Carey Camel
OVERSEAS passport offices in UK embassies have closed, leaving the UK office with a backlog of some 53,000 applications.
Passport Office chief executive Paul Pugh has apologised for possible delays in people’s summer holiday plans.
Furthermore, according to reports released by the Passport Office, over £2.2m (€2.8m) has been spent on overtime to employees in order to compensate for the high demand.
The agency has approved automatic one-year passport extensions for those nationals applying for renewals from abroad.
The Spanish government has approved these extensions and will accept them at customs and passport control.
Did you know that the Passport Office makes £13 profit per passport. Also did Brits know that the UK passport is by a huge margin the most expensive in Europe.
Hi
Is anyone is the same situation as myself?
I applied for a passport before June 12th so my application is deep in the backlog, with no solution except to wait and see when it emerges .
I need to travel to the UK by August 5th, so if it doesn´t arrive have no choice but to pay a further 95 GBP on top of the 102GBP already paid for an emergency passport.
In the Home Office announcement listed below, any UK citizen gets a fast track free escalation after 3 weeks.
In Spain you wait 6 weeks and no fast track escalation.
However if you have left your application until the last minute there is good news you can get a free 12 renewal. That´s a good deal but doesn´t help me or others in my situation.
I have written to the MP making the announcement James Brokenshire but it´s clear the UK citizens living abroad are really bottom of the pile.
“https://www.gov.uk/government/news/additional-measures-to-meet-high-passport-demand”
I applied for my passport renewal on 8th May … still waiting. The online message hasnt changed since then … documents received . being processed!
Hi Marian
That´s really bad, 2 months have gone since your application.
Can you send a message when you finally receive it back so I can have a guess on when I might get mine?
Thanks !