Home Office sent the wrong Passport back!

[giruzz]

Hi All,

My girlfriend requested her passport back.

This was returned to her workplace (after 2weeks), unfortunately her package was refused and therefore put on Hold by Secure Mail Services.

Now, I had to 20punds to have it delivered this morning because we have a flight tonight.

We get the passport..and..surprise..it is the wrong passport.

What do we do?

Can we ask to the home office a refund for the 200 punds we just blew?
(tickets + hotel + courier fee)

giruzz

[eliasuk4u]

Home office does tell the applicant not to make any travel arrangements until you get your passport back so Home office will not be responsible for your loss of money. Regarding the wrong passport, I think you need to send it back to home office with a covering letter and ask for your passport. I would send a photocopy of your passport which you have submitted to Home office.

[republique]

Either contact the HO to see if you can now get your passport personally in time for yuor flight or forget about it and get confirmation that they will continue your application since you didn't get the passport. Usually when you ask for your passport back, you have withdrawn your application.

[giruzz]

Either contact the HO to see if you can now get your passport personally in time for yuor flight or forget about it and get confirmation that they will continue your application since you didn't get the passport. Usually when you ask for your passport back, you have withdrawn your application.

Missed the flight. No passport back (maybe next week). We can request passport without withdrawing application because I am EU cit not Brit.

g

[thsths]

Home office does tell the applicant not to make any travel arrangements until you get your passport back so Home office will not be responsible for your loss of money. Regarding the wrong passport, I think you need to send it back to home office with a covering letter and ask for your passport. I would send a photocopy of your passport which you have submitted to Home office.

Personally, I would give the passport to the police, and ask them to return it to the owner. The Home Office is obviously unable to mail to handle it reliably, so I would consider it bad judgement to sent it back there.

Oh, and go to the small claims court. The Home Office may recommend not to make travel arrangements, but they still need to return your passport upon request within a reasonable amount of time. Plus you have the perfect documentation that they are unable to perform even simple tasks.

[republique]

Home office does tell the applicant not to make any travel arrangements until you get your passport back so Home office will not be responsible for your loss of money. Regarding the wrong passport, I think you need to send it back to home office with a covering letter and ask for your passport. I would send a photocopy of your passport which you have submitted to Home office.

Personally, I would give the passport to the police, and ask them to return it to the owner. The Home Office is obviously unable to mail to handle it reliably, so I would consider it bad judgement to sent it back there.

Oh, and go to the small claims court. The Home Office may recommend not to make travel arrangements, but they still need to return your passport upon request within a reasonable amount of time. Plus you have the perfect documentation that they are unable to perform even simple tasks.

No dont send it to the police, how would you feel like it if that was your passport and it got caught up in more bureacracy.
And there is no point taking the HO to small claims, they clearly tell you to not make travel plans, etc etc so they are covered on this one.

[eliasuk4u]

I would give the passport to the police, and ask them to return it to the owner.

Its nothing to do with the police. Its not a lost property and its not there job to return it to the owner either. Its simply an error made by HO which rarely happens.

The Home Office is obviously unable to mail to handle it reliably, so I would consider it bad judgement to sent it back there.

I am not a big fan of home office but we need to understand that home office handles millions of applications and errors like this does happens and I am sure they are capable of handling it.

go to the small claims court. The Home Office may recommend not to make travel arrangements, but they still need to return your passport upon request within a reasonable amount of time.

No point in going to courts as Home office clearly says to all the applicants not to make any travel arrangements untill they have their passorts returned. It means untill you physically have passport in your hand. so as others said they are covered.

[thsths]

No point in going to courts as Home office clearly says to all the applicants not to make any travel arrangements untill they have their passorts returned.

Yes, but there is also the right of free movement. Can the Home Office override that just by saying "don't travel"? I would think not.

If in doubt, the OP could also approach SOLVIT and informally ask for compensation. I am not sure how likely that is, but it does not cost anything, so it should be worth trying.

[eliasuk4u]

but there is also the right of free movement. Can the Home Office override that just by saying "don't travel"? I would think not.

Home office never said not to travel and did not say that will not give the passport back either (infact HO did return in it but unfortunately wrong one). All it says is because you applied with your own will, so please wait untill you physically have your passport back before you make travel arrangements.

If in doubt, the OP could also approach SOLVIT and informally ask for compensation. I am not sure how likely that is, but it does not cost anything, so it should be worth trying.

Not sure about this though.

[giruzz]

The home office told us that they require 10 working days to deliver a passport.

