Bob

They'd be far easier to understand than the bods in Scotland though

penguinbar

My husband is Scottish and I would have to agree! It's also now 5 weeks since they charged our credit card and still nothing. I don't want to waste money calling Careline.

lansbury

yep, but it would be better if they set it up at the passport center, then you'd pay more but get to talk to the people where the problem is. Which is the point most are making, you are talking to people miles away who know nothing.

lansbury

true, very true.

Bob

As the whole processing is being moved to the UK, it's all moot then...and setting up infrastructure to do this v hiring someone who is already set up, not very cost effective use of public spending.

I agree careline are shit, but that's not to say that the idea is entirely bad...just use a better vendor next time when the contracts are up for renewal.

nsdale

I think that there should be a way of directly contacting the passport office at the embassy. However, i agree that the expense of setting it up would be high. I think a far better way would be to implement a tracking system so people can check online the status of the passport. Many people get worried when after 6 weeks they have'nt taken payment, if they logged every passport on arrival that would reduce the calls placed to careline. If they provided estimated times on the tracking such as current time from receival to payment acceptance, and then time from payment to issue it would again reduce the calls and staff required.
currently calls are being placed around the same time as the payment is being taken as 4-6 weeks is the time on the website and finding their passport has only just entered processing and will be a further 4 - 6 weeks. I am sure many of the people who call are just worried that the passport hasn't been received and so on. That way the majority of calls placed would be people who required their passport expedited rather than just people who are worried their passport is lost.
This way would present a far more professional service (in line with many other countries embassies) requirement for less staff in a call centre and more importantly a lot more piece of mind for UK Citizens that are using the passport service.
Its difficult for us to comprehend how a service that takes 7-15 days in the UK max including postage (my parents renewal took 7 days including postage using the check and send via the post office) can take well over 6 weeks. Careline isn't cutting it, they don't have access to the information many people need and they don't have the authority to help. In the UK this might be acceptable easier to contact the passport office, check and send and so on abroad it just isn't to the standard that we expect and deserve.

babannie

Especially at the ridiculous price too! I am paying way more than my daughter is for her US adult passport renewal!

JAJ

If the process is moving to the UK (which should have happened long ago), why not just let people call the same number that UK based applicants use?

In the meantime, perhaps better for people to call the Foreign Office in London and make complaints that way - if enough people do it, they might take notice.

Handle

Further to my post of May 12th, I did write to 19 Observatory Circle - a polite letter simply enquiring into the delay. A couple of days later I received a very nice email from Sue at the embassy saying they had "unprecedented demand" for passports and that my application was nearing the end of the process.

Today I received my new passport via UPS. That was about one week after mailing in my letter.

So, I would encourage all of you not to waste money hanging on the end of a phone line, with promises to "look into your concerns" and "we'll get back to you" etc etc. Discover the lost art of letter writing and send them something in the mail.

Remember, they are duty bound to reply to you.

Good luck to those still waiting.

lndn2nbca

could you share the email address for sue@embassy? saves a couple of days on the request being received.
thanks

JAJ

There is no such thing as "unprecedented demand" ... there are roughly x number of passports out there, they know how many will expire in a given year and that most will be renewed, they also know roughly how many first time applicants will be made.

This is not the first time in recent years that the Foreign Office has failed to manage the passport service.

The Passport Office in the UK would never get away with this kind of excuse.

Sally Redux

Agreed, absolutely pathetic.

Peony

I've finally got a tracking number but it's still not showing as being picked up, despite the number being generated yesterday. If the passport doesn't arrive on Monday my 5 year old is going to have to be subjected to a 10 hour round trip car journey the day before a transatlantic flight to get an emergency passport. Keeping absolutely everything crossed that UPS are in possession of it now.

Bob

True, but they also don't know how many people have had expired passports for years before renewing them...and there's still only the same number of bods doing the processing regardless.

Giantaxe

Sure, but why would that number change drastically from year to year? The "unprecedented demand" excuse is lame, especially as they're not saying they're doing anything is alleviate the situation. The trouble is expats have very little leverage: they often don't vote and they often pay little or nothing in taxes to the UK.