The Telegraph has today reported the case of NGA clients Viral and Tulsi Patel, whose son was born through surrogacy in India but who has still – months after his birth – not been issued with a British passport to be able to come home.
Natalie Gamble, the Patels’ lawyer, explained that normally with surrogacy cases, it can take between three and four months for the whole process to be completed – almost half the six months it has taken the Patels.
She said: “It’s really unusual for a passport application to take this long, given that the child has already been granted citizenship.” She suggested the delay could be down toHM Passport Office’s backlog of dealing with passports, which is said to be in the tens of thousands.
“There’s no real explanation why it could take so long other than the chaos in the passport office,” said Gamble. “It’s not preventing a family from going on holiday – it’s preventing a new born child coming to the UK. It’s just a delay and bureaucracy. There’s a lack of appreciation that this child desperately needs to come home.”
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