ROA renewal application in progress but booked to travel in

[mv70]

Looking for some advice please.

NZ passport holder with ROA and been resident in the UK for 25 years and at 12 years with my current employer. I have renewed my NZ passport and sent off for my new ROA certificate but the service level is now 6 months! I'm booked to fly to France in 2 weeks. I've checked the status online (waiting for decision). Emailed nationalityenquiries and received a standard reply.

My only option seems to be to request the return of my passport and then try to return without my ROA certificate. I'm concerned about being allowed to return to work without the certificate. I can take lots of supporting documents (expired passport with ROA cert, P60s, mortgage statements etc).

If I request the return I have to do it now because the document return SLA is also 10 working days.

Any guidance from the experts would be appreciated.

MV