Passport Office 'blunder' could ruin family's £5k Tenerife trip

Pamela Cunningham, her husband Ross and their two children are set to fly to Tenerife on June 7 but fear the trip could be grounded after their documents failed to arrive – despite applying for them well with the government’s required timeframe.

Pamela submitted the necessary paperwork to HM Passport Office within the 10-week period outlined on their website, but has so far only received a passport for six-year-old daughter Sofia-Rose.

She is still waiting on the arrival of her own and one for son Ross, four. She claims that staff have told her an error during the scanning process resulted in their applications not being linked.

Not only are they still missing their passports, but the birth and marriage certificates sent to secure them have also not been returned.

Pamela, 29, exclusively told the Glasgow Times: “This has a been a complete nightmare.

“I sent all the documents off at the start of March after following the specific advice on HM Passport Office website. Their guidance asks you to send family applications in one envelope with all references included, and that’s what I did.

“My daughter’s passport arrived fine, but there’s still no sign of the rest and I’ve spent weeks trying to get answers. Now we are less than a fortnight from when we are due to fly and we still don't have them. I’m at my wits end with it all and obviously worried that we are going to lose all the money we’ve already paid for the trip.

Pamela claims: “During one call with the Passport Office’s customer service team, I was told an error had resulted in our family passports not being linked. I was told there’s no way to speed things up and that our documents including birth and our marriage certificates would be returned to us. There’s still no sign of them and we have basically been left in a position where we could miss out on a £5,000 trip that we saved hard for because of someone else’s blunder.”

Pamela and her two children (Image: Photo: Mark Gibson)

Pamela says the thought of telling her children that they might not be able to go on their first holiday abroad fills her with dread, while their insurance policy only covers financial loss caused by critical illness in the run up to jetting off.

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The South Lanarkshire mum added: “I’ve just gone back to work after taking a break to have the kids. We’ve never had a chance to go abroad together, and we have spent a lot of time putting money aside to make this possible.

“The kids have been so excited and are counting down the days until the airport. I just don’t have the heart to tell them we won’t be going anywhere if the passports don’t arrive.

“We’ve had a difficult few years and this break was going to be a reset for us all, a chance to make some lovely family memories. The children are looking forward to going on a plane for the first time and I feel gutted that might be taken away from them through absolutely no fault of our own.

“I just can’t believe what has happened. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

Pamela says the situation has been incredibly stressful and has spent much of the last few weeks vainly chasing a resolution.

She added: “Nobody wants to take responsibility for what has happened, but more importantly nobody wants to take responsibility for sorting it out.”

After the Glasgow Times reached out to HM Passport Office, Pamela received a call to say that their applications are now with an examiner.

She added: “I’ve been assured they are working on it, and they are aware when we are due to go on holiday, but until those passports arrive, we are going nowhere. It is ridiculous it has taken the Glasgow Times’ intervention to get any progress, and it doesn’t change the weeks of stress and sleepless nights this has caused. Our only hope now is that they find a way to fix this.

“I only wanted to change my details on my passport to use my married name. On paper it should be a simple process, I never expected this level of chaos.”

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An HM Passport Office spokesperson said: “We are aware of Ms Cunningham’s travel date and are in touch with her directly regarding the next steps for her applications.”

Between January and April 2023, 99.5% of passport applications were processed within the ten-week timeframe