Many months ago I posted about my grandson’s suspended first-time passport application from Vietnam. He was born in Hanoi in December 2019. The application was made by my son in January. Both parents are 100% British born but work in Vietnam. The application was suspended by the PO in March 2020 by cancelling the online interview. In late June my son wrote to our local MP about the delay and total silence. He also wrote to ask for his son’s birth certificate to be returned. The birth certificate was returned but with no further information. The interview was then suddenly arranged for 22 September and conducted online from a Passport Officer’s home address (the PO having finally got their acts together with the software). The passport was printed on 24 September and a day or two later the MP wrote to my son to say that had happened – the PO told my son nothing. By using Twitter messaging I managed to get the DHL tracking number out of the PO which had also not been supplied to my son. The passport arrived at Hanoi on 1 October and was collected by my son today (2 October). We have no idea whether the MP’s intervention made all the difference, but it is interesting the PO kept him up to speed but not us.
Application time: 8.5 MONTHS
Delay time: 7 MONTHS
The passport is a blue Brexit one, and of course has a picture of a one-month-old child in a passport for a ten-month-old.