I’m a British citizen residing within the US. I utilized for renewal of my British passport 4 months in the past and HM Passport Workplace confirmed receipt of my outdated one. Greater than 16 weeks later, the standing replace merely says: “We have now acquired your outdated passport.” My aged dad and mom dwell within the UK and will not be in good well being and I’m unable to make plans to go to them. I get determined.
KR, Edina, Minnesota
PS of Peebles can also be determined. His British daughter additionally lives within the US and utilized for British passports for her youngsters the identical week as you. The household was because of transfer again to the UK imminently, however greater than 4 months on there have been nonetheless no updates on their utility. “My grandson’s US passport has expired and if he doesn’t get the UK one in time they received’t be capable of fly,” he writes. “They may primarily be homeless as they’ve given up their home to maneuver again.”
The Passport Workplace is at the moment advising of waits of as much as 10 weeks for brand spanking new passports whereas it really works by way of a report variety of functions following Covid lockdowns. It tells me that it states “clearly” that individuals making use of from abroad ought to enable longer, however nowhere on the federal government web site can I see the place it gives time scales. The Residence Workplace helpfully supplied a hyperlink, however the part on utility particulars makes no point out of processing occasions, and the division didn’t reply after I requested the place the knowledge might be discovered.
Nonetheless, it advised me that candidates from the US ought to enable as much as 11 weeks for a renewal and 13 weeks for a kid’s first passport. Each your personal and PS’s grandson’s functions have considerably exceeded these.
The passports had been issued after I contacted the Residence Workplace – PS’s grandson’s arriving three days earlier than the household’s flight dwelling.
There’s no expedited service for passport functions from abroad, however these with pressing wants can, for a price, apply to the Overseas, Commonwealth & Improvement Workplace for an Emergency Journey Doc (ETD). If the passport utility has taken two weeks longer than the printed processing time (wherever that could be), they will apply to the Passport Workplace for the ETD price to be refunded.
HM Passport Workplace says: “Since April 2021, we’ve clearly acknowledged that individuals ought to enable as much as 10 weeks when making use of for his or her passport within the UK – and longer if abroad – to issue within the elevated demand, which has seen 5 million individuals delay their passport utility as a result of pandemic. The overwhelming majority of functions are accomplished throughout the printed timeframe.”
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