Re: Passport Delays
 

Bit harsh... no not when people have had expired passports for 12 months and then renew 3 months before going away.. the Passport service was meant to move processing to the UK in April do you not think that there would of been delays there if they had done that?

Oh and I do have a renewal in Washington DC which has been there for several weeks but I am in no hurry for it......so I will just wait in line...

Re: Passport Delays
 

If they had moved processing to the UK, there would not be delays. Operations at the Passport Office in Britain are running smoothly and the workload of the Washington passport office is a small fraction of that of the UK based offices.

Re: Passport Delays
 

The Passport Twitter/Petition Campaign discussion has been moved over to this thread: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=722085

Please take anything on this topic there....thanks.

Re: Passport Delays
 

Having a UK PP is not the be and end all for you though...as you can travel using your US PP. Be fair a process that normally takes a couple of weeks is now taking 3/4 months. For people with only one PP this can be disastrous. I have had to urgently travel back to the UK 4 times in the last 2 years because of my parent's and in-laws deaths. I dread to think what would have happened if I only had one PP and it had been bogged down in DC.

Also there are some on here that cannot afford to renew their PP...so they wait until they actually need it before spending their money.

Re: Passport Delays
 

It seems renewals in Australia are only taking 2 weeks. System is working over there, seems US/Canada are the only Brits affected in this fiasco.

Re: Passport Delays
 

Success, passport showed up today!:thumbsup:

Re: Passport Delays
 

Congrats.....wish it was me....lol.

Re: Passport Delays
 

Wow...you are not so nice! I did not know they had changed their processing procedures..................and like I said before, I renewed with no problems and when I looked on the web it still stated 4 weeks. You do not have all of my facts and know nothing about my situation, so I suggest you keep these kinds of remarks to yourself..................this blog is to offer helpful suggestions, etc. not to have a go at someone and poke fun of a situation you know nothing about.........................JEEZ!!!!!

Re: Passport Delays
 

I'm new to this forum, but suffering the same problems as everybody else here. I too was totally misled by the information provided by the embassy about timing (4 weeks - ha ha!)

I was chatting about the massive delays for UK passports with a Colombian friend of mine last night. He told me he got his passport from the Colombian embassy the same day the last time around.

In other words:

turnaround time for a Colombian passport in US: 3 or 4 hours.
turnaround time for a British passport in US: 3 or 4 months.

How can the Brits be so much slower?

Re: Passport Delays
 

How long did you have to wait?

Re: Passport Delays
 

Its amazing isnt it.

You can help out here, that goes for anyone new here. http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=722085

Re: Passport Delays
 

Dear Dean,

I'm hoping you might be able to provide some advice, as I know you've been really helpful to many others during this time of frustration and I, too, have had no luck in getting advice from Careline, who sent a request to Washington on my behalf but from whom I never heard back.

I have a unique situation, in that I'm a Canadian living in the U.S. I applied for my first British passport (I also hold British citizenship) with the Washington processing centre and had to send in my Canadian passport because I'm currently residing in a country other than that in which my passport was issued. I gave myself 11 weeks before I needed my Canadian passport back in order to travel overseas, as the website advised to allow at least six weeks for first-time applications and I felt that was a safe margin (I have to travel often for work and it is difficult to find a stretch of time longer than that in which I know I will not need to travel). My application was received May 16 and payment taken June 20. Careline told me it would be six weeks from the date payment was taken - although they also said my application has still not even been assigned to an examiner. I realize of course that I will not receive my new British passport - or my current Canadian passport - back in time.

My question is this: Is it possible for the processing centre to verify my Canadian passport and send it back to me sooner? I'm in no rush for the British passport and am happy to wait for as long as it takes to process it, but it seems unreasonable that they can hold my Canadian passport for two to three times longer than they stated when I sent in my application. Is this something about which I should approach the Canadian Consulate? Any advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Passport Delays
 

Well, it's not a blog... it's an open forum - and one of the perks (or consequences, depending on your POV) is that people will offer their opinion whether you want it or not.

Ian

Re: Passport Delays
 

Not a truer word spoken.

Re: Passport Delays
 

Well... tried to call careline today.. apparently they are experiencing technical difficulties and are unable to give status updates at this time :-( Just an FYI ...

Only General Help given right now.

(we are going on week 12!)