Hi all,
Just wanted to give a description of my experience as i have found this forum very helpful and helped manage my stress levels a lot!
I applied for a replacement passport on the 28th March, and i am due to fly tomorrow (1/6/22).
I have been stuck on processing since the 4th of April and upgraded when within the 14 day window as they advise. Was told to send proof of travel to the durham office and got the standard automated response that they are woeking through in date of travel order. As like most of you, i did not recieve this call and made the decision to do a 400 mile round trip to my nearest passport office in newport. I got to the office for 7.00am yesterday morning and there was a que of around 50 people waiting to be seen. The secuirty then came out and told people to go home if they were not flying within 48 hours. (DONT TRY AND GO BEFORE THIS TIMEFRAME AS THEY WILL TURN YOU AWAY AND YOU WILL HOLD UP THOSE DESPERATE!!!!!)
The ladies that were helping were super nice and you could tell they were doing everything they could to get peoples passports ready. long story short at 9.30 am i was seen and details taken, at 12pm i was told it would be ready at 2pm, at 2pm there was a printer malfunction and was told to hang around, at 5pm i secured the passport.
Some key pointers below:
Please be polite to the staff if you turn up to your local office, it is not their fault and you can tell they are criminally understaffed.
Liverpool and Belfast applications are definitely the worst. Followed by Durham but at least Durham would answer the phone to Newport staff. Apparently Liverpool staff wouldnt even pick up the phone to the newport depot!
Get there early, it is a long day but the queue was relentless until early afternoon so whatever time you show up youll be queing anyway!
DO NOT GO IF YOU ARE FLYING OUTSIDE OF THE 48 HOUR WINDOW, YOU WILL BE TURNED AWAY!
Hopefully you guys all get sorted!
Peace out x