Is this acceptable?
Application was made 3 weeks ago (15/04), and he decided to pay the fee yesterday to hurry things up. Literally an hour later he got the notification that it was ready to collect!
I understand that they say it'll be ready in 2 days, but to have it done in an hour seems like they're really taking the mickey.
Curious to hear your thoughts, and if there's anything that can be done.
Thanks!
The most expensive passport yet.
It’s ready in 3 weeks. If he waited one day he would have got it without paying a fee.
But it's not fair!!!!!
Errrr isn't it just a case that it was just ready after 3 weeks anyway, had nothing to do with the priority payment.
It's just coincidence that he got the message an hour later. There is no way the government does something instantly like that
This whole post is being looked at wrong.
There's a way. Someone known to me had to attend a funeral overseas, but found that the passport was expired. They renewed the passport in 2 hours, but they had to provide written evidence about the urgency.
Passport officer: Printing is done, now I will go lunch before send….
Machine: Bzzzzz… Alert… Alert… Priority process paid
Passport officer: Uh… Alright.. alright… I'll send it after lunch
1 hour later
Passport officer: That's a good lunch, now sending this passport
Machine: Beep… Notification sent
Uncle Roger: Fuiyooohhh
the only issue here is why the Australian passport costs this much
It reminds me exactly of some corrupt countries I visited in the early 90s,
where you submit the paperwork , and it would just would sit in the IN tray for 4-6 weeks collecting dust …
… unless a bribe was given …
… then a clerk would STAMP it …
… and that paperwork would get moved from the IN tray to the OUT tray.
If you don't grease the gears, they don't work.
Then again, we shouldn't be too surprised, a minimum of 6 weeks is pretty much the same as stated for for renewing a passport for a country like Malaysia or Singapore….
….when done by Courier from Australia
https://malaysia.highcommission.gov.au/klpr/Passport-Mail-Fo… (application = MYR200 = AUD 64 for 5 years )
https://www.ica.gov.sg/documents/passport/apply ( application = SGD 80 = AUD 90 for 10 years )
( if done directly in their own country it's respectively a day for the Malaysian passport (Rank 12) or within 2 weeks for Singapore (Rank 1) . )
I don't have an In Tray (or an Out Tray).
I have a "shake it all about tray"
for $3 you can jump the queue at domino pizza shop.
I have not ready any complaints on this website about that ?
Wait till OP their friend goes, you'll hear all about it
The real question is, how much was this "priority processing" fee ?
It's about $300
depends on situation. https://www.passports.gov.au/Fees
ADDITIONAL FEES FEE
Priority processing (if eligible) $252
Overseas surcharge - adult applicant $155
Overseas surcharge - child applicant $76
Observation made after passport issue $17
I paid the priority fee 2months ago when I dropped my application to get my passport in the main post office in Brisbane. Got my passport the same day, 4 hours after dropping it. I was a very satisfied customer.
Your friend paid extra to jump the queue and they let him jump all the way to the front of the queue. What was the actual problem?
Aliens. Or conspiracy. Or maybe a combination of the two
Some countries you get this sporadically by bribing an official here we just have official bribing by paying the government.
Coincidence. His passport was already completed and ready for collection on the same day he opted for express processing. I doubt government departments are this efficient.
Had mixed experience with their services…
My kids's passport was delayed for over 3 months (2 years ago) to the point we had to escalate it with trip coming up. (no priority fees paid). They issues it next day when we finally got through to them over the phone).
I got mine within the week (last year) (Monday submitted, Tuesday processed, Thursday delivered by postie, no priority fees paid).
"Pay to play"..what's wrong with this lol?
Passport costs $350.
Priority fee is about $250.
It was most likely in queue to be packed and ready to post with the hundreds of other non priority passports.
Just a coincidence but in saying that, we will never know the true reason, they could be holding it for funsies to appear passports take X weeks to make and send to keep up with appearances.
I got mine in 2022 within 4 weeks. I was surprised, thought it will take 3 months due to all the complaints online at that time.
That's quite different to my experience with the kid's passport. We were travelling soon and hadn't gotten the new passport so made a phone call and was told that I could pay and have it expedited. While processing the payment, their system was not allowing it then I got told that it's already been sent to print so I can't have it expedited anymore. The only thing I could do was wait and change it from post to collection at the passport office. end up receiving it a couple of days later.
I am pretty sure if OP/OP friend paid the priority fee upfront it won't be ready in the next hour, it is due to it has been 3 weeks and maybe not scheduled for release that day then what the fee did was to bring the already made passort to be released now. Passport office can only handle that many release each day I guess not necessarily a production issue. Patience is a virtue I guess…
when you pay for the priority service, it gets thrown to the front of the queue and everyone else gets pushed back because you want it asap, they delivered as requested and now you think passport service are taking the mickey?
Certainly a troll post?
I went to the local post office on Friday last week for my passport renewal, paid the priority fee, and it was delivered to me Wednesday morning. Great service, well worth paying for. I fly out Saturday morning.
Does that mean the passport cost about $650 in total?
$619.95 in total including the photos, but work will pay for it anyway.
i've renewed my passport on Friday 3 May, Received my passport on Wednesday May. No priority fee paid. This is was in VIC.
