Passport Office chaos forces families to cancel holidays
FAMILIES have been forced to cancel holidays because of delays of up to four months to process their passport applications, a Sunday Telegraph investigation has found.
Angry travellers have had to wait as long as 143 days for their passport requests to be completed, forcing them to put on hold their holidays, visits to relatives not seen since before the pandemic or even mortgage applications for new house deals. The Passport Office’s premium fast-track service and face-to-face interviews required for first passports are suspended as it struggles to get its 2,000 staff back to work in their offices while maintaining social distancing.
The powerful Public and Commercial Services Union has set five conditions to return to work and has attacked bosses for putting its members under “enormous pressure” to do so before it is safe. It is resisting plans to use a skeleton staff to keep offices working until 10pm.
The average time taken to process applications remains double pre-Covid times even though the Government reenergised foreign holidays two weeks ago by lifting the ban on non-essential travel to 70 destinations and creating “air bridges” to popular holiday spots.
The Passport Office refuses to reveal the time it will take to process applications but the website Passport Waiting Time, using crowd-sourced data, shows it is averaging 45 days for a first adult passport, 33 days for a first child’s passport, 28 days for a child’s renewal and 23 days for an adult’s renewal.
Andy Anderson, who set up the website two years ago, said the delays were compounded by inconsistencies where some applicants were processed in days while others had to wait months.
Among the victims is Katy Bishop, of Sandown on the Isle of Wight, who is due to fly to Gran Canaria on Aug 13 with husband Clive, 45, and their threeyear-old, but has been waiting more than 100 days after applying to renew her passport and get one for her child.
Paul Hanley has been waiting 143 days for his child’s passport, while Matthew Hall, a transport clerk based in Dudley, has been waiting 142 days for a
first adult passport he applied for on Feb 28 ahead of a trip to Majorca with his partner and eight-month-old baby in August. “It’s beyond frustrating and they could at least keep people in the know,” he said. “I’m set to lose over £3,000, and I’m a key worker who could seriously do with a holiday.”
A 30-year-old, who asked to remain anonymous, was forced to cancel a trip to see relatives in Lithuania after delays of more than eight weeks and “limited feedback”. It took three weeks to confirm a counter-signature by which point they had run out of time.
The Passport Office admitted it is “taking longer than usual” due to Covid and has urged people not to apply unless they are travelling before September or need a passport for compassionate reasons.
It said it is continuing to increase capacity with a phased return of more staff, and was “working hard” to resume all services.