A London mum has said she faces losing almost £1,000 on a family holiday as pressure over huge delays in passport processing mount ahead of the summer. Mum-of-two Jenny Craig said she applied for a passport renewal for her son Isaac 12 weeks ago, two weeks more than the recommended 10 week time period that The Passport Office continue to advise for the renewal of the document.
Some people have told The Mirror that they’ve been left waiting even longer than the 10-week target, which is set by the Home Office. Jenny, who works in communications, is due to travel to Italy in just under four weeks’ time but fears the holiday may not go ahead.
If the family trip with her husband and two children doesn’t happen, she could stand to lose almost £1,000. Jenny has already had to cancel their holiday to Morocco in the Easter holidays last month. The family were able to get a voucher in return for the flights they couldn’t take, and a refund from the hotel they were due to stay.
“We waited until a week before we cancelled our trip to Marrakech… we knew it wasn’t going to happen,” Jenny said. “We are trying to go to Italy in May, in about four weeks’ time. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen.
“If we don’t get confirmation that the passport has been processed by the end of next week, then we’ll assume it won’t happen for us. Getting through to someone has got worse. I calculated that I’ve probably spent two days on hold.
“Each time I call, there is an average time of an hour and a half on hold. I don’t know how many calls I’ve made now.” Jenny isn’t alone in facing long delays for a new passport.
Another frustrated person said: “Applied to renew my passport eight weeks ago. After 31 calls today I was able to get through to the call centre who told me to email the upgrade team and ask for fast track but that it was a ‘lottery’ and ‘unlikely’.”
There have been warnings of a huge demand in passport applications following the easing of international travel rules after the Covid pandemic. According to new research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) delays could stand to cost Brits up to £1.1billion in cancelled trips this summer.
The rules are also more complicated because since Brexit, as Brits can no longer travel to the EU on a passport that’s about to expire. Under Schengen area rules, your passport must be less than 10 years old on the day you enter, and valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave.
The three-month rule does not apply to Ireland but does apply to some non-EU countries too – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino or Vatican City. The number of valid UK passports fell by more than 2.5 million during the first two calendar years of the coronavirus crisis.
A total of 48.9 million passports were in circulation at the end of last year – 2.6 million fewer than at the end of 2019. The figures were obtained by the PA news agency from the Passport Office through a freedom of information request.