Families living in Bermuda have been left frustrated and upset by a huge backlog in British passport applications.

One family had to wait six months for a British passport for their newborn daughter.

While another was forced to cancel their trip to the UK because their son’s new passport had not arrived in time.

The current delay in processing British passport applications made headlines in the UK this summer.

And it continued to have serious implications for people living in Bermuda.

Julia Henderson applied for a British passport in March this year for her daughter Sasha, just a few weeks after Sasha was born.

As part of the application package she also sent her daughter’s Bermudian passport.

Mrs Henderson did not receive her daughter’s British passport until the end of last month, and to add insult to injury, passport processors had ‘snipped’ the corner off her Bermuda passport making it invalid.

She told The Royal Gazette: “I could not believe it.

“Not just that it took nearly six months to get a new passport, but also they had snipped the Bermuda one making it completely unusable.

“The Bermuda passport was just a couple of months old and was valid for five years.

“I do not understand why it was snipped as there is no rule against having a British and a Bermudian passport.

“Now I have to pay out another $122 if I want Sasha to have a valid Bermudian passport.

“Imagine if someone needed to get off island in an emergency and was waiting for a passport. That could have very serious consequences.”

Meanwhile Neville Ching was forced to cancel his family holiday because his son Jamie’s British passport failed to arrive in time.

He said: “My son was born in February and we applied for his British passport soon after.

“We booked a holiday back to the UK for Easter thinking that his passport would be with us by then.

“We arranged for a christening service for him when we were back in the UK with family and friends and organised various other events.

“But as the time got closer we had still not got Jamie’s passport. In the end we had to cancel our trip.

“We lost out on over $1,000 on rescheduling our flights and the whole process was very frustrating.”

Government House has advised people to plan well ahead and complete their applications carefully.

Deputy Governor Ginny Ferson told the Royal Gazette: “The unprecedented levels of demand experienced by Her Majesty’s Passport Office are well known.

“Emergency measures were quickly put in place to alleviate the difficulties customers were facing.

“These included the provision of one year extensions to expired passports and more provision of emergency passport facilities.

“Processing times for UK passports have now improved and HM Passport Office is meeting its published turnaround times for applications from the UK and overseas.

“Government House is pleased to announce that British Overseas Territories Citizen passport holders applying for a British passport are no longer required to send their BOTC passports to the UK.

“It is sufficient for them to send colour photocopies of the pages of that passport.

“BOTC passports should not be cancelled when the British passport is issued. If anyone has experienced this they should contact HM Passport Office who will consider whether compensation can be paid.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Office told The Royal Gazette: “Her Majesty’s Passport Office is dealing with the highest demand for passports in 12 years and has issued over four million passports so far in 2014.

“But recognising people’s understandable concerns about delays, the Home Secretary announced on 12 June a series of additional measures to ensure people and families can travel, including issuing emergency travel documents for children.

“Applications for a child’s first passport made from Bermuda take at least eight weeks to process following receipt by HM Passport Office in the UK.”

But the spokeswoman would not comment on Mrs Henderson’s Bermuda passport being ‘snipped’.