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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Mark McGivern & Iona Young

Edinburgh family nearly miss out on £40,000 holiday due to passport office chaos

Thousands of families have had their summer holiday plans plunged into chaos over a “mountain” of unprocessed passport applications.

The Home Office is understood to have put up to 4000 applications for the travel document from several months ago to the back of the queue – processing new applications first report the Record.

Our sister publication heard from dozens of Scottish folk who believe their passport applications were lost in a black hole at the Scottish passport office.

READ MORE: Mum hits back at 'intrusive' neighbours' 'lack of boundaries' that 'drives her mad'

Hundreds have been turning up at the Passport Office in Glasgow to desperately seek a last minute answer to their prayers, with some taking suitcases ahead of flights on the same day.

Edinburgh passenger, Simon Park was another stressed out member of the queue - hoping desperately to get a last minute passport for 14-year-old daughter Grace.

They are among a family group of 18 people, who have shelled out more than £40,000 for a trip to Mexico to celebrate Simon’s 50th birthday and mark other family milestones. The family was only able to fly out on Wednesday after Simon spent two days in the last gasp queue.

Simon said: “We have to get to Edinburgh Airport for 9am, so this is our very last chance. It has been a disaster from start to finish and I spent four hours in this same queue on Monday only to be told to come back today.

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“I don’t blame the staff here - they’re almost as stressed out as the punters in the queue and it’s not fair on them.”

Simon said he has tried to pre-pay for an express one-day passport after being lucky enough to get a gold-dust appointment - but the money had not been taken from his account.

With not long to go for the families dream holiday, the dads only hope was to get his daughters passport before travelling to the capital airport to catch their flight.

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