Great service, well worth paying for
Yeah, because you, for some reason, booked a flight with an expired passport.
Nope, you can't book an international flight with an expired passport, and also I needed a new ESTA too. Short notice work need to travel, that's one of the reasons why a service like this exists.
You most definitely can book a flight with an expired passport. In fact, you can book a flight with no passport! You can even book a flight for an imaginary friend.
Don't you pay more for Express Delivery for the next 1-2 days or wait 4 days or more for a standard delivery???
Same thing, your goods is right there, if you wanna priority, pay for it.
I am assuming it was a fair price, there is nothing wrong with it.
The passport was about $350.
OP says after a 3-week wait,
the priority fee was paid.
Then, in 1-hour, the passport appeared.
What OP didn't mention was the priority fee.
This is about $250 (or $300?),
as mentioned in the replies here.
They send by registered post, which is not express. You can also call the passport office and request to pick it up in person if you're desperate to get it ASAP.
You all should try to apply for the ABTC*, wish they had a priority service, been waiting on the USA to clear for the past few weeks and its all done :-/
*for those who are eligible
Passport renewal prices:
USA: $130 USD
SPAIN: 30€
CANADA: $160 CAD
AUSTRALIA: $346
(profanity) bullshit
AUSTRALIA: $346
That's for the 32-page passport
(and if you nit-pick, not all 32-pages are available too)
Smaller passport = quicker to exhaust pages = more $$$
In 2017, I paid about AU$ 410 for the 64-page passport,
which the government removed (from memory) in 2019,
as part of the Federal Budget announcement.
I have a story similar to OP's,
and from memory, this was about 20-years ago.
I applied in the post office for a standard, 32-page passport.
I said I was not in a hurry for it, and they didn't tick the 'Priority' box either.
( I don't think there were any fees back then for a 'Priority' service )
The AusPost staffer said it won't take longer than a month.
After 6-weeks, I still didn't hear word about my passport.
So, I went to the Passports office in Sydney city (I think it was on Lee St.)
I told them verbally I applied 6-weeks ago, and I kind of needed it.
They told me to wait for a couple of hours.
I walked around Chinatown and then returned back to the Passports office about 2 hours later.
They gave me the passport straight away and apologised for the delay.
Hahahaha… waits 3 weeks for normal processing, THEN pays full price for priority processing and gets it in an hour.
Sooooo…. too cheap to pay for priority processing on application, and is then annoyed when he gets exactly what he's paid for 3 weeks later?
This is a joke post right?
it took about a week to get mine , was not impressed the passport arrived bent and out of shape. keep in mind that the passports are going up again i think in july
I reckon the passport was already processed and waiting for notification to go out, unbeknownst to OP, who happened to pay the fee. This prompts someone to look at the application and hit the button. With a sample size of one, it's a conspiracy, but over 10,000 it isn't.
American culture and extreme capitalism taking over I suppose. Priority lanes at Disney are now normal lanes and Normal lanes are now called Standby lanes. Same will apply to all our services.
Any evidence to suggest this is capitalism/deliberate?
Any evidence it isn't?
All evidence points to a LateStage
Why did you leave it until the last minute to get a passport?
Lack of planning and preparation penalty
What's the issue date on the passport? My wife had a similar thing, received some notification "your application has been processed" which seems like have actually meant that it's ready to collect. I, on the other hand, haven't received any notification whatsoever despite the passport being ready
Reminder that Australia has the most expensive passport in the world.
not when you account for average wage.
Did you mean to post this as a deal? Please put price in title
Is this an advertisement for Priority Service? They better be quick for 237 bucks.
When there are job queues that are handled by teams of people, jobs are usually picked up by each team member based on which job has the current highest urgency. For example paying the priority fee probably multiplies the urgency by a factor of 10 but age would contribute to the base value. I'd bet as soon as you paid for priority your job would've suddenly become the highest urgency because it already had a high base value and you just multiplied it and so it got picked up quickly.
Nah this is ridiculous.
1. If the gov processes to slow they complain about how long it takes to get it.
2. Government does it nice and quick, they complain that it was done quickly.
Honestly what do you want? The government to process them more slowly? You want when people have loved ones injuries overseas to make em wait longer before they can visit because it's a bit sus they can do em quickly. Honestly common sense needs to prevail here - there's over 20million Australians there will always be a bit of a backlog especially in the post covid era.
I think your friend should pay a paleontology lab to check out the passport to give you a specific time and day of when the passport was put together, I think your friend might have a case of getting the fee back.
It would mean that they would perform destructive testing, but with the fee returned your friend can just get another passport and pay the priority fee.
Was it a renewal or an application? Either way, unsure of the complaint reason because he got what he paid for. But just some insight as our timelines are similar - my passport was 4 years expired. I lodged my passport renewal at Aus Post on 26 April, I didn’t pay for priority, and I received the shipping notification on 2 May.
Is your friend Larry David?
Yeah and (profanity) uber eats too. I hate it when I order lunch and pay for priority delivery, then 5 minutes later it's at the door and I have to rush out of the toilet to answer the door!