Emigrant complains that he was left on ice: he does not understand how there may not be places to make the most important document

According to a Lithuanian resident of the United Kingdom, the work of the Lithuanian Embassy in this country, which is currently difficult to understand, prompted her to write. He said that he currently lives in England and that the child’s passport expires and for some time due to the quarantine, the embassy did not allow him to make a new one.

“Patience has already run out, they did not work during the quarantine, it was announced that work would resume from February 22. It was that morning that I ran to find a reservation to change my passport. That’s what you think of yourself since February 22. there were none in the morning appointment three weeks before, not for a day or for an hour.

March 1 appeared reservation for another week, but again the same, you will not find places with morning light! I don’t understand, does everyone here sit in the morning and sweep up those visits? Are they kidding? Anyway, as soon as you show up to check in for the new days, they are immediately marked in red, which means there are no seats. When contacting by mail, he suggested contacting the passport centers in London or Edinburgh. “

However, the woman said that she had tried to do so, but the registration system of those passport centers did not hide her outrage, “a kind of circus at all”.

“You enter the data, as if you were registering, then you must log in and continue discarding if the password is incorrect or the email. Mail, or a badly worded security word, even though I am putting it all together because it I’ve been leading for the thousandth time. They run circuses there!

Is this how the most important human document, the passport, is exchanged? Draw it yourself? After all, now is the time for Brexit to receive the status, although I would spit on everything anyway, I would go to Lithuania and make that passport, but the situation is clear, a pandemic and exit is not possible. “

He also noted that it is not possible to make phone calls at all, as he suspects that the handset has been hung up.

“When you write an email. email, still responds, but whoever does provide their own template responses and lots of knowledge. And anyway, the old problem here is with those receptions and certainly not just for me. They don’t provide people with basic services and those registration systems are a comedy. “

The embassy problem is known

Delfi contacted representatives of the British Embassy and the staff of the Consular Section explained why such a situation was now unfavorable for Lithuanians living in a foreign country.

“After the improvement of the COVID-19 infection statistics in the UK, the Lithuanian Embassy made the decision to renew the admission of citizens in matters of exchange and issuance of passports as of February 22 this year. More than 1,700 places were opened on February 18 and were soon occupied by citizens.Registration at embassy and passport centers is published 3 weeks in advance and is updated weekly.

The embassy is aware that not everyone who wants to change their passport has managed to register, but in the current circumstances, we do not have the opportunity to accept more citizens. There are still vacancies at the Edinburgh Passport Center. However, we understand that due to national travel restrictions, not all citizens can take advantage of this and go to a passport center in Scotland.

In fact, the registration systems at passport centers and embassies are slightly different and system crashes sometimes occur, but it is clear that our citizens make good use of them and correctly register for admission. Requests for identity documents can only be made on arrival, as identity must be verified and citizens must provide their biometric data.

In the near future, we will offer additional opportunities for citizens to apply for a new passport in Manchester, and we plan to conduct several consular missions to other UK cities once the pandemic subsides and when domestic travel is allowed. Meanwhile, at this stage, we hope that Lithuanians living in the UK understand this difficult period for all and the challenges they face, ”he explained in a comment sent to Delfi.