'Couldn't care less' - UK Home Office loses NZ passports

A dual British citizen is warning others to beware after the UK passport office lost her children's New Zealand passports.Rebecca Lunt said authorities' response was 'very poor' and found a quick way to get her daughter's urgently needed passport only after RNZ got in touch.Five-month-old daughter Caitlin and five-year-old Niamh are British citizens by descent, so under rules introduced in February need British passports to travel there.She filled out online applications, then sent the girls' birth certificates and New Zealand passports in the same parcel.But a fortnight later, a message told her to send Niamh's passport - and through a web chat later found out that the Passport Office had their birth certificates but neither of their passports.Despite that, Caitlin's passport was approved, the Passport Office saying Lunt had recorded her as having no New Zealand passport."But I'm absolutely positive that I did declare it because I'd applied for her New Zealand passport first and waited till I received that before applying for the British ones. But it was just the same response every time - you need to wait, somebody will be in touch with you. And nobody did get in touch with me."One message she was sent suggested she could ask Australian passport authorities to send confirmation of her daughter's passport and name, something the New Zealand passport office cannot do. She said losing the passports was terrible, and she was "disgusted" by the response she received."Very poor, they couldn't care less. It was as if I'd phoned up and said, 'I've sent a birthday card and it hasn't arrived yet'," said Lunt, who emigrated from Cheshire with her New Zealand partner in 2011. "These are such important documents and if they get into the wrong hands, they can be used for terrible reasons for, you know, human trafficking and things."I couldn't get anybody to understand that they must have received them. They were in the same bag as the birth certificates, they were there, you've got them, you've just misplaced them. It should be secure, it's terrible."After not hearing back from a manager days after they were meant to call, she was told it was at manager's discretion if they did. Her only option was to get a new New Zealand passport which would have to be printed, sent and have arrived in the UK within six weeks.She spoke to RNZ about the worry she had of missing out on seeing her family, especially her elderly grandfather."These are his only two great-grandchildren so I know he finds it hard that he doesn't get to see them. At 95, he can't fly out here, it's way too far. It's been awful, I've been crying."Just the thought that we might not get to the UK is horrible. I feel like I haven't been taken seriously. And when you phone up, there's an automated message saying we ask that you treat our staff with courtesy and respect, but I don't feel like most of the people I spoke to treated me with courtesy and respect."Customers could not reply to emails sent by the UK passport office, meaning applicants from outside the UK had to juggle time zones to instead phone them in British office hours.After RNZ contacted the UK Home Office, Lunt received an email asking if she had a scan of Niamh's New Zealand passport, and the UK passport was approved a few minutes later.Lunt said she was relieved and hoping to get a refund for the replacement, fast-track New Zealand passports she had already ordered. She decided to send those passports originally rather than the option of photocopies of each passport page as she was told some copies had been declined - but is advising others against doing the same thing.The Home Office said it was their policy not to routinely comment on individual cases, but people needing to reach them can email a general inbox. It refused to say how many items have been lost by the Passport Office.