Passport Advice - Help

Nukem

Hello All

I just realised that my passport is out of date and I am flying on Friday morning to Spain for a wedding. Rang the DFA 24 hour emergency service and although the guy was very nice he could not give me specifics on what to do next.

Cant seem to book an appointment in Cork, as its less than 5 working days before my flight. Does that mean I have to actually go to Dublin and start panicking in-front of someone.

Any advice or help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Pitcairn

My understanding is yes, you can get it on an emergency basis if you show evidence such as flight tickets.
They no longer print the passports in the Dublin or Cork offices. That work is outsourced to a warehouse in Kildare I think.
It means your application will have to be sent off and then returned on Thursday, so it might require a trip to Dublin.
Ring first thing in the morning and be prepared with all your documents. Get your pictures and your application stamped by the gardai. Go to Anglesea Street garda station. Most other stations won't open until 12.

Nukem

Thanks for the response - have the photos and the form signed all ready to go.

Booked an appointment in Dublin for 11.00, but by the above post I may be wasting my time tomorrow.

Can anyone else clarify - appreciate the help.

Rhys Essien

Nukem wrote: »

Thanks for the response - have the photos and the form signed all ready to go.

Booked an appointment in Dublin for 11.00, but by the above post I may be wasting my time tomorrow.

Can anyone else clarify - appreciate the help.

??.

Are you living in Cork?.Why are you going to Dublin?

Can you not just go in to the Cork passport office and tell them its an emergency.I've heard plenty cases where they will issue one.

JohnMearsheimer

Pitcairn wrote: »

My understanding is yes, you can get it on an emergency basis if you show evidence such as flight tickets.
They no longer print the passports in the Dublin or Cork offices. That work is outsourced to a warehouse in Kildare I think.
It means your application will have to be sent off and then returned on Thursday, so it might require a trip to Dublin.
Ring first thing in the morning and be prepared with all your documents. Get your pictures and your application stamped by the gardai. Go to Anglesea Street garda station. Most other stations won't open until 12.

They are printed in Balbriggan and Molesworth Street in Dublin.

Rhys Essien wrote: »

??.

Are you living in Cork?.Why are you going to Dublin?

Can you not just go in to the Cork passport office and tell them its an emergency.I've heard plenty cases where they will issue one.

Emergency passports are for emergencies. They won't give you one to just go off on holidays. The quickest turnaround in the Cork passport office is 3 days. In Dublin they have rapid renewal. You get you passport the next day.

Nukem

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

They are printed in Balbriggan and Molesworth Street in Dublin.



Emergency passports are for emergencies. They won't give you one to just go off on holidays. The quickest turnaround in the Cork passport office is 3 days. In Dublin they have rapid renewal. You get you passport the next day.

Can't book cork as its three working days and website won't let you book cork.

Booked dublin as I have to try and according to everything I read I have to go to Dublin at some time as they don't print in cork

On the way now - fingers crossed

Pitcairn

I was chatting to the girl behind the counter in Cork last year.
She said they used to have people dashing down from the airport with a taxi waiting outside while they got their passports renewed within the hour.

Nukem

Just an update for anyone who sees this thread afterwards.

Got into the passport office and got it sorted. Passport will be ready on Thursday, but need to go collect it dublin, but they are only available between 14.30 - 16.30. I was not the only one there form Cork as I met two girls who were in a similar predicament and were steered towards dublin after attending the cork office on Monday.

Had an 11.00 appointment and met a battle axe at the counter and pulled open the T&Cs as I booked her counter technically a day too early. I explained that I spoke with the DFA emergency line the night before and followed the online passport booking process. She had none of it and refused to help sending me back to reception. (In the time she spent giving out, she would have sorted it twice)

Went back to reception to wait and got chatting to a few other souls in similar circumstances. I have to commend the guy on reception, a bloody gentleman and witnessing that man dealing with queries and customers for an hour gives me great hope for the whole system.

After an hour I got to see another lady and what a difference in a change of personnel. She calmly listened to what happened, I explained the urgency and she processed the documents and directed me to payment in 5minutes. Very professional and courteous.

Fingers crossed that all is ok when I pick it up.

Tips for anyone in a similar circumstance;

- have all your documents (4 no. passport pictures and 2 + completed form signed by the Gardai) [ Proof of travel also required but they can print or accept an email version if your stuck]
- book online before you attend the passport office
- Park in red cow roundabout luas station €4.00 for the day
- get the luas into Abbey Street (20mins)
- walk down to Molesworth street passport office (behind trinity) 15 mins
- land at reception and tell them you have a booking
- pray you get a nice person and get it sorted

Thanks for the support as well lads and lassies

roundymac

You should report that woman,,, after you'v got your passport of course.

TheDriver

roundymac wrote: »

You should report that woman,,, after you'v got your passport of course.

