Renewal. Child.
Passport application delays
- Thread starter Susie2017
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They’re treated as a “complex” application by the Passport Office. Don’t know why, but perhaps to do with the fact that the application involves a child and they have to be sure the tees are crossed etc so it’s understandable I guess. That said, if it’s a renewal, you would have thought that it shouldn’t be too complicated given that the child had previously been issued with a passport. I dunno.
I'm presuming they're treated as complex because of the additional paperwork for the guardian/parent approval form.
No you don’t need to go to a Garda station for a child renewal. But you do need the parents signatures to be witnessed by someone you know from a list of professions. A friend who is a teacher witnessed my signature. Our GP witnessed my husbands signature while he was there for an appointment anyway. The passport arrived as expected about 3 weeks after we posted in the consent form.
Yes, and to be absolutely certain that a separated parent isn't trying to obtain a passport so as to disappear that child from the country.
Another thing I've heard a lot of people get wrong on first time child applications is ensuring that the witness provide a work telephone number that they can be contactable on. Mobiles and home phone numbers are not accepted, the instructions are clear on that, but many people don't read tham.
NoRegretsCoyote
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Or its just "complex" because it has to be done manually by a person rather than automatically by their software system?
That might also explain why any glitch thrown by the automatic renewal software is thrown to the back of the queue and then not dealt with in a timely fashion
Looks like you anticipated the likely massive backlog as a result of the government's ridiculous policy last year of stalling passport renewal to prevent people leaving the country, the chickens are now coming home to roost for the shambolic passport office and the DFA
NoRegretsCoyote
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That's nonsense.
Two things happened - (1) Covid precautions for civil servants reduced on-site capacity for renewals particularly for first-time applications where a lot of manual scrutiny is needed; (2) a lot of people didn't travel for two years and let their passport expire, so on the demand side there is a huge increase.
Just out of interest, but do you witness many child applications? The online guide says that mobile numbers are not acceptable, and I know a family member who had an application delayed a while back because the witness ended up being out of the office on leave when the call came, they had to resubmit with an alternative witness.My work telephone number is a mobile numberWould be the same for lots of witnesses.
Yep, pre-pandemic volume ran up to about 400k per annum, so far this year they've issued more than 500k.
Yep, and at a time when many industries are struggling to hire staff.
NoRegretsCoyote
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Thanks, I hadn't noticed that. The form itself just says "work number" and I got the colleague who witnessed to put down his work landline that diverts to his mobile.
Otherwise it seems increasingly out of date as a criterion. I know a lot of people now who never get random inbound work calls.
I'd imagine it's designed to make it a little more difficult to have a friend pretend to be an appropriate witness. most roles are professionals they would expect to be working somewhere with landline access. We wnet with Garda witness to minimise the chances of issues.
NoRegretsCoyote
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T McGibney
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Delays are delays, even if they are caused by the customer. For the Passport Office to say that a backlog doesn’t exist is disingenuous.
A waiting list of 200k who are experiencing delays is significant. A good process factors in the percentage of applicants projected to make errors in their application and will seek to assist the customer to minimise the errors as part of the process.
Instead, it seems that the passport office are speedily processing applications with no errors, but once an application is received with an error identified, it’s thrown into the bottom of the pile.
It would be more genuine for the Passport Office to admit there is a backlog, but that it is as a result of customer errors. Rather than just state baldly that there is no backlog. Once your application contains an error, you’re at the mercy of a very poor and inefficient process.
A waiting list of 200k who are experiencing delays is significant. A good process factors in the percentage of applicants projected to make errors in their application and will seek to assist the customer to minimise the errors as part of the process.
Instead, it seems that the passport office are speedily processing applications with no errors, but once an application is received with an error identified, it’s thrown into the bottom of the pile.
It would be more genuine for the Passport Office to admit there is a backlog, but that it is as a result of customer errors. Rather than just state baldly that there is no backlog. Once your application contains an error, you’re at the mercy of a very poor and inefficient process.
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