Unacceptable and scandalous delays for renewing a British Passport from overseas.

[Tigerfish99]

The new (and supposingly cheaper) system they were bragging about is broken.

An article published in the Gardian newspaper yesterday shows the extent of the crisis in that even domestic applications are taking over seven weeks to process.

" UK Passport Office fraud staff diverted to deal with applications backlog

Leaked email shows a quarter of staff employed to detect fraudulent applications asked to process delayed documents"

This is a dramatic situation for British citizens residing in Thailand. The UK Visa Application Centre in Bangkok is not answering applications (application for appointment was sent over a week ago) adding to the delay.

I called the complaints office in UK (30mn on the phone) and the only answer they had was: You have to wait for Bangkok HMPO to email back to you or send another email (in vain) They were not even able to register my complaint by phone, the computer was "not working".

THE IS NO WAY TO CONTACT BANGKOK HMPO, only email, I got an acknowledgement receipt but that is all.

My stepson who is British is now an illegal here as his passport was damaged by a flood and was rejected by Immigration during his long term Visa renewal.. This is a serious crisis!

We have absolutely no idea when he can get a new passport.

The British consulate in Bangkok can do nothing and do not even want to speak about the problem!

HELP!!

[Bernard Flint]

I waited 10 weeks for mine, but i had the hindsight to apply early

[ubonjoe]

This is already being discussed in this topic Changes To British Passport Services In Thailand

No need for another topic.

The one