Mounting frustration

‘My family can’t visit our sick relative because Passport Office call handlers are working from home’

A father has blamed Passport Office call handlers who are working from home for delays to his son’s passport application, meaning that his family is unable to visit a sick relative in Iran.

Mohammad Reza, 54, is due to travel to Iran with his wife and teenage son to visit a relative who is unwell.

However, his son is unable to travel without his Iranian passport, which the Passport Office has not returned after it was submitted as part of the documentation for his British passport application on March 22.

Since the application was submitted, Mr Reza said he has “called the Passport Office continually, sent so many emails, and received no answers”.

After four hours on hold, one call handler told him that she was unable to track the status of his son’s documentation because the office’s call handlers were “working from home”.

“She told me they all work from home, that’s the reason why customer services have no access to the files and they can’t give proper updates,” Mr Reza said from the queue to the Passport Office in London yesterday.

In his calls with other handlers, he said he could even hear the noises from children and animals in the background.

“It’s shocking. Why are they still at home? One day I was on the phone, waiting to speak to somebody, for five hours.

“Since then I’ve tried many emails, nothing has happened. They don’t reply or call me back. It’s extremely frustrating.”

After waiting for hours outside the Passport Office yesterday, Mr Reza said he was sent away with a leaflet instructing him to call a phone number – the same number that he had been calling “for weeks”. He now plans to contact his local MP.

A HM Passport Office spokesman said: “Working from home has no impact on our capacity to process passport applications.

“Since April 2021, we have been advising people to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their British passport as more than five million people delayed applying due to the pandemic. We urge people who need a new passport to apply for one as soon as possible, with the vast majority of all passports applications being dealt with well within 10 weeks.”