True but she was following procedure (very rigidly) but nonetheless she probably wasn't doing anything wrong............
Glad to hear you got sorted.....

daveyjoe

Girlfriend was in a similar predicament a couple of weeks ago. Lost her passport and flight was in two days time.

She went into Cork passport office and explained the situation, they told her that she would have to go to Dublin the next morning. She started crying and told them she had an exam tomorrow. Hey presto, they told her that they could give her an appointment for 30 minutes later.

Passport arrived down to Cork on the morning of the flight, all was well.

I'm not sure if it's laziness or what the story is but my impression is that they can help you in Cork if they want to but if they can flog you off to Dublin then it's less work for them. Perhaps I'm just being cynical about the whole thing :-/

JohnMearsheimer

daveyjoe wrote: »

Girlfriend was in a similar predicament a couple of weeks ago. Lost her passport and flight was in two days time.

She went into Cork passport office and explained the situation, they told her that she would have to go to Dublin the next morning. She started crying and told them she had an exam tomorrow. Hey presto, they told her that they could give her an appointment for 30 minutes later.

Passport arrived down to Cork on the morning of the flight, all was well.

I'm not sure if it's laziness or what the story is but my impression is that they can help you in Cork if they want to but if they can flog you off to Dublin then it's less work for them. Perhaps I'm just being cynical about the whole thing :-/

People who lose passports are normally treated like first time applicants again. First time applications take 20 working days. Sounds like they did her a favour.

daveyjoe

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

People who lose passports are normally treated like first time applicants again. First time applications take 20 working days. Sounds like they did her a favour.

Yeah, absolutely, they did for sure. Usual story, if you know someone or put on the waterworks then they can help you but otherwise not a chance. She explained a few times before she started crying and they said "no, there's nothing we can do".

Also, they can do emergency passports in a day if needed (as usual, it's at their discretion).

JohnMearsheimer

daveyjoe wrote: »

Yeah, absolutely, they did for sure. Usual story, if you know someone or put on the waterworks then they can help you but otherwise not a chance. She explained a few times before she started crying and they said "no, there's nothing we can do".

Also, they can do emergency passports in a day if needed (as usual, it's at their discretion).

They have to be tough because a lot of people come into the office and aren't truthful about their situations and travel plans. I'm not saying your girlfriend was being untruthful but the counter staff are good at picking out genuine cases where the rules can be slightly relaxed to accommodate people.

Cork can do emergency passports but the passport office's definition of what qualifies as an emergency and the general public's definition of an emergency are generally quite different.

Nukem

roundymac wrote: »

You should report that woman,,, after you'v got your passport of course.

Done and done. Also commended the guy on reception for a stellar job. Met him on Thursday walking in to collect the passport and he remembered me and took the time to stop and chat for 30 seconds.

The whole Cork V Dublin thing is kinda of arbitrary to be perfectly honest. If you forgot to get renew/replace you passport, well that's your own fault, and coming from someone who went through the riggers last week I am allowed to say that - it was my own fault. If you lived in Galway of Sligo (etc) you would have to go to Dublin regardless, so the Cork V Dublin only annoys Cork people.

The bigger issue is the passport system as an entity. Its crazy to look at the whole application process, with Garda Signing, pictures, booking appointments, duration for applicants.....etc...... The level of complexity that is in the system is unnecessary and the whole business process is archaic. If it was a business to make money, it would be bust in less than a year - there needs to be a review of the whole system.

iusedtoknow

Nukem wrote: »

The bigger issue is the passport system as an entity. Its crazy to look at the whole application process, with Garda Signing, pictures, booking appointments, duration for applicants.....etc...... The level of complexity that is in the system is unnecessary and the whole business process is archaic. If it was a business to make money, it would be bust in less than a year - there needs to be a review of the whole system.

Try doing it from Abroad - I had to renew twice in Spain, and no Police, or Bank or Doctors would sign it as it simply is not done there. We eventually got our bank manager to do it, only after she a letter from the embassy saying it was a normal procedure.

To renew your Spanish passport/dni you make an appointment, usually for the same week - you go in, take a number and have someone look at your old papers, take a photo and your passport/ID card is printed there and then. It takes 3 hours usually from end to end, but is a walk in park compared to the Irish renewal.

From most places, it takes 6-8 weeks to get your new documents through, which is ridiculous.

JohnMearsheimer

Nukem wrote: »

Done and done. Also commended the guy on reception for a stellar job. Met him on Thursday walking in to collect the passport and he remembered me and took the time to stop and chat for 30 seconds.

The whole Cork V Dublin thing is kinda of arbitrary to be perfectly honest. If you forgot to get renew/replace you passport, well that's your own fault, and coming from someone who went through the riggers last week I am allowed to say that - it was my own fault. If you lived in Galway of Sligo (etc) you would have to go to Dublin regardless, so the Cork V Dublin only annoys Cork people.

The bigger issue is the passport system as an entity. Its crazy to look at the whole application process, with Garda Signing, pictures, booking appointments, duration for applicants.....etc...... The level of complexity that is in the system is unnecessary and the whole business process is archaic. If it was a business to make money, it would be bust in less than a year - there needs to be a review of the whole system.

