Hotscot

I'm confused now. I spoke with a staff member at the Los Angeles Consulate earlier.
They specifically said the ETD was only for travel to the UK and could not be used to return to the US.

mshedden

Nope, thats not right. I think they did have another form of travel doc that was a one way trip, but thats not an ETD.

One trip, up to 5 stops and it expires at the end of your itinerary. My wife arrives back to the US July 20, ETD expires July 20.

Hotscot

You'd think they'd know themselves...there were very clear on this.

I take my oath on Thursday, I have an appointment to fast track a US passport on Friday.

Fingers crossed that process will go smoothly as I won't have my GC anymore.

Bob

It will be irrelevant to you as you'd need your US passport to travel regardless.

The ETD is primarily designed to get people back into the UK via other destinations, but you can be used as a round trip if you aren't resident in the UK. The problem is, the foreign country does not have to recognise it and essentially, the US doesn't for air travel unless you have a visa. Most here would use their greencard to enter the US though.

The problems the Canadian residents are having, wanting to have a holiday in the US is not having GC's, nor a visa, so can't use the ETD and the VWP to enter the US, certainly by air, by land it would be by discretion of POE officer.

penguinbar

Finally! My husbands passport came this morning!So that is one day short of 11 weeks since the card was charged and almost 14 since they received it. I never did speak to Careline but this is reallly an unaccceptable turnaround time . I am glad that we didn't have any travel plans but I feel really bad for those who do. When I sent his off in March the website said 4 weeks. I hope everyone who has applied gets theirs very soon and those reading this thread who haven't please do not make any travel plans if you do not have to until you get your passport in hand.

AmerLisa

Yaaaay!!

lyonsden1193

Great one more down.... lots to go!

FredCDobbs

My daughter's passport finally arrived. 14 weeks after the application was sent in; 11 weeks after the credit card was charged.

I've started the process with my credit card company to contest the "Careline" charges, and I encourage everyone else in the same position to do likewise. Maybe someone will pay attention if they receive a wave of credit card challenges to their charges.

I still find it utterly unbelievable that any reputable service provider -- let alone H.M. Government -- would promise a service, accept money from customers, fail to provide the promised service, and then have the nerve to refuse to communicate with their customers about their screw-up unless said customers paid in advance to talk to a call-center in another country, thereby incurring credit card charges, credit card foreign transaction fees and international telephone charges.

vanfan1

I am wondering if there are any updates on the processing situation.
Dean, British Consul, do you know if they are making any headway on the backlog, are applications starting to be processing quicker? Have to ask you as you seem to be the only person working for the consulate who appears to be answering any questions. Thank you for taking the time to answer people by the way, good to know that some who work for the consulate do care.

Glad to hear some more members are getting their passports, though its been a LONG wait. Good luck in stopping the credit card charges Fred, its true we really shouldn't be having to pay!

lansbury

It sounds as if they are talking about the old ETD, which was a single sheet of paper and was kept by the UK immigration officer at the POE. It got you home and no more.

Boguespierre

Depending upon whether things are improving, stable or worsening, my son's case may or may not work out!

His passport was received in DC April 27th, and our card charged May 31st, so 11 weeks would take us to August 16th. He is due to fly to France for a semester in Grenoble from August 25th...

In principle we are a lot better off than many. I and my kids are all UK-US dual nationals. I had let all of our UK passports gradually expire as it really wasn't worth the bother of renewal for very occasional trips to Blighty. However, having a British passport meant my son could avoid a lot of visa BS and money for the stay in France.

My question is: should the meltdown in DC get worse and we have to rush for an ETD in Boston (again we are lucky to live close to a consulate...):

(a) Do you need to make an appointment with the consulate and how easy are they to get? They say not to ask for an ETD unless you're within 5 days of travel, but something tells me getting one might well take a Kafkaesque 6 days plus!

(b) Will the ETD be accepted by France as equivalent to his British passport? I have heard of US students with improper visa status being sent home, and am nervous about what the French would think of an ETD...

Do you know what would be nice? Someone from DC telling us just how big the backlog is and how many passports per day they are processing. At least we would have a sense of the issue...

geordie80815

I sent for my passport name change as I was married in Usa and did not want delays with immigration when I return to England for my daughters wedding. Sent documents $250 on 4th April2011 they recieved it on the 6th April. three months later I finally got the ban taken off my phone was told it was nearly done, by Careline. Three weeks later no sign of Passport. I have emailed Careline twice after three months this is very frustrating............

mshedden

Emailing Careline is a waste of time. They make no money on emails and they are unlikely to respond usefully, citing 'data protection act' etc.

Call them, get a reference number. They should be able to give you status.

mshedden

(a) They can't give you an ETD unless its 5 days or less to go. You will need an appointment, in our case it was as simple as leaving a msg at the consulate, and getting a call back a few hours later.

(b) no idea, BUT, the ETD is just like a British passport. It is supposed to be accepted in place of one and not just in the UK.

All I can say about the backlog is that it seems (from reading messages here) to be taking longer now for them to take the payment than it was taking back in April (a month plus now, 3 weeks back then).

lyonsden1193

Correct .. I e mailed them during my issues and got exactly that... Blah Blah... Etc Ect ... Data Protection Act... Blah Blah.