They had well more than 10 working days.

Plus, they attempted the first delivery with a wrong name on the letter and the packaged was refused...so I had to pay 20 pounds for an urgent delivery 8-10am which I later found had the wrong passport in it.

From what I can see:

1) packaged delivered after 10 working days and we were told that that one was the max time requested for this type of requests

2) no name on the envelope/wrong name on the letter....another Home Office error...for sure you can't place the blame on me for this one...

3) I don't understand why I should pay for returning a passport they send by mistake. They do mistakes and I have to pay for it?

4) I ask how to return the passport. No clear procedure. Don't want to put my name on it...because I don't want my name on that person application but if I don't put my name and a letter....they are not sure how to handle it.

g.

[thsths]

4) I ask how to return the passport. No clear procedure. Don't want to put my name on it...because I don't want my name on that person application but if I don't put my name and a letter....they are not sure how to handle it.

That is interesting. Did they actually ask for it to be sent back, or were they just waffling? I think you can include a cover letter, that should have no consequences for you or the other person.

If you do not mind holding on to the passport for a while, you have two options. You can send a letter to the home office, and ask them to collect it. They could do that via royal mail or a courier, so it should be pretty simple in principle. However, you may have to go through the complaints department to get things moving (or even the ombudsman). And the second option is to find the rightful owner. Sometimes the address is stated inside, or you could contact the embassy. Officially, passports remain the legal property of the issuing country, so they should feel responsible for it. Even so, they may not know the address of the holder.

I assume you have found http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... complaint/ ? You can make a complaint and ask for compensation, but I agree with the others that your chances on this route are rather slim.

[yankeegirl]

And the second option is to find the rightful owner. Sometimes the address is stated inside, or you could contact the embassy. Officially, passports remain the legal property of the issuing country, so they should feel responsible for it.

If it were me, I think this is what I would do. I would think that the owner of that passport would also have grounds to complain, and rightfully so! Thank goodness in this case if was delivered to an honest person who is trying to do the right thing, but in this age of identity fraud and all that crap, one can't be too careful.

[republique]

4) I ask how to return the passport. No clear procedure. Don't want to put my name on it...because I don't want my name on that person application but if I don't put my name and a letter....they are not sure how to handle it.

That is interesting. Did they actually ask for it to be sent back, or were they just waffling? I think you can include a cover letter, that should have no consequences for you or the other person.

If you do not mind holding on to the passport for a while, you have two options. You can send a letter to the home office, and ask them to collect it. They could do that via royal mail or a courier, so it should be pretty simple in principle. However, you may have to go through the complaints department to get things moving (or even the ombudsman). And the second option is to find the rightful owner. Sometimes the address is stated inside, or you could contact the embassy. Officially, passports remain the legal property of the issuing country, so they should feel responsible for it. Even so, they may not know the address of the holder.

I assume you have found http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/conta ... complaint/ ? You can make a complaint and ask for compensation, but I agree with the others that your chances on this route are rather slim.

If you send it to the embassy, they might choose to invalidate it for fear that it has been compromised. As a result, whoever passport application it is will be screwed up because their passport was invalidated.
Ask the HO to collect it.

[brownbonno]

Home office does tell the applicant not to make any travel arrangements until you get your passport back so Home office will not be responsible for your loss of money. Regarding the wrong passport, I think you need to send it back to home office with a covering letter and ask for your passport. I would send a photocopy of your passport which you have submitted to Home office.

Personally, I would give the passport to the police, and ask them to return it to the owner. The Home Office is obviously unable to mail to handle it reliably, so I would consider it bad judgement to sent it back there.

Oh, and go to the small claims court. The Home Office may recommend not to make travel arrangements, but they still need to return your passport upon request within a reasonable amount of time. Plus you have the perfect documentation that they are unable to perform even simple tasks.

The HO do advise not to travel or request for passport back except in an emergency situation.But reality holding your passport for 6 months is against the principle of the free movement rights and directive.The best option to my opinion is to report the issue to the police,get a case number and the Police will further the Passport to the apprioprate authority(HO, Embassy or the owner).HO should be made to compensate you for your lost holidays.Its not witch hunting but amount to accountability on the part HO and its also a breach of the Data protection Acts.

[jugnu]

let sun and daily mirror know about it, makes a juicy story for them....and will help you highlight your case as well

[giruzz]

I have been to busy at work (this because I wasn't on holiday )

I will post a complaint Monday given that trying to speak with someone is pointless.

I will keep you posted

giruzz