I can’t help but feel some of these departments/offices are ‘trailing a leg’ after the austerity cuts to provoke an apparent crisis due to ‘under-staffing’ thereby getting media exposure for their agenda.

Public sector approach to cutbacks: do nothing, don’t try to streamline anything, wait for shit to hit fan, go on strike.

Private sector approach to cutbacks: do anything possible to make up the gap by working smarter, partially succeed, but have to work harder, get given yet more work as a result, eventually lose rag and leave.

I’m not saying one way is better than the other, but I know that come 50-55 years of age I’m going to be looking for a public sector job to coast into retirement from……

For those questioning the OP’s organisation I’d ask is this for the newborn and how long ago was it born? There’s only so much paternity time you get and if it’s within that this will have been necessarily rushed. They do after all need a photo of the baby and they won’t accept the grainy brown and white ones you get with a scan.* 🙂

* Thought it’d be about as much use – all babies look the ***ing same anyway.

£9 for the check and send seems good value to me. Considering you pay, so your application is not held upon its arrival for your payment to clear, its sender via expedited mail and gets right into the processing department next day for processing, and is expedited back to you via recorded delivery, not to mention the inconvenience saved if you do make an inadvertent mistake. Last time I did it despite having a photo taken at a ‘proper’ passport photo place, they advised the photo was not great and there is a risk it would be rejected, so I got another done just to be on the safe side and it was on its way later that afternoon. At that time the stated processing time was at least 2 weeks – I had my passport back inside of 10 days. Storming service in my opinion.

If I were to document the tale of incompetence surrounding the securing of renewals for our 3 children most of you wont have enough years left to read it and I certainly haven’t time to write it.

Having two birth certificates in two languages, and a registration of birth document with an incorrect date, I just am resigned to an interview each time I renew….

Some years ago I went travelling to Central America. Two days before flying, I put a last load of clothes in the washer, stuff I needed for the trip. Then I headed off to work. Mid-morning I suddenly realised, completely out of the blue, that my passport was in the pocket of one of the pairs of trousers in the wash…

I told my boss I had an emergency and legged it home. The passport was all blurry and not stuck together very well, it looked like a very bad forgery. We were due to fly via the states, and this was just after 9/11 so they were very hot on security at the time.

I rang the passport office in Victoria and asked about getting a replacement. They said it would take four weeks to get a replacement. There was a 24-hour option, at a cost, but that was only an option if some of my personal details on the passport had changed. Which they hadn’t.

Except, I’d got my old passport when I was about 14, and it was probably the first thing I’d ever had to sign, so I hadn’t really settled on a signature at that time. By the time I was 22 or so my signature was slightly different, and instantly became even more different… luckily that was enough to justify using the 24-hour service!

Still seems bizarre to me that you could get a passport in 24 hours if there was incorrect information, but it would take four weeks if it was damaged (i.e. just a straight replacement, not having to verify new information).