A teenager from Co Derry is at risk of missing out on the chance to captain the Northern Ireland dance team which travel to an international competition in Spain next week because her Irish passport may not arrive in time.
Halle Ramsey, 14, from Coleraine also hopes to compete against 62 other countries at the Dance World Cup this summer.
The Loreto College student is one of around 40 talented dancers who have successfully qualified to represent Team North at the 2022 event in San Sebastian.
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Halle and her mother Julie are to fly out next Thursday and say it’s still and touch and go if they can go.
Both have been waiting for their Irish passport renewals since early April and their new travel documents have still not arrived.
Their plight comes amid continued pressure on the passport service due to long delays in processing applications, with people missing holidays after being unable to obtain new passports in time.
Julie, told Belfast Live she was out of breath.
“I applied for my and my daughter’s Irish passport on April 6 through the post office and the Dublin passport office received the application two days later.
“At that time my estimated issue date was Friday June 3. That Friday I checked the tracking and it had gone to the bottom but on Saturday it went back up but the issue date never changed.
“I called and finally spoke to someone who told me the new show date was last Thursday June 9, but I called back on Thursday (after trying 175 times) because the tracking status had not changed.
“I spoke to a man who was very rude and not friendly at all and even though I was crying he hung up on me. Then I went to the online chat service to be told that I don’t probably wouldn’t get it in time and to have a good day”
“I printed the chat online because I am really appalled at the way I was treated. I told them I would go to Dublin and pick them up if they would print them.”
Julie said her stress level has now skyrocketed.
“We’re flying out in 10 days (June 23) to Spain for the Dance World Cup, where my daughter has been selected to represent NI as team captain, so it’s not like it was a random family vacation that could be changed.
“It’s Halle’s first time overseas and when she found out she’d been selected as team captain she was absolutely thrilled. Now all the excitement is gone and we can’t even not rejoice because that takes all the joy out of it.
“I can’t tell you enough how extremely stressed I am about the whole thing. It’s been ten weeks so I’m really freaking out now. I think it’s only six working days max, but I can’t have more stress or frankly I’ll be at the Bann!” she says.
(Image: Submitted)
The Irish passport office also still has all of her documents, which prevents her from obtaining emergency British passports so that she and Halle can go to the dance competition.
“It was a renewal with a change of name, so I had sent my marriage certificate and birth certificate from Halle. They still have those documents, so I can’t even get UK passports instead, and I don’t have the money to pay them either.
“I will go to Dublin and collect the passports to have them on hand unless they are sent to us by next day delivery,” Julie added.
The Foreign Office said the passport service was seeing record demand, beating the previous busiest year of 2019 by almost 20%.
Over 600,000 passports have been issued so far in 2022 and last week the Passport Service issued an average of 6,000 passports per day.
They added that 80% of the applications received by the passport department are renewal applications for adults and children, while 99% of them are issued within the standard turnaround time.
Nearly half of all adults who renew their passport online will receive their new passport in the mail within two working days, they said, while the turnaround time for children’s online renewals is 15 days. open.
A department spokesperson added, “Initial online applications take longer to process, due to the necessary security checks. These currently take 25 working days. This processing time has been reduced by 40% since March, when it was 40 working days. .
“The turnaround times apply to fully completed and correct passport applications and begin from the date the supporting documents are received by the Passport Department, not the date of online registration.
“The Customer Service Center is available to answer questions from applicants by phone or online chat and details can be found at dfa.ie/passports. The customer service center has handled over 100,000 queries year-to-date and last week alone they handled 1,400 web chats and over 3,300 calls.
“For urgent adult or child passport renewals, the urgent appointment service is available at the Passport Office in Mount Street, Dublin 2 and Cork. There are over 400 appointments available each week. Over 100 of them are available for an even 1 day rotation in Mount Street and can be booked three days in advance.
“Anyone wishing to renew their passport within 1 or 4 days can make an appointment online, bring their passport application and supporting documents to the Passport Office and, once everything is in order, they will receive their passport same day or within four days depending on the option they choose. This service is not available for first time applications.
“The press office cannot comment on individual passport application cases.”
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