A granddad who has been separated from his family for almost four years has spent the last six months battling to get a new passport.
Chris Nathanael applied for a new passport in January this year so he can visit his family for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic. The 62-year-old wants to travel to see his son Evro, 35, and his seven-year-old grandson George, who now live in Cyprus.
Chris, who lives in Seaton Delaval, North Tyneside, lost his old passport during a separation from his former partner. He said he applied for a new one at the start of the year via a paper application form.
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The dad-of-four, who was born in the UK and has had a passport from a young age, received a response from the Passport Office in March asking for additional information about his late parents, He said he provided the details which they requested and he was sent a text message confirming that they had received them in April.
However Chris claims he was not provided with a reference number, which has stopped him from checking the progress of his application. He said he has rang up the Passport Office around four times and asked them to provide him with a reference number. He said each time he was told somebody would give him a call back but nobody got back in touch.
Chris, who has also emailed the Passport Office asking for information about his application, said: "It's been four years since I saw my son and my grandson and it's really hard being separated from them. I want to go there while I can.
"We have been saying for the last four months 'maybe it will come this weekend'. It's frustrating as you can't plan. You can't do anything without a passport.
"I have been sitting by the phone waiting and no one has rang. The third time I got really frustrated and they put the phone down on me. I was frustrated with being told that somebody would call me back. I told them 'I'm not getting any calls back'.
"They've got to understand the frustration, they are the first port of call. They don't even say whether it's in the final process, you have just got no idea."
Chris and his current partner Susan, 58, got married 27 years ago. They divorced after seven years and Chris went on to change his surname during a relationship with another partner. On his previous passport, which had already expired, he was called Chris Good..
When they split, he changed his name back to Nathanael by deed poll and ended up getting back together with Susan. He said he has informed the Passport Office about his change in surname and has provided them with his new address.
Chris, who is a trained painter and decorator, said he does not understand why he was asked for his parent's details by the Passport Office. He said: "I don't know why they need that information. I have had my first passport since I was four or five years old and I was born in the UK. It seems to be stalling or time wasting, it's unnecessary."
The couple, who have got a child together, want to visit Chris' son and his family in Cyprus in September. They are also hoping to go on a 10 day trip to Majorca in August with Susan's family. However they fear they will have to miss out on spending time with their loved ones due to the issues with Chris' passport.
Susan, who hopes to marry Chris for a second time later this year, said: "It's soul destroying, it's breaking the family apart. It's breaking the bond and the closeness because we are missing out on so much. We want to go and spend time with them. Chris is devastated because he's so family orientated. He just wants to hug his son."
The mum-of-three has raised concerns about the customer service provided over the phone by staff at the Passport Office. She said: "It's absolutely disgusting. He said to one lady 'please promise me you'll phone back' and she hung up on him. He went back to the beginning of the queue. I felt so sorry for him, there's no sympathy whatsoever.
"I feel they don't care. You're just treated as a number. I think they are overworked and I think a lot of them are working from home and need to get back to the office."
After Chronicle Live got in touch with the Passport Office, Chris was told he would receive his passport this Friday. He said that when he asked the member of staff why his application has taken so long, they said: "It's Covid's fault, it's got a lot to answer for."
Chris has urged those applying for a passport via a paper application form to take photographs of the documents and anything else which they think may be of use. He said: "In my opinion they need to change the way they deal with paper applications because call backs are not the way to go. I think they could have done a lot more to make it easier. I will never let this happen ever again. It's really not been good at all."
A HM Passport Office spokesperson said: "Staff are processing approximately 250,000 passport applications each week, and between March and May 98.5% of applications were completed within the published processing time of ten weeks. For the small percentage of customers whose applications take longer than ten weeks, there is an expedited service at no additional cost to help ensure that they receive their passport ahead of their travel."
When asked about the comment made to Chris about covid-19, the Passport Office chose not to comment.
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