I'm going to hold my hands up here and say I work for the passport service. The passport service isn't a money making business. It issues a passport for travel purposes. We have no state ID either so the passport more or less fulfils that function as well for most people. It's difficult to get an Irish passport and it should be in my opinion. Having the gardaí involved helps fight passport and identity fraud. We have quite a few people applying for Irish passports who are not entitled to them. More so than people think.

Nukem

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I'm going to hold my hands up here and say I work for the passport service. The passport service isn't a money making business. It issues a passport for travel purposes. We have no state ID either so the passport more or less fulfils that function as well for most people. It's difficult to get an Irish passport and it should be in my opinion. Having the gardaí involved helps fight passport and identity fraud. We have quite a few people applying for Irish passports who are not entitled to them. More so than people think.

John its commendable that you have come forward and a sign that you believe in the system and the people in the service.

My point about the Garda was not that it's an uncessary step, quite the contrary, but the process is intricate and unesscessarily complicated. And also the fact that you said it isn't a money business I recognise, as its performing a public/civic service.

However, if you applied 'business principles' I believe the whole end-to-end process could be improved dramatically. And I am not personalising it here, but it's the work of a few* or there lack of work, inhibit the whole system and its progression.

*I highlighted that of the three people I engaged with, that two were very helpful and one of those got commended.

Ludo

In all fairness you fill out a form, get a few pics, get them signed and pop it all in an envelope in a post office. How much simpler can it get? I renewed mine a couple of months ago and it took me about ten minutes one afternoon. Couldn't be simpler to be honest.

Your experience was vastly different as you forgot to check if your passport was valid until three days before you were due to travel. That isn't the passport services fault. Why should a whole system, which is very simple now, change to cater for the few who should have checked the dates on their passport themselves? You still got your passport so the system worked. Just because you had to go to a bit of extra hassle is your own fault.

JohnMearsheimer

Nukem wrote: »

John its commendable that you have come forward and a sign that you believe in the system and the people in the service.

My point about the Garda was not that it's an uncessary step, quite the contrary, but the process is intricate and unesscessarily complicated. And also the fact that you said it isn't a money business I recognise, as its performing a public/civic service.

However, if you applied 'business principles' I believe the whole end-to-end process could be improved dramatically. And I am not personalising it here, but it's the work of a few* or there lack of work, inhibit the whole system and its progression.

*I highlighted that of the three people I engaged with, that two were very helpful and one of those got commended.

I think if you could see behind the scenes you'd probably agree with me that the whole process is a finely oiled machine.

Over 600,000 people got passports last year and I think for the majority of people the system worked fine for them.

People have to take some personal responsibility when it comes to their passports. We get an awful lot of people wandering into the office the day before they travel expecting to have a passport handed out to them In 2 minutes. When you tell them you can't do that you're the worst person in the world. We even try to accommodate people in these situations by sending them to Dublin for rapid renewal. Cork's problem in that regard is that we can't print passports so we can't to things like rapid renewal and means our quickest turnaround is 3 days (a passport printing machine would not fit in the office, they're quite big and cost millions)

If you're anyway organised you'll be fine and in emergencies (a real emergency) you can always get an emergency passport. It all worked out for you in the end, you got your passport before your trip which is the main thing.

Nukem

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I think if you could see behind the scenes you'd probably agree with me that the whole process is a finely oiled machine.

Over 600,000 people got passports last year and I think for the majority of people the system worked fine for them.

People have to take some personal responsibility when it comes to their passports. We get an awful lot of people wandering into the office the day before they travel expecting to have a passport handed out to them In 2 minutes. When you tell them you can't do that you're the worst person in the world. We even try to accommodate people in these situations by sending them to Dublin for rapid renewal.

Fair cop and figures don't lie - never for once said it was anyone's else's fault but my own throughout the thread for my situation. From a 'customers' perspective I found it as mentioned before uncessarily complex to do this in a short period and even though I followed the website booking and spoke to the DFA - I was wrong when I got to the customer counter?

Now I got my passport in the end, so as a result it was a success and yes the systems works. But I think the system could be improved - my opinion only.

JohnMearsheimer

Nukem wrote: »

Fair cop and figures don't lie - never for once said it was anyone's else's fault but my own throughout the thread for my situation. From a 'customers' perspective I found it as mentioned before uncessarily complex to do this in a short period and even though I followed the website booking and spoke to the DFA - I was wrong when I got to the customer counter?

Now I got my passport in the end, so as a result it was a success and yes the systems works. But I think the system could be improved - my opinion only.

Apologies, I didn't want you to have the impression that I thought you weren't taking responsibility for your situation. However, a lot of people don't take responsibility and it's always my fault or the fault of my colleagues when someone applies for a passport the day before they travel and find out that they haven't left enough time to get one.