Turned away 48 hours before travel

[Nathan]

Hi,
I’ve been to Newport office earlier and have been told they can’t help me as I’ve been waiting 5 weeks 3 days and they’ll only help after 6 weeks. My application is in Bootle and the woman took my number and said I’d get a call back but not to get my hopes up as it’s looking doubtful.

Is there anything else I can do at all? My current plan is to wait to see if I get a call today and if not I’ll go to a different passport office, but that’ll only be 24 hours before I travel.

I would really appreciate any advice at all at I haven’t seen anyone else get turned away like this.

[JakeM]

Did you send your documents to Newport, and they were forwarded to Bootle, or was Newport just your closest passport office?

Was there much of a queue there?

And have your documents been marked as received (and so are in the system)?

[Nathan]

I sent them straight to Bootle and Newport is my closest. The queue was only 20 people and cleared in 30 mins. Yeah, the documents have been marked as received for the last 3 weeks.

[Nathan]

So I’ve been on the phone for 1.5hrs to the progress team and then to customer service.
They said they can’t do anything until 6 weeks. The only recommendation is to go back tomorrow which will be 24hrs before. I was also told the manager I spoke to hadn’t changed anything on my application.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

[JakeM]

Did you go back in the end, and if so – how did you get on?

[Nathan]

No luck. I went back again yesterday and the manager said she’d contact durham and arrange an urgent callback.
Spent hours on the phone today which was no help at all. So I’ve missed my cruise.

[LFrank]

This is so worrying to hear. We fly Sunday 10th July and as a last attempt I was going to turn up at my local office (London. Passport was sent to Durham). Applied for child renewal on 1st June but passport only recognised as received on 13th June so it is not looking good at all. Will be exact same boat at Nathan (5 weeks 4 days since application).

[Nathan]

If I was you I’d look to see if you can change the dates on your holiday. They absolutely will not help you before 6 weeks. Your only hope is if the application goes straight to approved but if it goes to processing then you have no chance

[LFrank]

Thank you for your honesty Nathan. Can’t change the holiday as it’s with the whole extended family, but we can split up and hopefully join together for the final part if passport comes after 6 weeks. I will post back next week with an update if I think it will help anyone.

[Author]

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