Passport office LOST my supporting documents!!!!

[dupuytren]

Hi all
I got my British passport back on 17 Feb following my interview on 12 Feb.
However until today (17 March) I have still not received my supporting documents back (i.e. naturalisation certificate, home country passport).
Ive called the Passport office twice to relay my concerns and this has been 'escalated'. Someone called me a week ago (from Belfast office) to say they are still searching for it and till today I haven't heard anything back.
SO WTF SHALL I DO NOW?!!!! Surely I can't just wait indefinitely? How can I escalate this issue further?

[CR001]

The same thing happened to me. Mine were eventually found on the floor at the courier/special delivery office. Received my supporting documents about 5-6 weeks after my British Passport. I contacted Passport office every second day chasing them to resolve.

[dupuytren]

Argh- did u just ring the hotline every 2 days? I just rung them today and spoken to another person who just suggested the same thing which is they will send another email - every time I ring it's the same procedure. Today I called them and pestered them to lodge a complaint. They had the cheek to blame it on secure DX but I said no one was able to tell me whether the supporting documents have when left the passport office ! Please let me know what else u did... How do u find out

[Manka10]

If they are blaming DX then surely they must also have the tracking number, ask for that and see if what they are saying is true

[monican]

You can rend a query for delivery online and DX is quick enough to reply if they have/had anything for you (usually in 30 minutes of working day), please write your full name, full address and post code.

https://www.dxdelivery.com/contact/

[dupuytren]

Thanks for the replies.
They couldn't give a tracking number and I've also contacted Secure DX who confirm they haven't got my supporting documents.
Who do I complain to?

[dupuytren]

Got a call from the passport office saying that they are now looking for my documents in their Archives but from the tone of his voice it sounds quite likely my passport is now lost
CANT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!!!

[nawaz]

Have you heard from them yet?

I had my interview yesterday but I have still not received my original documents back. Looking at the timeline thread, it seems that usually the documents are returned around the same time as the invitation letter to book an interview. I received this letter on 19th of March but no documents yet. I also called DX secure today but they say they don't have any package for me. So just wondering if I am headed for the same situation as yours...

[dupuytren]

Hi
I haven't got a huge amount of helpful advice seeing that my case isn't resolved
but yes you are right if you haven't received your supporting docs after you receive your British passport that rings alarm bells...I would suggest you ring the hotline and escalate the issues despite the bollocks they will give you (escalation means someone will ring you back in 48hours to tell you what is going on).
And you can escalate a level higher which means someone must ring you back in 2 hours time.
I would act now rather than leave it.
If anyone has any useful advice as to what I should do, I'd appreciate too.
At the moment the person dealing with my case is supposedly ringing me tomorrow evening for an update - he said if documents remain unfound he will file it as officially lost but I want to tell him pls don't give up and look further. And I will also aim to write a complaint letter to tell them to write a detailed plan of how my supporting documents were handled from the point it was received from Belfast.

Simply saying that it is lost and offering compensation is simply not good enough. You can't put a price on the hassle and emotional pain of losing a passport from my home country which is so difficult to replace!!!

[dupuytren]

Received another phone call today from Passport office
My supporting documents are now OFFICIALLY MISSING.

[dupuytren]

feeling borderline suicidal and thinking of slashing my wrist with this news

[Manka10]

What sort of compensation are they offering?

[vinny]

You could order a replacement naturalisation certificate before the fee increase on 6th April.

They should change/reverse their strange policy of requiring submission of foreign passports.

[nawaz]

Thankfully I received both my passport and the documents back yesterday. Both of the items arrived together though in separate packages.

[dupuytren]

nice to hear u got your stuff back
i sometimes wonder whether my supporting documents were delivered with my passport thru secure DX but secure DX seems to deny this

[cs95tdg]

i sometimes wonder whether my supporting documents were delivered with my passport thru secure DX but secure DX seems to deny this

Sorry to hear about the loss of your documents. I can well appreciate how painful & stressful this is. I know how I'd feel, as I have several visas on mine, and know it would never be a simple thing to replace. Regarding what you mentioned about DXSecure, is there any reason you suspect they may have lost your documents, rather than them being lost at source? Other than state that the documents are officially missing have they stated what they now intend to do?

I do wonder why they require the foreign passports to be submitted, especially so when there is a Passport check & send service, which could easily take a copy, certify it as genuine & then send it on! Similar to what the NCS do for naturalisation.

