RESIDENTS in Dorset hit by the national passport delays say it could cause them to cancel their holidays.

One resident who submitted her application in February and still hasn’t received a passport, resorted to contacting the Canadian embassy to ensure her son could meet his family.

Lauren Henry from Throop submitted an application for her son's ‘first child passport’ in February and said it was received by the Home Office in the first week of March.

She said: “We submitted the application to give enough grace time ahead of a family holiday planned for May 2022.

“It was a very special holiday for us as my partner is Canadian and his extended family had never met our son, so there was an additional urgency to ensure the passport was secured ahead of our departure.

“The passport had reached processing as of April 1, 2022 and having read news headlines about the high volume of application numbers we were exceptionally concerned.

“I was regularly checking progress online however it seemed to have stalled. I then began what seems like an endless cycle of contacting the passport office in order to obtain further information.”

During this time, Lauren was made aware of a fast track service for an additional fee, which she decided to pursue in order to avoid the worst case scenario of cancelling the holiday.

However, she claims she was later told that it was invalid, as she should have been informed that it was only applicable within two weeks of the departure date.

In order to avoid cancelling their trip, she obtained a temporary passport from the Canadian embassy, which involved a trip to the embassy in London.

The family went on holiday and Lauren kept an eye on their UK passport application expecting that the passport would be approved and sent by the time they returned home.

She said: “We returned home as of last week and there were no further updates on the tracker. I once again contacted the passport office and I was told the application had been withdrawn and I was required to submit a new application.

"Although it would not have been possible for me to do so as the office still held my son's original long form birth certificate."

She also claims no-one from the office had contacted her to say that her application had been withdrawn.

Lauren says is still in communication with the customer services team trying to obtain her son's documents.

Southbourne resident Vicky Collins has had similar experiences with the Home Office and may have to cancel her holiday as a result.

Vicky applied for four children’s passports - two renewals, one a child to adult and two first passports, all within three weeks.

On March 28, she was told all the documents had been received.

On May 15, she received an email saying if she did not get back in touch her daughter's ‘first child passport’ would be cancelled.

The Home Office said Vicky needed to send in her marriage certificate however, they already had this already for Vicky’s other children.

Vicky said: “I spoke to the woman from the office who said she would link her to her brother and then we had another email saying we’ve received all your documents, even though I hadn’t sent anything else in.”

Similarly to Lauren, Vicky was told that nothing could be done until the 14 day period.

She said: “We need the passport in 34 days and we can't do anything until 14 days before the holiday.

“So they won’t talk to me until the 14 day period and even then the passport is not guaranteed.

“We’re going to Menorca and this is the first time my daughter will be going abroad.

“If she doesn’t get her passport we’ll have to cancel the holiday.”

The Home Office said the passport team have been made aware of these concerns and are working to resolve them.

A government spokesperson said: “Since April 2021, we’ve clearly stated that people should allow up to ten weeks when applying for their passport to factor in the increased demand, which has seen 5 million people delay their passport application due to the pandemic. 

“The latest figures show that over 90% of applications have been completed within 6 weeks. But we cannot compromise security checks and people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling.”