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Renewing a British passport when resident in Belgiium
Has anyone else recently tried to renew their British passport via the RPPC in Paris? I have and they sat on it for 7 weeks until the office closed on 3 June then sent back saying they were unable to process it! I now have to go through the whole process again via HMPO in Durham. What a waste of time, energy & money!
Make a complaint to HM Passport Office., if what you've written is factually correct, the shutting of services in Paris was planned a long time ago and part of the great Home Office money-saving project of Cameron's. You should have been informed the passport wouldn't be ready before closure - it did already go to the UK, just via Paris, now they've cut Paris out of the loop. Believe me, it's just as frustrating having to work for them, as well as using their services.
A real pain indeed. You might want to consider a quick trip to London and do everything in the same day - see here https://www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently
Of course it is yet more money but it might save on the frustration. Good luck
Somewhat surprised by your experience. I recently renewed both my and two of my childrens passports through the Paris office. It was a breeze. I wasn't looking forward to it, as this was the first time I had to use Paris, since the Brussels consulate closed. However, in my case it all worked perfectly. All sent by mail, and returned by courier service in the deadlines stated.
No idea how well the system will work now that Paris has closed down as well and the whole service relocated to Durham (or is that just a PO box for an outsourcing company in Bangalore?)
As winterlover above notes, you can complain to the foreign office, but I'm not sure that it will do anything. I can understand your frustration.
I'll just add that my family and I have been here in BXL for nearly 25 years, and one of the few experiences worse than "Belgian customer service" was having to deal with the unhelpful, chaotic, rude, obstructive and jobsworth staff at the British Consulate. Personally, I'm glad they closed it down. I used to dread the trips every couple of years to renew the various childrens passports.
HM Passport Office is obliged to respond to complaints, it might at least give you an explanation as to what may have gone wrong in the passport issue. The quickest I know of a passport being issued in the last year via Paris was 10 days, the slowest was 8 weeks, both were newborn baby issues and almost identical circumstances!
Well, we are waiting for no1 son's passport - I sent it to Paris three and a half weeks ago and have heard nothing. I called the no. on the Paris Embassy website yesterday just to check it had got there, and that no. is only for the ones who have been sent to Durham - they have no record of his passport on their system. Ho, hum. Maybe they've lost it completely - I don't know and neither do they. A supervisor was supposed to call me back but hasn't. Don't know who to call now frankly - and not sure how long to leave it until I decide they really have lost it (the la poste tracking tells me it definitely got to the French border :)) )
Yes, complaining is all very well, but I did that 5 years ago when they mucked up the change from Brussels to Paris and little good it did. I would be happy just to get the passport back, with a decent payment system in place, and a reasonable tracking system.
At the moment, I just want to know where the passport/application is....
Using the complaints system might help you find your passport application. There is nothing to lose from picking up the phone.
Well, I tried it. The no. does not advertise itself as complaints, just puts you through to the 'help line' the young man listened, said never mind (I precis, obviously) and said he's do what he could and the line went dead... maybe he'll call me back.
But I still don't know where the passport is...
oh dear, bloody Home Office! A complaint about a complaint process even.
