A couple fear they will be forced to leave their baby girl in China after passport delays.
Callum Bentley and his wife Neelam are teachers in the country where their daughter Isabelle was born.
They are expected to return to the UK in July when their work visa expires after two years living and working in Shanghai, reports Stoke on Trent Live.
The couple tried to organise a passport for their baby as soon as she was born.
After meeting a British government representative in China 32-year-old Callum believed he was making progress,
But the couple from Stoke-on-Trent had their hopes dashed when Shanghai went into lockdown in April to curb a new wave of coronavirus infections.
Callum claims the Passport Office told him it needs Isobelle's original birth certificate to process a passport.
Postal services have been suspended during the new lockdown, which means it is impossible to send the paperwork to the UK government.
The couple now fear they will have to leave the country, but won't be able to take their baby with them.
Their work visas run out on July 31, and they will have no choice but to leave China - without their daughter, if the paperwork is not sorted..
He said: "We received her birth certificate in early March and I made an appointment with the passport people here to start the application on the 17th, but it was cancelled due to the covid outbreak so we rearranged it for March 28.
"All the paperwork was submitted and the documents were sent off to the UK on the 30th. They took the payment two weeks later and we heard nothing from the Passport Office after this.
"On Friday, May 12, six weeks after I applied, HMPO emailed to ask for the original birth certificate.
"I'd taken it with me when I went to the original appointment here, but they just made a photocopy and sent it to the UK. I don't understand why they didn't send off the original if a photocopy wasn't acceptable.
"We went into lockdown two days after that face-to-face appointment. We can't leave our apartment, and the postal service in Shanghai is currently suspended.
"I don't know when I will be able to post it, and either way it could be weeks for it to be processed. It's time we don't have. "
Callum said he had been calling the Passport Office regularly, but the calls weren't getting through. And emails seemed to generate only automated responses.
He added: "We're not trying to jump the queue or have anyone else's passports pushed back to process ours.
"We don't even need a passport as such, just something official that says our daughter can travel back to the UK.
"We just want to speak to a person. It's so frustrating that everywhere you go it's all done by computers and by email and you can't actually speak to a human to explain the situation.
"We're facing the risk of being separated from our 12 week old daughter. My mum wants us back, but most importantly, she wants her granddaughter home."
Callum's mum Jackie, 60, who lives in Birches Head, said: "I've never even met my granddaughter, and the thought that she might have to stay there is just horrible. It's not even as if I can go and visit them."
A spokesman for the Home Office said the department could not comment on an individual cases
However it added: "The overwhelming majority of applications are completed within 10 weeks, with the latest figures showing 90% were completed within six weeks.
"But we cannot compromise security checks and people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling."
