Hopefully this will offer some of you a bit of reassurance..
I travel on Friday and still had no movement on my application “Documents Received” since 27/05/2022. I attended Peterborough today arriving at 0700hrs (I was about 30th in the queue). By 0715hrs a member of staff was out organising us into queue’s as follows:
1. Travelling today (And have had an application in the system for at least 6 weeks)
2. Attending pre-booked fast track appointment
3. Travelling in 24hrs (And have had an application in the system for at least 6 weeks)
4. Travelling in 48hrs (And have had an application in the system for at least 6 weeks)
5. Waiting for over 10 weeks.
I fell in to queue number 4. At this point it’s worth saying you will need to prove you’re travelling in the next 48hrs with a return journey and that you’ve been waiting at least 6 weeks, people were sent home if they couldn’t prove either; regardless of when they were due to travel. Harsh, but thems was the rules.
By 0930am the first 3 queue’s had been sorted and it was our turn. It was a fair wait but the staff were always on hand to answer questions and make sure you’re in the right place and always very pleasant about it.
By 10am I’d been called forward and given the good news that my Passport was able to be processed and printed on the day (£102.00 fee) and would be ready for collection between 13.30-14.00. All done and dusted by 13.45.
I can’t speak for everyone, but there were more people leaving the Peterborough office with a smile than there were angry.
For what could, and probably should, have been a properly stressful day was made unbelievably easy by the staff at Peterborough. So efficient and approachable! It’s clear they genuinely want to help but their hands are tied if you don’t meet the criteria I set out above. So be good to the staff, they work properly hard to make sure the day runs smoothly.
Good luck all.