Australian Passport Office — Local services in Perth

Lodged a normal application without priority on the 12th of April 2022 and haven't received any updates since then. On the website, it still says "Under assessment". I lodged another application at the same time as the one mentioned above but have recieved that passport 9 weeks later. I have emailed 3 times within 3 weeks requesting the status of my application and all they have said is that they have escalated, placed my application in the so-called "priority queue" and said that it was still being processed. Still being processed after 14 weeks?! What a joke. Now it's been almost a month since they've escalated my application on the 23rd of June with no passport in sight.

Reading recent reviews for the passport office in all states just makes my blood boil as there's some people who have lodged their application a month ago that have already received their passport.

I lodged my application at the post office like everyone else and they said at the time that it would take up to 6 weeks to receive my passport. Now they have changed it to a minimum of 6 weeks. Unbelievable.

Today I went to the passport office to ask about the application. There was only around 2 people in the queue when I arrived at 3pm and around 5-6 employees were at the counter. They were the freest, most relaxed employees I've ever seen. They were walking around, joking and chatting amongst each other.

The rudest person I've encountered during my visit was the employee managing the queue. She legit put words in my mouth. She accused me of calling her a liar, when I never did. Next, she just told me to "sit down". Am I a dog or what? Where are the manners and respect. Hospitality? What a joke, honestly. APO, train your employees better for customer service and most importantly, respect. I knew government employees were bad but this is just the worst. These people are worst than Centrelink and DoT employees and when I say that, I really mean it. And so that concludes my trip to the passport office.

The APO and the DFAT said that they've hired 1,100 people to sort out this backlog by September, but all they've done is delayed the processing of applications of those who applied before this story had hit the tabloids. So many people have applied for priority processing since then and paid the extra $250, while those who haven't paid are left in the dark about their application. Is this just a simple money grab or about fairness in dealing with the majority of the Australian people.

If I could, I would give this service 0 stars. Communication = 1 Service = 0 Passport = No where to be seen. Holiday...

28/04/2022 Have attempted to contact the Passport Office every day for 10 days and am unable to get through due to “high call demand”. No email responses or other methods to contact them. I understand they are busy, but switching off their call service and ignoring emails for urgent requests is negligent

29/04/2022 UPDATE: I received an automatic email response stating that my daughters passports were ready for collection (After only 3 weeks of waiting, which is very uncommon and much faster than I expected, or others from reading reviews). I went in to the Perth office to collect the passports and there was a small queue, which moved quickly. The staff looked busy, but collection was fast, professional and painless.

After reflecting last night, I realise that the time delays experienced by the majority and their lack of customer support over the phones and via email aren't directly related to the counter staff. Hopefully management will make the required changes to help their staff and help us with Passport queries, applications and transactions etc.

I provided the staff member I was dealing with a box of chocolates to share with his colleagues and thanked him and his team for the hard work they are doing in this current busy environment. Customer facing work isn't always pleasant, especially the frustration and anger many of us have had / are still having with the Australian Passport Office. But, positivity breeds positivity. Hopefully oen good dead will be passed on to the next person who deals with the Passport Office today, and I hope many others experience the swift passport application...

Sam (Team Leader) & Alicia (Operation manager) you should be ashamed of yourselves, you are in these positions to HELP people specially if it is your stuff up. Absolutely horrible!!! They have lost our daughter’s passport which was applied for in June for our trip in October. Closer the date they lied to us on purpose claiming that they have sent it on 7th of October and accused Australia post of loosing it. Upon investigation by Australia post they proved that it was not sent until the 12th of October, 2 days before our trip, by regular post and from Melbourne and we live in WA. Went to this office thinking that they would help us knowing that we have a flight in 2 days and it was their fault, after 3 hours waiting they said that they would do an emergency one but no time today and they will start the application and we should return the next day (the day of the flight). We travelled again on the next day (we live 500kms away and they know it) just to be told in a rude, abusive, insensitive and unprofessional way that they still can’t do it and we should come back on Monday and THEY DO NOT CARE IF WE MISS OUR FLIGHTS!!! Sam (Team Leader) & Alicia (Operation manager) you should be ashamed of yourselves, you are in these positions to HELP people specially if it is your stuff-up. Sam & Alicia are completely incompetent, unprofessional, extremely rude who think that they can control people and actually enjoy put people...