winegumjean

and my application has just disappeared!

I made the mistake of sending it to the British Embassy in Washington DC as that's what one form told me. I called the UK to inquire as to whether it had shown up there yet, and she said that I probably should have sent it straight to the UK. Lesson learned, but that still isn't excusing the fact that my passport application and important documents are MIA. I am more than willing to send it to the UK myself, but need the documents back in order to do that.

Apparently it arrived at the British Embassy in Washington on The 18th of October and was signed for, but I have yet to hear where it is in the process and I cannot seem to get a hold of anyone at their useless phone number. I have sent a very agitated e-mail to the embassy in Washington regarding this, but am sceptical about any response.

Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone else had to try and get in touch with those who obviously do not work at the UK embassy. By no account did I expect to have my passport yet, but I would like to know where my documents are and if I need to take the application back and send it myself to the UK.

BritInParis

The RPPC in Washington is closing very shortly. Contingency measures usually mean they'll still process your application during a grace period but after that it'll be either forwarded on to the UK or returned to you. It won't just disappear. If it's going by diplomatic bag it might take a while though.

Dashie

It's only 11 days too, give them a bit longer I think. The last one I had processed by Washington took about a month. They stopped processing them there a while ago though, they've been forwarding the scanned docs to the UK to print the passports for a couple of years I think.

winegumjean

You're both right...I should be more patient. It's not as I am in some sort of rush, I guess I'm just a little bit concerned about my documents as they are important and it would be nice if I could find out if they will be sent back to me...etc.

I'm not sure how old the instructions were that I was looking at that said to send it to the British Embassy in Washington, but it's just my luck that I would send it to the wrong place

BritInParis

Not quite. The processing had been done in Washington up until very recently. The last major change was two years and that was, whilst the processing continued in Washington, once approved the passport information was being transmitted electronically to the UK where the passport itself would then be printed en masse with the rest of the UK's applications. Prior to this all passports were still being printed by hand in Washington.

Dashie

Pretty much what I said, you seem to be arguing semantics

The passports we got in 2012 were sent to Washington, where they forwarded what was needed to the UK where they printed them and sent the finished passports from.

winegumjean

so in other words...I sent it to the right place then?

BritInParis

You're implying all the staff in Washington did from the summer of 2012 was to scan forms and email them to the UK for other staff to process. The only change that happened was that the passports were no longer printed in Washington. The rest of the work was still done in DC.

No

winegumjean

hahahah! Hopefully I'll hear about it soon, then

winegumjean

does anyone on here have any idea who I can contact at the embassy or is there an e-mail or live chat at the British embassy in Washington D.C? I mean to give it some time, but I am genuinely surprised that my credit card hasn't been charged yet. I thought that would be the first thing they did.

BritInParis

They won't be charging your card in DC if it's being forwarded to the UK.

winegumjean

Thank You BrintInParis, you are very helpful and knowledgeable

windsong

Deleted.