I need to fly home from the US but can’t get my passport renewed

All the HM Passport Office would say is it had received the old one. So where is the new one? Photograph: IanDagnall Computing/Alamy

I am a British citizen living in the US. I applied for renewal of my British passport four months ago and HM Passport Office confirmed receipt of my old one. More than 16 weeks later, the status update merely says: “We have received your old passport.” My elderly parents live in the UK and are not in good health and I’m unable to make plans to visit them. I am getting desperate.
KR, Edina, Minnesota

PS of Peebles is also desperate. His British daughter also lives in the US and applied for British passports for her children the same week as you. The family was due to move back to the UK imminently, but more than four months on there were still no updates on their application. “My grandson’s US passport has expired and if he doesn’t get the UK one in time they won’t be able to fly,” he writes. “They will essentially be homeless as they have given up their house to move back.”