Families desperate to go on holiday have been bemused and frustrated by passport applications which have taken wildly different amounts of time to be returned.
In revelations which underscore the chaos ongoing at the UK's Passport Office, one dad spoke of waiting a month more for his daughter's travel documents to be renewed than his son's.
A mum received the passport of one of her twin girls back after just a week and then waited ten more weeks for the others.
The differences in responses suggest problems at the Home Office department are continuing, despite commitments from the government to fix them and with school summer holidays just a week and a half away.
Earlier this week Rob Jones was incredibly stressed out about the prospect of missing a holiday to Tanzania, Zanzibar and Greece that cost him "tens of thousands of pounds", which he wouldn't of been able to get refunded.
While his son Huxley Wren, 8, had received his passport on June - his application having been sent in at the end of April - his sister Matilda, 13, was still waiting more than a month after that.
The Devon dad spoke to the Mirror desperate for answers and fearful that the dream post-lockdown getaway that was due to start next week would have to be scrapped.
Just two hours after the Mirror contacted the Home Office about their case, Rob received a call explaining that their application had been approved.
Although the family are now able to go on holiday, Rob is unhappy about the undue stress he was put under.
"Without doubt it's the worst run government department and, let's face it, they face stiff competition," he said of the Passport Office.
"Our MP has been pretty helpful but he is only able to repeat the pretty un-comforting lines that HMPO feed us.
"I've called about 20 times. You have to wait for an hour to be answered, then sometimes another hour to be told to call back in a few days."
Eleanor Jones also found herself waiting much longer for one of her daughter's passports than the others - despite the applications being sent off at the same time, and them being twins.
"I applied for four renewals on 22 March, including my twin girls," she explained.
"One twin had her passport approved three days after documents received. (It was) on our doorstep a week later, two other passports followed in a week or so.
"The other twin, we're at 11 weeks."
She added: "Its random bad luck in a flawed system or lack of system."
As with Rob, Eleanor finally received the welcome news that the passport had been approved at the start of this week.
"It seems we've finally made it out of the black hole," she said.
"No reason given for the one passport to be so delayed, no problems with it just cited the volume of applications they are dealing with.
"So we will be going on our holiday in August and I don't have to cancel our accommodation on Friday and lose the deposit. Yes it's been annoying, frustrating and perplexing but we're better off than many."
Following the coronavirus lockdown - which saw the vast majority of trips abroad cancelled due to travel rules - there has been a great surge in passport applications.
This has caused unprecedented levels on stress on the Passport Office, which has struggled to get travel document applications returned in time.
As a result, many people have missed holidays, trips to see family and even funerals.
HMPO says that over 91% of applications from the UK are being completed within 6 weeks and advises all customers not to book travel until they have a valid passport.
A spokesperson said: “Between March and May, we processed approximately three million applications, and 98.5% of applications were completed within 10 weeks.
"But we cannot compromise security checks and people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling.
“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.”
