Holiday warning as family waits FIVE MONTHS for children’s passports
FAMILIES wanting to get their kid’s passports back in time for their holidays could be waiting as long as five months.
One family said they applied back in January 2022 – and still haven’t got them back.
James Crockett, 39 said they applied for his son Reece’s new passport back in January.
He hoped to have it back in time for his family’s first holiday abroad together, which was a £6k all-inclusive break to Egypt along with his wife Anna, 38 and daughter Tayla, 11.
James told Sun Online Travel: “My son turned 16 in January, so when I applied it was for a child’s passport.
“Because the application ran over his 16th birthday, they changed it from a child’s passport to an adult’s passport.”
This was where the problems started.
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He said: “They asked us to change it from an online application to a postal application, because they wanted more paperwork from us.”
“I’m not Reece’s biological father but when he was six, he wanted to have the same surname as his sister, mine and my wife’s so it was changed by deed poll.
“We knew this would cause problems by having a different name, so was why we applied so early for it.”
They asked for pictures of Reece, his full birth certificate, and proof of his new surname using school letters and bank statements as well.
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Along with this, James had to pay an extra £30 for the adult passport – which was meant to take 24 hours, but took more than two weeks to process.
They were also told to make a video appointment to fast track the passport, but were unable to get one for days, especially because Reece was still in school.
All of the extra requests took weeks to request and process, he said, slowing the whole application down.
James said it had been a “nightmare”, adding it had gone from “worse to worse” and had emailed his local MP and even Boris Johnson in desperation.
And it isn’t just Reece’s passport – their daughter Tayla’s new passport was also still delayed in the system, despite not ever having changed her name.
“NIGHTMARE”
James said: “We go away on July 29, and at the moment we don’t think we will go away, especially with the passport delays going on.
“My nan died of cancer last year, and she wanted to use the money from her estate to pay for this entire holiday for us.
“My wife has never been out of the country, nor have my two children.”
“It’s putting stress onto us all, as we won’t be going on holiday if we don’t get the passports back in time.”
James isn’t the first person who has been left fearing for their holidays due to passport delays.
One couple could be forced to cancel their wedding abroad due to the delay in getting their passports back.
Another woman had to miss her £2k holiday to Spain with her family due to the delays with passports.
The government is currently advising Brits to allow up to 10 weeks to get their passports back.
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Brits have been having other problems with passports too – one family had their £5k Disney holiday ruined after they were sent a stranger’s passport instead by mistake.
And anyone heading to Europe is being advised to check their passport expiry dates as new rules have resulted in Brits being turned away from their flights.
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