Britons fear for holiday plans as passport office struggles to process applications

A cost-cutting initiative by the UK government has effectively doubled waiting times for renewal or replacement passport applications.

DUBAI // Holiday plans for many Britons in the UAE could be thrown into chaos by delays in processing passport applications in the UK.

A cost-cutting initiative by the British government last year has effectively doubled waiting times for applications to renew or replace passports.

The government has admitted renewing a passport could take “significantly longer”, after it closed a centre in Dusseldorf, Germany last year that handled applications from expatriates.

Scott Melrose, 37, from Troon in Scotland, applied for a replacement passport last week after his three-year-old son Calum, ripped a key page from his current one.

But Mr Melrose said he was unsure whether a replacement passport would be back in time for a family holiday to the US.

“I read on their website last week that it could take at least six weeks and I’m going on holiday in five weeks, so it’s a cause for concern,” he said.

The British embassy in the UAE stopped processing passport applications in 2010. Since the Dusseldorf office closed in March last year, the central office in Liverpool has processed all overseas and domestic applications.

The UK home office said there was an average of 350,000 applications a year from expatriate Britons, which until recently cost the British government £41.4 million (Dh255.4m) to process.

The cost savings in closing the Dusseldorf operations led to a £45 drop in the fee for expatriate passport applications to £90.

But the waiting time for the document has increased from three weeks to six weeks.

Mr Melrose said he applied for a passport renewal in Dusseldorf last year and only had to wait three weeks.

A British newspaper published pictures on Wednesday of a large stack of unprocessed applications at the centre in Liverpool, and accused the UK government of “ransoming” passports by forcing citizens to pay a premium fee so they could receive their documents on time.

The report said some people had been forced to wait 12 weeks.

There is no option to fast-track an overseas application, a service Mr Melrose would have chosen if he had the chance.

“You would have hoped that the passport administration had a plan in place to be able to deal with applications in the summer, in what must be one of the busiest periods of the year,” he said.

Paul Pugh, chief executive of the UK passport office, said: “We have been experiencing exceptional early summer demand for passports, in part due to the improving economy and a rise in holiday bookings.

“Staff were brought in immediately to respond to the extra demand and we are operating seven days a week.

“We have issued almost 3 million passports for UK customers in 2014, including over one million issued in the eight weeks since the start of April.

“During this busy period we have processed more than 97 per cent of straightforward passport renewal and child applications within the three-week target turnaround time.

“There is no backlog. Over 99 per cent of straightforward applications have been processed within four weeks.”

A home office spokesman said: “Overseas applications are now subject to further security checks to align with our processes for domestic applications.

“These checks can take significantly longer than those made in the UK. We will not issue a passport until all checks have been satisfactorily completed.

“Processing times have therefore increased for UK passport applications submitted overseas.

“We acknowledge the frustration our customers may be experiencing, and will continue to review our guidance on estimated processing times.”