Wolverhampton couple set to fly in days still without a passport after delays

Reports suggest there are currently around 500,000 applications waiting to be approved by the Home Office, which will only get worse as the summer arrives, along with school holidays.

Faye Norton and her boyfriend, Ethan Welsh, applied for Ethan's first ever passport on January 24, and have been met with a litany of issues and setbacks ever since.

The couple from Lanesfield, Wolverhampton, are set fly out to Paris on June 13 for their first holiday together.

The holiday is both a celebration Ethan's of 19th and 18th birthdays, after he couldn't celebrate during lockdown.

Faye, 21, said: "We got the forms the week commencing January 17.

"We filled them out and sent them out on the 24th to the passport department.

"We then had to go through the interview process, that was the first issue, as he never got his application reference number.

"We had to call to find that out, then he finally had his interview, and everything was sorted in March.

"The passport was distributed on March 20 and we were told we would receive it in a couple of days.

"We called back that week to say we never received anything, including his birth certificate which had been sent to them."

The couple were then told that delays with TNT, a couriers service, was behind the delays.

However, follow further delays, they called the Passport Office again, this time to be told the passport had been sent to the wrong address.

Faye added: "When we spoke to them we told them the address they sent it to is not where we live, and they just said they will have to wait for it to be sent back to them.

"Since then in follow-up calls, we were told there was no postcode on the application form, but I filled it out and know there was.

"But if there wasn’t, where did they get a postcode to send it to in the first place, and why didn’t they contact us?"

The couple are now unsure whether they will make their holiday, still not having a passport more than 120 days after initially applying.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister told Parliament on June 1 that, as far as he is concerned, passports are issued within four to six weeks of an application – despite claims of a large backlog.

Faye said: "It is our first holiday together and it is for two of his birthdays, as he never got to do anything for his 18th because of Covid.

"With it being his first passport, it will be the first time he has got on a plane and left the country.

"We have gotten all excited and now this has happened.

"We have both been saving up for a quite a while for it.

"When we knew last year we would be able to travel again we started, we are talking half a year.

"I feel like we are being disregarded because we are younger."

The home office has been contacted for comment.