Every time Reanne House’s wedding planner calls, her stomach does a flip. With just weeks to go before her £30,000 nuptials in Greece, the 27-year-old freelance artist had hoped she’d be feeling excited by now — especially after two years of planning and postponing the ceremony due to Covid. But this time it’s not the pandemic House is worried will mean she has to cancel her wedding, but HM Passport Office. Her fiancé Patrick Corbin, 29, applied for his new passport seven weeks ago — 13 weeks before the ceremony — and still hasn’t had the application approved.
Call handlers have told Corbin to be patient, but with stories about some Brits waiting as long as five months for a new passport — amid what ministers are calling an “unprecedented surge” in applications as travel restrictions ease — the couple cannot relax. They’ve tried upgrading Corbin’s application to a £142 one-week fast-track one but Passport Office staff say that’s not possible, because his standard application is already under way. The staff’s only suggestion? Wait until two weeks before they’re due to fly, then the application will upgrade to the fast-track service automatically. House isn’t confident: the fast-track website crashed multiple times last week due to high demand.
