Essex mum hopes for 'miracle' as daughter's passport is stuck in backlogs with days until flight
She sent off the applications over two months ago
Amidst nationwide passport delays, an Essex mum of three says she's hoping for a 'miracle' as she waits for her daughter's passport to be approved, with just ten days to go until their holiday.
Kelsey, from Shoeburyness, has been planning a holiday with her husband and children for months: "Me and my husband managed to get a week off together at the same time, which is very rare...
"We found a really good deal in Turkey so we decided to do it. We had seven weeks, and I’d already looked online, where it said getting a child’s first passport should only take 5 weeks, so we had plenty of time, and then that’s when it all went downhill.”
She sent off passport applications for her 18 month old twins over two months ago in preparation for their 15th May flight to Turkey, but so far only one has been approved.
Kelsey, who works at Southend Hospital, is now waiting to hear whether the application will be fast tracked so the family can go on holiday all together:__ “I am praying for a miracle, I know the upgrades team are working hard and are contacting people up to 48 hours before their flights, so I’m hoping we’ll have that...
"I deserve to have a week with my kids and my husband and spend some quality time with them because it's been really hard during the pandemic, but I guess I just have to wait and see.”
Whilst she's holding out hope for the application to be fast tracked, she's not feeling optimistic, and says the system's not working fairly: “Some people are booking random flights and then contacting the passport office saying they need their passport fast-tracked, even though they’ve got no intention of flying in the short-term, they just want the passport ready for when they want to fly later in the year...
"They should stop people applying until they've got on top of the backlog. You’ve got some people who have been waiting since January who still have no passport and others who applied three weeks ago who already have their passports back, and it's not fair.”
She's one of many Brits affected by passport delays - according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), there's currently only a 50% probability of a “successful and timely” passport renewal process for British travellers.
The centre also anticipates thousands of holidaymakers will have to cancel flights and accommodation due to a backlog in processing passport applications this year, to the sum of £1.1 billion.
Kelsey's had to make alternative arrangements, in case the passport doesn't show up in time: "We had a lot of discussions over whether we’d go or not. We told my four-year-old about the holiday, which was possibly the wrong thing to do, because now I couldn’t deal with the tantrums if we can’t go.
"Kindly, one of my good friends from work has agreed to take a week off from work to have the twins if the passport doesn't get approved in time so me, my husband and my eldest can go. I can’t take one twin and not the other.”
The Passport Office is currently suggesting people give ten weeks to renew their passport.