Advice needed: Lost passport & imminent departure

[IlonaM]

Has anyone had experience of replacing a lost/stolen passport with an imminent departure date (Thursday)?

The .Gov website says they don't do same day appointment & issue for lost/stolen passports and only offer an expedited service which takes a week. Is this a hard and fast policy, or do they bend for the right mitigating circumstances?

My mother has managed to lose her passport, hopefully at her home with the optimistic chance of finding it before she phones up the Passport advice line. She is due to travel to Italy on Thursday morning.

Is there any chance of getting a replacement (if passport not found) before she is due to fly?

[JoeLeg]

As I understand it they can be pretty firm with the rules, but if you're able to get through to the Durham passport office they may be able to work some magic.

A few years ago we had to get passports for our young kids, and although we thought we'd left plenty of time the one for the youngest somehow got lost in the system and delayed.

We were advised, as I recall, to get ourselves on some kind of emergency list, which meant a couple of days before travel they would pull out application out, phone us up to check it, and issue the passport by overnight courier, which all duly happened.

The point of this is that Durham can, if it wants to, do it overnight. They just have to be persuaded to. I would advise getting on the phone first thing in the morning and begging.

Good luck!

[Robert Poste's Child]

You should be able to get a new passport in one day using the premium service. It means visiting the passport office next to Victoria Station and you have to book an appointment in advance. I did it a few years ago after losing my passport while working abroad so couldn't wait.

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

[ruffers]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You should be able to get a new passport in one

> day using the premium service. It means visiting

> the passport office next to Victoria Station and

> you have to book an appointment in advance. I did

> it a few years ago after losing my passport while

> working abroad so couldn't wait.

>

I've done this before also, great service.

> https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

Make sure you go direct to gov.uk and don't get sucked into one of those fakey sites that charge hundreds..

[IlonaM]

Thanks for your advice. Durham office sounds a possibility. Will look them up.

The Premium Service was what she used to renew her passport last year (on her birthday!). However, I'm still concerned that the website states that the Premium Service is not available for lost/stolen passports:

https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently/cost:

"Passport type 1-day Premium service 1-week Fast Track service

...

Replace a lost,

stolen or damaged

adult passport Not available ?103"

[Robert Poste's Child]

Can only repeat that it worked for me when mine was lost. You could call the helpline when it opens to clarify:

Passport Adviceline

Telephone: 0300 222 0000

From outside the UK: +44 (0)300 222 0000

Textphone: 18001 0300 222 0222

Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm

Weekends and bank holidays, 9am to 5:30pm

Good advice from Ruffers re going straight to the Govt site and avoid third parties.

[IlonaM]

I've already been to the .Gov site (see first post)! Also have all necessary contact details, but thanks for providing them again.

[hiit]

We had a similar situation back in April. Realised a week before we were due to travel that our son's passport had expired, and you're now no longer able to do the Premium / 24 hour service with kids' renewals. We got an appointment on Wednesday morning in Victoria (for the 1 week renewal) and the passport was with DX on Old Kent Road on Saturday morning (although the people you speak to on the phone on the passport advice line won't necessarily give you this information.)

So my main bit of advice would be to book that appt at Victoria asap (you can do it online if they're not open today). And make sure you turn up with all the right stuff (we didn't - that was an interesting few hours...) And if you want more info about going direct to collect it direct from DX (it meant we got on the plane), let me know! Good luck - and I really feel for you. It's a crummy situation...but all may not be lost if you can get an appt at Victoria asap...

Edited to say that you used to be able to get kids' passports on the Premium service, but now you can't because they tightened up the rules last year. The same may have happened to Lost and Stolen ones. I think if the website says that's the case, they probably won't bend. But double-check by ringing the advice line direct.....I became a weirdo passport nerd after our saga at Easter..

[IlonaM]

hiit Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> We had a similar situation back in April.

> Realised a week before we were due to travel that

> our son's passport had expired, and you're now no

> longer able to do the Premium / 24 hour service

> with kids' renewals. We got an appointment on

> Wednesday morning in Victoria (for the 1 week

> renewal) and the passport was with DX on Old Kent

> Road on Saturday morning (although the people you

> speak to on the phone on the passport advice line

> won't necessarily give you this information.)

>

> So my main bit of advice would be to book that

> appt at Victoria asap (you can do it online if

> they're not open today). And make sure you turn

> up with all the right stuff (we didn't - that was

> an interesting few hours...) And if you want more

> info about going direct to collect it direct from

> DX (it meant we got on the plane), let me know!

