MANY Bermudians who have applied for a British passport have been left without any passport at all for weeks.

And one such person who called the Mid-Ocean News said he had missed a flight home during the time US Immigration had spent trying to verify his temporary travel documents.

The man, who declined to give his name, said he had applied for a UK passport on May 22 and had submitted his Bermuda passport, which he was told by Immigration staff would be available for him to pick up five days later.

When he returned to pick up his Bermuda passport, he was told it had been sent away with the application to the British Embassy in Washington.

"They said they had received a communique from London saying the Bermudian passports had to be sent with the applications," said the man.

"I gave Immigration my passport in good faith. If I had known it was going to leave the country I would have asked for a receipt with my passport number on it. Now I have no receipt and no passport and no proof of my Bermudian status.

"They (Immigration) told me the British passport would take 12 to 16 weeks to process. I have to travel about once a month for work and every time I go now I need to pay Immigration $56 for emergency travel documents that take five days to come through."

Last week, the man said he had run into problems when attempting to return home from Philadelphia, like all US airports on a state of high security alert because of the events of September 11 and further terrorist threats.

"I missed my flight home, because when they saw my documents, US Immigration had to call the US Consulate in Bermuda and then they had to call Bermuda Immigration," said the man.

"These airports are under federal security now and these people are trained to recognise a passport, not a willy-nilly piece of paper from Bermuda Government with a stamp on it. Why should it mean anything to them?"

The man said he was still without a passport.

"I know a lot of others are in my situation because there were about 80 of us who prepared our birth certificates and documents at the same time to apply for the British passports on May 22," he added. Deputy Governor Tim Gurney said he was aware of such problems and that the need for people to submit their passports with applications could be waived in emergency situations.

"London is very keen that the original BOTC (British Overseas Territories Citizen) passport should be sent with applications for a British citizen passport," Mr. Gurney said yesterday.

"We are all very conscious that this may cause difficulties for people who need to travel quickly or very frequently. We want to help people when there is a genuine problem. If the processing time at the British Embassy in Washington was three or four days, then it wouldn't be so inconvenient for people.

"But when, because of the volume of applications, the turnaround time is four to six weeks, then we know we have to be a lot more sympathetic with people. We will try our best to be as accommodating as we can."

A spokesperson for the Immigration Department said emergency travel documents were only available for travel to the UK, cost $27 and were not recognised in the US or Canada.