Thanks for your advice everyone...

We did not know about the CFO - so we have booked the first slot we could which is August 5 - hoping to have her our here on July 26.... so trying to get a slot before.

Regarding the passport a rough time scale was:

Started in November, but did not have all the offical documents until January (green birth cert was the delay) and the passport got issued in May. We are an unmarried couple so it took longer, i was chasing it every couple of days - i think i spoke to everyone in Liverpool and had a direct line to one person in the end.

The direct contact in the Liverpool office explained that if it's an unmarried couple the cause of the delay is checking the CENOMAR as these are often faked. He was that nice i sent him a case of wine once we got the passport, just for being the first person to explain everything to me.