I applied for my daughter’s first British passport from India. Their website said it will take 16 weeks. It has been 19 weeks and still the application is in progress, and when I call HMPO their customer service operators say they don’t know any details and they can’t advise on how much time the application will take. In any other professional organization if someone says they can’t scale their work, they will be fired, but HMPO has the liberty to take as much time as they want, and their simple excuse is they can’t disclose what checks are being carried out due to security reasons. Due their slack and unprofessional work ethic families are separated for months, and they don’t care about it. I don’t understand why they have customer service representatives if these guys don’t know anything. HMPO is a complete waste and insult of honest taxpayer’s money. The Home Secretary should take the responsibility and resign if she can’t manage it. We provided all the documents they required as per their checklist and after 4 months they came back and asked for ultrasound reports to prove that my wife was really pregnant! We had already provided them family pictures proving that the child applicant is my child and also all hospital and doctor’s record with birth certificate was provided to them but still they need ultrasound reports. We provided them ultrasound reports also and then also they can’t tell me how much more time it will take for the application. I have offered them to provide a DNA test report to prove that the applicant is my daughter, they never replied to this request; I think it is above their technical understanding. This is a sorry state of a British father, who has been separated from his newly born daughter and family because HMPO can’t issue a passport, quickly enough, to a British citizen, who’s only fault was that she was born outside of the UK!HMPO should be privatised then only these good for nothing public servants realise what it is like working in a professional way.
