worse if you tried! Maybe they should outsource it to 'Bodgit and Scarper PLC'!

Gozit

At least with our first world passports we have way more visa free countries and we are allowed dual nationality.

BritInParis

Atilla

Sorry, but precisely WHAT relevance visa free access and dual nationality has to passport processing times is totally beyond me? Apples and Oranges really and, in terms of the subject of this thread, about as much use as an ashtray on a motor bike. IF the subject of this thread was visa free access benefits I can understand it. But, it's not is it? Not even remotely.

Seeing as an off-topic irrelevance has drifted in though, 19 other countries share many of the same benefits as the UK yet don't suffer the same appalling levels of service offered by HMPO, which is the ACTUAL issue here. And in relation to the two specific countries I mentioned with regard to PROCESSING TIMES, Malaysian passports enjoy visa free access to 163 countries so I'm not sure the 10 extra available to holders of UK passports would be something I'd be looking to hold a celebration over as a consolation prize.

Whilst visa free access is of zero relevance to passport renewal processing times, maybe I'll feel more smug about it when I eventually get my passport after god knows how many weeks wait and can actually travel to avail myself of the 'benefit'. In the meantime I suppose I can use the time to figure, as a first world passport holder, which of those ten countries I might want to ever visit.

Gozit

I'd rather have to wait a bit for a first world passport that allows me to visit the US and Canada visa free/ESTA than one that doesn't offer such access. That said Msian passports are on par with Maltese as per the Wikipedia article for visa free. But as a Maltese I get visa free/ESTA to the US and Canada. If I were a Malaysian, I would not. If I were a Malaysian, I also would not be able to hold dual nationality. So benefits of UK passport over, say a Msian one definitely outweigh cons.

This is indeed correct. I am a citizen of Malta and Canada and Canada will have your passport within 3-4 weeks from abroad, Malta a bit longer at 8 weeks but this is normal processing time for them and you are expected to plan ahead. Which is alright with me as long as they expect that sort of normal time so I can plan any trips around that.
If you ever make the foolish decision to naturalise as a Malaysian and are forced to renounce UK nationality as part of the process, try and apply for a US or Canadian travel visa. I'm sure your opinion will change.

cityboys1911

I have been a US citizen since 2007 but still hold my UK passport which needs renewing this year will I have a problem doing this as we are returning back to the UK to live next year ?????

BritInParis

You've already asked this question elsewhere and you've already been given an answer.

cityboys1911

tell me where please

Gozit

In this thread. http://britishexpats.com/forum/movin...ctions-842260/

This thread explains it in the clearest manner possible.

Atilla

But this thread has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the benefits of a UK passport over a passport from elsewhere, not even remotely. Sorry but I say again, the SOLE theme of this thread is the unacceptable wait times now experienced by applicants when seeking to renew a UK passport from overseas. End of. Not the benefits of UK passports over others, nor dual citizenship, nor whether I'd rather be waiting for this passport versus x passport. So for me all of this remains a total irrelevance.

I'm glad that your trips are so infrequent that you can plan around passport wait times, be it from Malta, the UK or wherever. It should come as no shock though that SOME people need to travel overseas 2-8 times every month so the issue of 'planning' for them doesn't really come into it once the passport starts to fill up as it's merely a case of which of your 8-16 trips you want disrupted thanks to this latest Government efficiency initiative.

Remaining 'on topic' and relevant to the subject under discussion here, several years ago Embassies could issue passports in a matter of days whereas today's streamlined services have people waiting 9, 10 even 12 weeks. The ONLY reason I raised the issue of Thai / Malaysian passports is that these so called developing countries manage the turn round of a passport MUCH quicker.

And quite how we have now drifted onto naturalisation is beyond me also. In terms of SUBJECT of this thread it's all about as relevant as complaining to a car dealership that your brand new car has a mis-coloured door as a result of a poor paint job only to be told "yah but the upholstery is all fine".

moneypenny20

If you hold the UK in such disregard I wonder why on earth you would want to have a British passport. Yes the UK Passport Office cocked up but considering the number of passports they've had come in for renewal or new applications since they stopped the overseas embassies from doing them, it's hardly surprising there's a delay.

cityboys1911

I didn't say I hold the UK in such regard we are going back to live next year after working in the US why say something like that