Brits have been warned to check their passport expiry dates and renew them well in advance of expiry, as the Home Office struggles to keep up with demand. Delays of up to 10 weeks are expected, the government has admitted.
The delays have extra significance post-Brexit. When the UK was part of the EU, holders of British passports could travel to any EU country - as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City - on any day up to and including the expiry date of the passport.
Now, outside of the EU, British passport holders must have at least three months remaining on their passport on the day they're travelling back home to Britain. Your passport must also be less than 10 years old on the day you enter, the Mirror reports.
Read more: Latest covid rules for Spain, Canary Islands, Mallorca, and Ibiza ahead of travel season
These rules apply to all EU countries, as well as the ones listed above, but not Ireland, which has a special arrangement with Britain. To avoid any disappointment this summer, the Home Office minister Kevin Foster warned people hoping to travel abroad this summer to apply to renew outdated passports "as soon as possible".
But the Commons heard of one woman who has waited since January to receive her daughter's new passport, with services branded "either really very good or an absolute shambles". SNP home affairs spokesman Stuart C McDonald asked: "All our constituents are having to cancel holidays, miss funerals, rearrange visits, with even a new 10-week target routinely being failed.
"What will be done to avoid this predictable mess getting worse? And can we be assured that the 10-week target will not be lengthened further as we approach the summer?"
Foster replied: "First in terms of - I go back to the fact that we issued, we dealt with, a million passport applications last month alone. To put that into context, we usually deal with seven million in a whole year.
"I would point out that where people have compelling and compassionate circumstances such as a funeral, applications can be expedited and it has now been for some time we have been advising to allow for up to 10 weeks for an application to be processed, and last year sent 4.7 million texts reminding people whose passports have expired to renew them."
He added: "But no, we don't have any intention to further extend that standard. We are at the moment processing most passports well within it, but we would advise people this is a very, virtually unprecedented surge in demand, and if people are planning to travel this summer we would advise them to get their application in as soon as possible."
Conservative MP Simon Hoare described the passport backlog as "unprecedented true, but foreseeable absolutely". The North Dorset MP added: "I hear what the minister has said, certainly my constituents are telling me their experience is either really very good or it is an absolute shambles.
"But I agree with what the member who raised the question in the first instance said - there needs to be a better interface between Members of Parliament and the Passport Office when those constituents either through family funeral reasons or for holiday or business reasons are not getting through, are then being lied to by officials when they do get through. Something needs to be done to arrest this and quickly."
Foster replied: "I would say to give a background, early in January we were processing about 60,000 passports a week and by mid-March we had nearly trebled, and actually nearly quadrupled, the output of the service. I agree with him on the points earlier made that we do need to review the performance of the hotline for MPs particularly where there are compelling and compassionate circumstances behind expediting an application."
But Labour MP Stephanie Peacock (Barnsley East) raised the case of a mother who submitted her daughter's passport application in January - five months in advance of their holiday next week - but has yet to receive one. Peacock asked MPs: "What is the minister doing to address the unacceptable delays in passport applications?"
Home Secretary Priti Patel said ministers would examine the case, noting: "That's a very, very unusual delay, there must be a problem."
