Mum fears she could miss her son playing football for England due to passport problems

WATCH: John Ryall reports.

A mother fears she could miss her son playing football for England because the Passport Office has lost two of her passports.

Celia Evans who lives near Edenbridge, Kent, sent her British passport off in February but weeks later was told her application was withdrawn.

Officials asked her to send her expired Australian ID to restart the process, but now her new application has stalled.

And with just three weeks until she's meant to travel to Sweden, she's worried she won't be able to watch her son Jack play in the Youth World Cup.

Celia said trying to get though to the Passport Office is driving her mad: "It drives me insane. I'll do four hours of waiting and I'll still get cut off. I think I've spent up to 40 hours, maybe 50."

She is one of more than 35,000 people who've had to wait more than 10 weeks for their applications to be processed, but Celia says hers has stalled because after she sent off her documents, she believes her original British passport, and her expired Australian one, have been lost.

"To be trapped in this county and unable to leave, both because they have got my Australian passport and my British one, it just doesn't seem right at all. I can only assume that that second application is lost because I never got an application number and nobody can see anything except, I think, that withdrawn application.

"I don't know what is going on because nobody is telling me."

She added: "This a life event I will never get back, so if I miss it, it's an experience that Jack is going through that I can never share with him again."

Although she has applied for an emergency passport from the Australian embassy, they're worried it won't arrive in time.

Jack said: "I'm quite sad because I've been working up to this and if my mum can't come and watch it's like a part of me is missing in Sweden.

"She'd be there supporting me the whole time, to bolster my confidence and make sure I'm ready for the game, but she can't do that on the phone."

A Passport Office spokesperson said: "Staff are processing approximately 250,000 passport applications each week and between March and May, 98.5 percent of applications were completed within 10 weeks.

"But people should apply with plenty of time prior to travelling."