Reply to: Passports

[Mich the Tester]

It's a fiasco, but the standard time was always six weeks.

No it wasn't; last time I had it renewed by the FCO/British Consulate it took a week. 10 years before that I had it renewed in a couple of hours at the passport office in Peterborough; travelling up to Peterborough was a bit of a pain but at least it got the job done.

Going without a passport for 6 weeks is not really much good for people who travel on business often, never mind those who want to travel for personal reasons.

[Smartie]

It's a fiasco, but the standard time was always six weeks. Most people plan their foreign trips well in advance so leaving it until the last minute and then bitching about doesn't engender an awful lot of sympathy.

Plenty of countries require at least 6 months duration left on your passport when you leave their country so just apply for it a year before it's due again. If you can't stand the 10 or 15 quid that will cost you in a lost year then, well.

[EternalOptimist]

lets get this straight. the average bloke spends four weeks of his life having nooky, but spends 18 weeks waiting for passports ?


hell in a handcart, hell in a handcart

[vetran]

Oh Well...



Mind you, they're making a profit

so 328,000 are new passports then, something you do once in your life.

400,000 are renewals. something you do 4-5 times in your life once a decade.

that makes 3.28 times more passports issued new to each person renewing even if you take into account that some people have now put their renewal in early to anticipate the delay.

[darmstadt]

2/5ths of the applications are from newly naturalised citizens.

Oh Well

Oh Well...

The figures show that the extra demand for passports reached 727,067 applications last month – 57,000 higher than the year before. The largest part of the increase involves the renewal of 399,000 adult passports, normally the most straightforward to be processed.

Mind you, they're making a profit

[scooterscot]

Can't issue passports, can't even play football. I'm proud to be part of a country where everything is great.

Don't feel so bad, you've got a financial hub that is the world's capital of dirty money.

[SantaClaus]

Can't issue passports, can't even play football. I'm proud to be part of a country where everything is great.

[Sysman]

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passport...wing_new/adult

Which means doing without my passport for at least 6 fooking weeks. How has it reached this point?

Sad innit?

If you restart that page it offers Get a passport extension

If you’re living overseas, you can apply to extend your British passport for 12 months. Child passports can also be extended.

You won’t be charged any extra fees.

...

The service is by appointment only - phone your nearest British Embassy, Consulate or High Commission and select the ‘Consular Services’ option.

It's a pain in the rear.

[vetran]

WGAS whose passports they are?

First time adult applicants require significantly more work.

however I suspect Goethe probably covers most of it.

...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.

[Mich the Tester]

one assumes they took a sample and multiplied up. or they have the experience of previous years?

maybe its a standard statistic they have to provide?

WGAS whose passports they are?

FFS, the passport renewal for expats has gone from a couple of days to 'at least 6 weeks' in the last 20 years. That is just fooking incompetence at the highest level, regardless of the origin of the applications.

Mash spot on again though

[vetran]

How do they know that if they haven't processed them?

one assumes they took a sample and multiplied up. or they have the experience of previous years?

maybe its a standard statistic they have to provide?

[Mich the Tester]

Seems to me this passport debacle should be a warning to anyone thinking of issuing new passports to 7 million people in one go.

I think it said 6 weeks when I renewed mine last year, but it took about 10 days.

Well first Tony the War Criminal made the process longer and more complicated and wouldn't give British consulates the equipment to issue passports as they had done in the past, then Dave the Clueless and his bunch shifted expat applications to the UK and cut the staff levels, and now we have huge delays and expats are expected to do without their passports for at least 6 weeks, and you can´t even pay using a European debit card.

It is utter, utter incompetence.

[scooterscot]

Seems to me this passport debacle should be a warning to anyone thinking of issuing new passports to 7 million people in one go.

Is London becoming independent?

[VectraMan]

Seems to me this passport debacle should be a warning to anyone thinking of issuing new passports to 7 million people in one go.

I think it said 6 weeks when I renewed mine last year, but it took about 10 days.

[Mich the Tester]

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passport...wing_new/adult

How long it takes
Your application will take at least 6 weeks from when it’s received by Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK.
Applications may take longer if:
HM Passport Office need to ask you for more information or documents
the photographs you send are rejected

...

How to apply
You must apply and pay for your passport online.
Before you start you need:
your current passport

Which means doing without my passport for at least 6 fooking weeks. How has it reached this point?