A dad has been left "exasperated" after a 14-week battle with the Passport Office has put his daughter's surprise first holiday abroad in doubt. Paul Armstrong, 44, applied in April for three passports and received his in good time, but has been waiting for one for his wife and eight-year-old daughter.
The Passport Office have repeatedly asked for the birth certificate of his wife Nicole Armstrong, 46, despite having it already to sanction the one for his child, Madison Armstrong. A three-and-a-half month struggle has ensued putting their summer holiday to Benidorm in Spain on August 19 in doubt.
Paul, who lives with his family in Hebburn, South Tyneside, said: "I feel exasperated. What should have been a very, very simple process has got lost into some kind of Bermuda Triangle. No one wanted to take responsibility until I really had to lose my temper with them. I have contacted them in excess of 10 times by phone and email. It just seems like nobody is talking to each other."
Paul said he applied online for the three passports on April 4 this year so they could travel on the £2,000 trip. He said the Passport Office requested Nicola's birth certificate for Madison's application at the beginning of May.
He said he called them and made it clear that they already had the document as it was with Nicola's application. Paul said he was told the email, which they were sent, was "automatically generated" and just to "disregard it".
However, the following month, Paul and Nicola, who works as a warehouse operative, received another email from the Passport Office which said they were still waiting for the document. Paul said he called again and was told to disregard the email as it was a mistake.
Earlier this month, they received a further email from the Passport Office. which said Madison's passport application was likely to be withdrawn and monies forfeited as they had not sent Nicola's birth certificate. Paul said they couldn't afford to lose the money which they had paid for her application. He said he contacted the Passport Office in desperation, but was told he had to wait on a call back.
He said the staff in the contact centre could only provide a call back and had no information about the applications. He said this has made the process even harder for customers.
Paul, who works as a child safe guarder, said: "It was incredibly frustrating. No one is prepared to listen, or take on board, that you know what the problem is. The problem was they had the document but it needed linked to my daughter's application. I'm assuming it was a very simple transfer to do, when you tell them.
"It just seems that there's no channel of communication, there needs to be a channel of communication. When someone puts a complaint in, no one is passing that problem on. I think they need to provide the information to the contact centre. They need to give them the information they need so they can answer queries. At the minute all their job is is to rebuff phone calls."
After calling and emailing the Passport Office, Paul said he has now been told that the two passports have been authorised for printing. However, they have not yet received them.
He added: "This is something special which I really wanted to do for Madison. It that gets pulled by some red tape in the application and poor communication, in an office at the other end of the country, that will be so annoying."
A HM Passport Office spokesperson said: "Between March and May, we processed approximately three million applications, and 98.5 per cent of applications were completed within 10 weeks. But we cannot compromise security checks and people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling. We are in contact with the family to ensure they receive their passports."
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