A Leeds mum's exciting summer holiday left her "unable to sleep at night" after getting new passports proved to be a "nightmare".
The mum-of-three, with another on the way, planned a holiday for her children and partner on July 1 in Fuerteventura. After booking the trip back in March, the Leeds resident needed to get her two sons' passports renewed, but the stress left her reduced to tears.
"I applied in March to be organised so we got them in time for the trip", she said. But 16 weeks later she still hasn't got the passports, and was left wondering if she would have to tell her children the holiday is off.
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Amy explained that she is 28 weeks pregnant and the "shambles" of sorting the passport has had a detrimental effect on her mental health. She said: "I have spent hours and hours trying to sort this out."
"We have been waiting 16 weeks and are due to fly on July 1. Requesting passport upgrades has been a nightmare.
"The passport won't tell me when I will get the passports back, or my own which was used to show I am my children's mother. My kids kept asking me how long it was until our holiday, and I didn't know if we would be going."
Order of events for Amy's application:
- March 5 - application submitted
- March 5 - confirm identity
- May 4 - email confirming identity
- May 4 - identity details received
- May 4 - application received
- June 8 - documents received
- June 22 - still waiting
According to Gov.com passports should take up to 10 weeks to arrive. The advice reads: "The vast majority of all passport applications are being dealt with well within 10 weeks. However, a passport can only be issued once all the checks have been completed satisfactorily and will take longer if applications are submitted with missing or incomplete information."
Amy, who is 27, added: "I was on the phone to the passport office four hours last night (June 22) and my two son's passports are still no closer to being printed even though I have requested an upgrade and trying to request my passport back has been a nightmare they wouldn't tell me when I will get my own passport back or put me through to anyone that can tell me I've requested this in writing and can't get through.
"They refused to put me through to the right department as they can't due to high demand or point blank refuse one call handler put the phone down on me this morning I've raised a complaint. The passport office is an utter shambles.
"They told me we will send it two weeks prior to your trip and I said I am going on holiday in a week I need to know what I am doing."
Amy explained her mother-in-law had also had issues with getting and emailed on her behalf. "I couldn't handle anymore of the stress", she said. "It has just been a joke."
On Thursday, June 23 Amy got a response from HM Passport via text message which read: "Your new passport has been printed, and will be transferred to our delivery supplier in the next few days. When it's ready for delivery, they will contact you with a tracking reference."
In an email update a spokesperson for the HM Passport Office said: "I spoke to you earlier and have arranged for you to collect the children's new passports tomorrow morning (June 24) from our Peterborough office at 10am."
Amy said: "I'm pleased to say after frantic phone calls countless emails they are printing our passports and we are collecting them tomorrow. We had the phone put down on us this morning by one call handler.
"We rung back, and the second call handler put us through to right department. While I was on the phone on hold the passport office rung and Informed us we will be getting our passports I burst into tears due to the stress that's been caused.
"The utter relief when we finally got the news it's absolutely disgraceful how we have been treated and call centres need to work on their customer service skills for sure."
Despite the situation "finally" being resolved, the mum-of-three is still unsure if the family holiday will go ahead due to the ongoing issues at airports recently. She is flying from Leeds Bradford Airport on Friday, July 1 - which has seen a number of ongoing issues including miles of queues leading to delays and cancellations.
She added: "Now, I worry because flights are being cancelled. The passport situation made the stress of travelling at the minute 10 times worse.
"There was no need for it to take 16 weeks. I have spoken to other people and I am not the only one who has experienced this."
Leeds Live have contacted the Home Office for further comment.
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