How do you get the passport back?

[Tobbe]

I have a friend of a friend with a problem that I thought maybe the nice people here could help out with

She is a Bolivian national married to a British. She has a 12 year old son from a previous marriage; the father is no longer alive. The son has been living for a few years at a friend’s house in Bolivia but the plan has always been for him to move to the UK.

A few months ago they made the classic mistake of flying the son over without sorting out the visa before hand, thinking that they could sort it out here. As a result the son is now going to interviews every 2 weeks to extend the time he can stay until they have sorted out a trip to the British embassy in La Paz. The immigration officer at Heathrow holds his passport in the meantime.

They have twice tried to fly to Bolivia but it has been canceled since the immigration officers can’t find the sons passport at Heathrow, apparently running around like headless chickens just to in the end tell them to come back at a later date.

Now they have a third set of flight tickets and are going to try to fly out again next week (starting to get really really expensive…), what are they supposed to do to make sure that the passport is at Heathrow? They are telling me that last time they sent a fax to the immigration office at Heathrow with a copy of the flight tickets and asking for the passport to be there but that didn’t help.

Any help or pointers in the correct direction would be appreciated.

[Mr Rusty]

It is inexcusable that the passenger has been inconvenienced and incurred extra expense because of such incompetence.

It is also unnecessary, because a Bolivian national can be returned to his own country without a passport, simply on a document issued by UKBA (they call it an 'EU Letter'). There is also a procedure under the Chicago Convention for sending back to the port of embarcation people who arrive with no documents, or with forged documents, but that shouldn't apply in this case.

Have the sponsors spoken to the Bolivian embassy about this? How long would it take to get them to issue a passport? I suspect it might be done quite quickly. Also the Consul could complain to the Immigration Office concerned.

I would write (recorded delivery) to the Immigration Office stating that the passenger intends to leave on the specified flight, and (if the Embassy can't help) they must provide a travel document to enable this. I would also itemise the extra costs involved in the delay, and of obtaining a replacement passport, and say that you intend to recover these costs from them in due course, by legal action if necessary. If they do not respond satisfactorily you can make a formal complaint later on.

[Tobbe]

Thank you for the answer,

The embassy will not issue a new passport unless she shows them a police report showing it as lost or stolen. If she reports the passport as lost to the police and then gets a new one from the Embassy (it took my wife 2 months last time so unlikely that she can get one in time but with a bit of luck..) would her son have any problems returning to Heathrow with a UK visa in the new passport? Surely the immigration officer will see that they (apparently) hold his passport and might not be too impressed with a police report telling that they lost it?

I will ask them to speak to the embassy and see if a passport can be sorted out in the space of a few days. The Swedish embassy can do pink passports for emergencies so maybe the Bolivian one makes something similar. If that doesn’t help then I will ask them to send a recorded letter to the immigration office at Heathrow showing the flight tickets etc and asking for either the passport back or an ‘EU Letter’.

They would rather cut their losses and get everything sorted then to start threaten them with legal actions and such (they are afraid of upsetting them as it might cause more problems) but I guess you need to push it a little bit to get stuff done…

[Mr Rusty]

I don't think it would be a good idea to report the passport to the police as lost. It isn't really lost, it's retained by the Immigration Office who refused him entry. If you had to go back to the Bolivian Embassy I would show them the IS82 and IS96, which is better evidence than a police report, and ask them to sort it out. It's part of their job to help their citizens who are in trouble here and need to get home.

[Tobbe]

All sorted, they got the passport back and a written apology. A letter was enough and they should be landing in la paz in a few hours

Thank you for the advice Mr.Rusty!