> Good luck - and I really feel for you. It's a

> crummy situation...but all may not be lost if you

> can get an appt at Victoria asap...

>

Thanks hiit, that's really interesting about the possibility of collecting it from DX Old Kent Road. Please could you give me more info about that and I'll pass it on.

[hiit]

Glad to help Ilona! When you apply at Victoria you get a tracking number so you can ring the passport info line and in theory they're meant to be able to tell you whether the passport's been approved, printed, sent to the courier etc. But when I rung (various times - panic rising) I kept being told slightly different things. One person in one call centre would tell me son's passport was with the courier. All good. Someone else would tell me that it had been printed but not definitely with the courier etc etc etc. Anyway, one of the nice people on the advice line let slip that DX delivered them to London addresses but then said you had to wait for a 'failed delivery' before you could contact DX direct. By that stage (night before our flight, hitting the gin) I wasn't really up for sitting around and waiting for DX to deliver, so rang them direct. They were really really helpful. They gave me the number of the depot on Old Kent Road. Spoke to someone there, explained sorry situation and she was very accommodating. We turned up with ID very early on the Saturday morning and managed to get passport. So from an appointment in Victoria on Wednesday at Midday, we collected the passport 7am Saturday. I don't know whether it was a particularly quiet week that week but there are lots of stories of people getting the passport within 3/4 days on the 7 day service. Don't want to raise your hopes, but that was our experience two months ago...Let me know if you need any more help...

[IlonaM]

That sounds hopeful at least!!! My mother has an appointment on Tuesday as she has to get a neighbour to sign photos etc in Sussex before coming up to me. Flight is very early on Thursday morning, so it might not be possible for her to fly, but hopefully can rearrange flight so not too much is missed. Thank you so much for your advice.

[hiit]

Make sure neighbour only signs one of the photos! xx

[IlonaM]

Yes, I've drummed that home!!!

[Applespider]

If there is a chance of it being in the house, might be worth getting a few friends over to have a passport hunting 'party' with fresh eyes? With particular attention to old handbags and their zipped compartments, taking out the drawers where she might have kept it in case it has fallen down back and any financial paperwork where it might have been used for ID?

[IlonaM]

Applespider Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If there is a chance of it being in the house,

> might be worth getting a few friends over to have

> a passport hunting 'party' with fresh eyes? With

> particular attention to old handbags and their

> zipped compartments, taking out the drawers where

> she might have kept it in case it has fallen down

> back and any financial paperwork where it might

> have been used for ID?

I tried to persuade her to take this morning to have a systematic search, but she has given up and made an appointment. I think she is too tired and stressed by it all. If it turns up she'll ring the Passport Office, but it unlikely they'll un-cancel a cancelled passport!!

[ianr]

I find being anxious to find something in a hurry is usually not a good state in which to search efficiently. But if there's a high probability that it it 'must' be in the house, more searching, maybe following Applesdpider's suggestion still seems to me the possibly least costly strategy. Does she have any idea of when and why she last accessed it? Don't push her for an instant response if she's already stressed. But if she can put the question at the back of her mind, perhaps something may pop up spontaneously from the depths in the next day or two.

[IlonaM]

She had a good look yesterday Ianr, when she first discovered that it wasn't where she thought it was. Problem is she's had work done over the past few months, so had moved things around.

Despite my attempts at persuasion she called the Passport Office this morning. Even it it showed up I doubt that the PO would un-cancel the passport now. Now she has an appointment and the pressure is off I expect she'll keep looking, but she also has to pack. She'll be coming up to London tomorrow evening.

Oh well, you live and learn. Some years ago she realised she had left her passport in Sussex the evening before a trip to Paris - frantic taxi ride there and back to NW2!!

[Penguin68]

If the passport is lost or stolen it's much trickier to replace it (for obvious reasons) than if it's simply out-of-date - make sure that you read the rubric very carefully and get everything signed that you need signed, and all the ID you need together - a friend of mine had a nightmare over this because she didn't get every bit signed that should have been, and the office insisted that the same person sign everything. She had to start from scratch again as the original signer wasn't then available.

[IlonaM]

Thanks Penguin68. I've read the guidance down the phone to her and she'll pick up the application form and guidance from the Post Office tomorrow. She'll get the same person to sign as when she renewed last year. She's feeling rather mortified.

UPDATE: So, the view of the Passport Office customer services line is that the policy is that the same-day appointment & passport collection service is not available to lost/stolen passport replacement applicants. They will only bend the rules in the case of an emergency, namely death or serious illness. The only expedited service to replace a lost/stolen passport is the 7-day one.