[dupuytren]

Hi
No particular reason why I thought it could be SecureDX specifically.
But they have search all around Belfast office, no sign of my documents. I'm not sure whether they have a large archive of documents lying around seeing that most documents get returned.
Apparently secureDX has said they have no docs for me but i don't really trust their services in my personal opinion
I am annoyed there is no tracking of the movements of my supporting documents
The next step (acc to the person I spoke to) - is to claim for compensation. But I told him to re-search for another week or so including with secure DX.
I am getting fed up with ppl saying just claim for compensation...as i find it worrying that supporting documents can just get lost randomly for no reason...
for some of us it is really difficult and a hassle to get your home country passport back

[dupuytren]

Update

So the Passport Office has apparently searched their office extensively and declared my supporting documents missing (i.e. foreign passport and naturalisation cert). I've been passed over to the Customer Service Liaison person who said I can claim for compensation for the missing docs only, but in the meantime the Passport Office will handle the replacement of my Naturalisation Cert directly with UKBA which will save most of the hassle.

In any case, I told them to send me a written report so I can report my missing passport to the police in case of identity theft +/- misuse for crime. Much to my surprise, the letter arrived yesterday, saying that my supporting documents was returned via 2nd class Royal Mail delivery IN ERROR despite me paying £3 extra to have it sent back by secure delivery. And no one has told me this throughout the entire process. (Moral of the story: if they lose your passport, please remember to get a written report of what happened). It is quite shocking that they provide the option to send your supporting documents back securely yet fail to do this, and also demonstrate how unreliable Royal Mail is. Also, I am quite shocked that they use unreliable 2nd class Royal Mail to return our passport - surely it must be at least Signed for Delivery by Royal Mail? I bet if I do a survey of employees at the Passport Office on how you want your supporting docs returned, all of them would choose secure delivery!! WTF!!!!

I went to the police office today to lodge a report and showed the policeman on duty the letter from the Passport Office to show evidence that it is lost in the mail, but the policeman was uninterested and said I don't need to make a police report. But now I am unable to apply for a replacement foreign passport without this police report so now I"m stuck - WTF?!!! Surely I don't have to lie to the police and say it is stolen just to get a police report?!

[The.Watcher]

Can't you just take the letter from the PO as proof of loss?

It's either that or you retry the police station again explaining your situation to another officer but I suppose their reluctance to issue a crime reference is because no crime has been committed for them to investigate and have a case file for.

Do not try and formulate a story as that will bite you back quick.

My 2 cents.

[wmazhar]

stolen/lost passport can be found and use in crime?
report should be lodged, don't know why police ignoring it

[The.Watcher]

stolen/lost passport can be found and use in crime?
report should be lodged, don't know why police ignoring it

Take this example of what is required to happen. Suppose the officer at the front desk was avoiding paper work.

[dupuytren]

hi everyone
thanks for your comments.
Met Police has now a new policy on lost passports:

Passports, driving licences and ID cards
You do not need to report the loss to Police.
UK passports or driving licences: Report directly to the Passport Office or DVLA.
Foreign passports, ID cards and driving licences: Report directly to your embassy or high commission.
Other official documents (e.g. birth certificates, bank statements) or bank cards: Report direct to the issuing authority.

http://content.met.police.uk/cs/Satelli ... inary=true


I trawled through my home country's website and finally found the page which acknowledge the new policy published by the Police about lost documents as above.

Apparently, we can register a report using ReportMyLoss website instead of reporting to the police (seems to be acknowledged by the Police too - https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/s ... t-my-loss/) so I guess there is still a way for me to log this somewhere in case my old passport is misused. Shame it has to all end like this

[cs95tdg]

Yes, it is a shame, and worrying that they could have sent original documents back via 2nd class mail by mistake, after you paying for a secure delivery service. Hopefully it's the exception to the rule rather than the norm!

Thanks for sharing the information on how to report the loss of a passport. Good to know, even though I hope I'll never have a need for it.

I hope that you get both passport & naturalisation certificate re-issued without too much hassle or further delay.

[jaweb]

I feel your pain

I did ask them.to send back my documents secured but it was sent back Royal Mail 2nd class. I lodged a complaint but I was told as they did not take the money- despite I did ask it and it was written on the form-they just followed the procedure. I was really shocked as it takes at least 6-8 weeks to replace.my home country passport not to.mention the cost then the certificate as well

But I was lucky then as I got them back


Good luck!