Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Does anyone know how the passport office works?
  • nickjb
    Free Member

    Passport was due to expire so I filled out an application to renew and sent it off along with my old passport and some new photos. About a week later I got a letter back saying they had the application but I need to send them my old passport and some new photos. A quick phone call and it turns out they’ve lost the passport so I need to fill out a lost passport form and send some new photos. Did that last week. Now have another letter basically stating I need to start the application all over again. Just phoned them and after speaking to a few different people I may or may not have to start again depending on whether they can find my lost passport form which they currently have no record of receiving, but apparently that doesn’t necessarily mean they haven’t got it. Quite tempted to drive to Newport and see if I can get this resolved face to face.

    the-muffin-man
    Full Member

    Quite tempted to drive to Newport and see if I can get this resolved face to face.

    You’ll need to take 2 recent photos of your face to prove it’s your face!

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    Quite tempted to drive to Newport and see if I can get this resolved face to face.

    They won’t talk to you unless you can verify your identity by showing them your passport……oh! wait a minute…. never mind 😉

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    I imagine you’re going to end up needing to apply for a new one!

    Conversely, I used the online service to do my renewal. Put in a few details, they give you a PDF to print out which tells you what to send.

    Bundled it up, signed for delivery paid for and a new passport arrived a week later – I was expecting not to see it until after xmas.

    They even sent me my old passport back which was nice as it has a few memories in it.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    Does anyone know how the passport office works?

    Very, very badly.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    It works like most other organisations, mistakes happen and it could well be the passport never arrived. They hold all the cards here so you just have to do what they ask. The good news is that at tye end of it you’ll have a new electronic passport which will make border control easier for you.

    FWIW I have always used either the express service going to the London office or the post office check and send off service.

    nickjb
    Free Member

    it could well be the passport never arrived

    But the form that was in the same envelope did arrive?

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    “you’ll have a new electronic passport which will make border control easier for you.”

    Depending on where you travel….

    ive yet to see them any of the int/domestic connection terminals at uk airports….. fine if your landing and leaving the airport you can use them but to connect to the domestic side naw…..

    gobuchul
    Free Member

    I went to get a 2nd passport from the London office.

    I had a couple of photos left from my passport renewal 2 years earlier.

    They wouldn’t accept them as they matched the pictures in my first passport, so obviously weren’t recent.

    I did not look significantly different in anyway. Madness.

    However, I will say they were very friendly and helpful, I think they get a lot of shit of a lot nutters and frauds, so if you are pleasant and genuine they are happy to help.

    seadog101
    Full Member

    turns out they’ve lost the passport s

    … Surely they should fill out the lost passport form, as they lost it, not you?

    woody74
    Full Member

    Went to renew my passport a couple of years back in Newport office and I must say they were marvellous. Yes they were picky about the photos as I had my moth slightly open but even through it was June, no queue and slick process and friendly staff. I had been planning for a day of hell.

    suburbanreuben
    Free Member

    You shoulda used the Post Office checking service. Costs a bit extra but the postmaster checks the details and sends it off in a special red van. A new passport arrives within a week…
    Very impressed!

    cheshirecat
    Free Member

    Liverpool office were good when I needed a second passport – had to have a (brief) interview and a letter saying why I needed a second. Never had any issues with the standard online process (no help really, sorry).

    In a rare moment of joined-up thinking, they used my passport photo for my photocard driving license by just putting my passport number into the form.

    rocketman
    Free Member

    Does anyone know how the passport office works?

    Very well ime

    Renewed a passport last month. Sent them two pics cos I’m unrecognisable from the old one and posted it off. Got a text from them to say they’d received it and then a few days later there’s a knock at door and a mysterious character in a reflective tabard and a black beanie hands me my new passport. We exchanged a few words about how the RM can’t be trusted and that was it. 10 days max

    HTH & good luck

    richmars
    Full Member

    As rocketman.
    Send off, text to say they had it, New one back with me a few days later. The same for my sons.

    konagirl
    Free Member

    I feel for the OP here. If the passport office have confirmed they received the envelope with the application form in, it also had the old passport and photos in. But unfortunately you have no way of proving it and unless they can find it, you are likely to have to go through the whole process, potentially including getting your new photos witnessed. Did you go through the online system so you have already paid? If so, I would be pushing for them to sort it asap even if that means booking an appointment at your nearest office with a spare set of new photos in hand.

    I recently did the pay online and send off the renewal form + old passport + two new photos thing and get a response within 7 days. I paid for signed for delivery, but it sounds like the Passport Office have lost the documents rather than RM have failed to deliver, so pretty shoddy and not much you can do except keep at them to resolve it.

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    Similar thing happened here – despite me knowing that a particular form got to them they somehow lost it between signing for the courier and opening the envelope.

    On top of that, they then charged me over £100 for a failed application.

    bails
    Full Member

    Send off, text to say they had it, New one back with me a few days late

    Same here. Did the check and send thing at the post office on Monday afternoon. Yesterday (Thursday) I got a text saying it had been received and I’d get my old passport back in a few days and a new passport soon. When I got home my old passport was already there. As I was leaving the house this morning (Friday) the courier arrived with my new one.

    I suppose there’s a chance that the OPs envelope was damamged and the old passport fell out, so they really may not have received it.

    konabunny
    Free Member

    … Surely they should fill out the lost passport form, as they lost it, not you?

    OP needs to get a LP7 Lost Passport Form Completion Request Form…don’t lose it..

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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