UK Passport renewal - email received 'send us your passport' 2 weeks after applying?

[Digitalbanana]

43 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

2 hours ago, kidneyw said:

I submitted my documents to VFS Global exactly nine weeks ago and still waiting for new passport to be approved. Multiple emails asking for more documentation from me; filling in a form to say my passport is lost; dealing with seven different teams at passport renewal in UK.

The list goes on and on.

What a shambles.

I agree it is a shambles !

Blamed partly on the move from Liverpool to Corby but it goes deeper than that, losing your passport has to be the ultimate f### up !!

 

What next ?

Presumably they are fast tracking a new passport for you ?

 Unless I am mistaken @kidneyw is not saying he lost his passport but the UK is asking for lost passport forms to be completed for some mistaken reason on the UK side? I assume he applied normally through VFS, showed his real pp, still holds it and sent off copies and everything else as verified by VFS.

[Andrew Dwyer]

7 minutes ago, Digitalbanana said:

 Unless I am mistaken @kidneyw is not saying he lost his passport but the UK is asking for lost passport forms to be completed for some mistaken reason on the UK side? I assume he applied normally through VFS, showed his real pp, still holds it and sent off copies and everything else as verified by VFS.

Yes, that makes more sense.

Needs more info from @kidneyw to understand what went wrong.

[kidneyw]

12 hours ago, Digitalbanana said:

 Unless I am mistaken @kidneyw is not saying he lost his passport but the UK is asking for lost passport forms to be completed for some mistaken reason on the UK side? I assume he applied normally through VFS, showed his real pp, still holds it and sent off copies and everything else as verified by VFS.

You got it sir.

[Digitalbanana]

35 minutes ago, kidneyw said:

You got it sir.

Please keep us updated kind sir how this turns out for you. Some of us are applying like you later in the year and next year.

[scubascuba3]

Sounds like the new passport office have got people being an al and not pragmatic at all, possible when new people take over, glad I'm not renewing mine until later in the year 

[BritTim]

On 3/31/2025 at 7:54 PM, DrJack54 said:

Could the OP mail the pp to avoid in person VSF .

Did you look into that option? 

 

Officially, that is not supposed to be allowed. However, several years ago, I know of two cases where a successful renewal from Thailand was achieved by applying direct to the Passport Office in the UK. Since your old passport needs to be provided in such an application, even if successful, it would put you in violation of Thai law which states that you need to have your passport available at all times. I would personally also be nervous about being without my passport for an indeterminant period of time, possibly many months if the UK officials decide to strike again.

[DrJack54]

45 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Officially, that is not supposed to be allowed.

Bit of misunderstanding. I meant post the pp from somewhere in Thailand to VFS in Bangkok.

Guess some folks use agent to deal with the application at VFS. 

Especially if located upcountry. 

[OJAS]

On 4/18/2025 at 7:36 PM, Digitalbanana said:

the UK is asking for lost passport forms to be completed for some mistaken reason on the UK side?

 

For which @kidneyw would need to obtain a police report of his fictitious passport loss, which he would then have to get translated into English in all probability! 

 

HMPO are clearly soaring to previously uncharted stratospheric heights of bungling incompetence and ineptitude even by their standards, when it comes to the passport renewal process from Thailand, I think.

 

[OJAS]

On 4/16/2025 at 11:38 AM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Note: i didn’t request the return of the passport and expected them to cancel and dispose of, am still deciding whether or not to bother going but probably will if only to use the opportunity to complain face to face about their service.

 

Not sure whether you would gain much from complaining to VFS. It is their HMPO masters who are responsible for the whole bloody passport renewal shambles, and a face-to-face complaint to them would, of course, necessitate a trip back to the UK!

 

[scubascuba3]

3 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

Not sure whether you would gain much from complaining to VFS. It is their HMPO masters who are responsible for the whole bloody passport renewal shambles, and a face-to-face complaint to them would, of course, necessitate a trip back to the UK!

 

Complain to the embassy, surely they'd show interest in this current problem for many Brits

[Andrew Dwyer]

11 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

Not sure whether you would gain much from complaining to VFS. It is their HMPO masters who are responsible for the whole bloody passport renewal shambles, and a face-to-face complaint to them would, of course, necessitate a trip back to the UK!

 

Well in my case both VFS and HMPO were guilty of errors.

VFS informed me that i was okay to renew one passport while retaining 2 valid passports with a covering note on the application form, the correct information should have been that i needed a covering letter from my employer stating why i needed 2 passports, which countries i would be visiting and for how long.

As a letter from my employer wasn’t an option i then had to send my “2nd” passport to HMPO for cancellation.

While HMPO were terrible at communicating and noted my email address incorrectly ( so i didn’t receive any emails from them, only SMS messages pointing me to emails that didn’t arrive ) VFS initiated the whole comedy of errors in my case.

 

VFS also didn’t contact me to collect my  cancelled/returned passport while in their possession, but that could have also been a HMPO lack of communication as this passport didn’t go through the VFS system initially.