I forgot to mention. One of the individuals I spoke to today told me I have 3 x valid passports??
I renewed both my passports previously in Newport, Wales in 2017. I handed them both over and they snipped the edges and allegedly cancelled them. This was done in 1 day. I went there at 9am in person and picked up 2 x new passports at 1pm.
Apparently one of the snipped passports is still active. She told me to report it stolen (bad advice). I said OK give me the passport number, she said she can't release that info over the phone. She told me this may be the problem but to be honest she never had a clue and was quite rude in the end.
Another guy told me to apply for an emergency passport!! Lol. Why would I have to do that?
In all my years I can honestly say this is the worst/most incompetent service I have ever received in my life, in any industry. They are overwhelmed, blaming Brexit and Covid.
Good luck to anybody applying from abroad now. As I previously said my kids passports were back in 6 weeks with no problems.
Luck of the draw I guess!!!??