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Passport Office: Liverpool
Application type: Adult renewal, overseas, very expired passport triggering requirement for re-submission of supporting documentation
Time from “Being processed” to “Approved”: 79 daysPassport printed and sent 1:34pm on 10 June 2020
Application approved 10:21am on 10 June 2020
Application being processed 8:09am on 23 March 2020
Documents received 3:23pm on 20 March 2020
Use paper form to confirm identity 9:23am on 9 March 2020
Ask someone to confirm your identity 9:21am on 9 March 2020
Application submitted 9:21am on 9 March 2020Applied for my first adult on 10th march exactly 3 months today to Liverpool HMPO. Called the helpline today and explained my situation and why i wanted my passport urgently. Although they were sympathetic, the response i got was “sorry we cannot consider that as sympathetic reason, we can only consider if somebody is sick, and you want to travel because of that”.
What kind of logic is that? It was a waste of 20 mins on the phone. I think they haven’t even started looking at my application.
It’s been 3 months, it was well before the lockdown. i have seen people who applied more than a month later than me, have already got the passport. Don’t they follow a queue system?Husband and I both applied for first British passports in May – processing since 14th May in Durham And Peterborough. I’ve chased via Twitter but only had standard responses. I’m a dual Australian/UK citizen, husband NZ/UK. Waiting on passports to enable us to relocate to the Netherlands for work. Watching this thread and timelines with interest!
I received tracking SMS from DX yesterday (I live in Austria) and they indicated delivery at the ‘end of the day’ tomorrow (12th). Checked tracking and it only mentions one packet number. I thought the old passport was returned separately from the new one? Hopefully, this does not mean anything is a miss……
Application made from Austria to Liverpool Office on 17th March.
People receiving their passports seem to be all from online applications. Anyone applied by post and received theirs recently?
Although my passport story is over now and I have mine I’ve looked back at this forum over the last couple of days.
During the course of my application saga I telephoned the Passport Office Advice Line about six times. The first four calls were about my initial renewal application and included at least three calls before I sent it off, and one after. This involved three passport officers, one of whom I spoke to twice.
It’s worth my emphasizing here that I got a different story from each of the three officers about whether to apply and how long it would take. One for example was very strident about me not sending it off, insisting that I should wait for the fast track service to resume. Another said the smart move would be to join the queue before it was swamped by pent-up demand in the summer. The last two calls were about the non-receipt of any tracking information from TNT about the delivery of the new passport, repeated in a Passport Office reply to a tweet. While some of what these two officers said, and also the one who tweeted me, was the same they also contradicted each other in key detail.
I was left unconvinced that those on the advice line or Twitter really know what is going on at all. I suspect they work in different passport offices, but at the time seemed to be working from home, and based their comments on conditions in their own passport offices or what they believe to be the conditions. There is zero consistency.
In that sense, this all illustrates a fairly chaotic communications set-up which is hit and miss. I don’t think anyone involved was trying to mislead me – but clearly some of them believe things that just aren’t true.
I will now post about people abroad with expired passports.
Standard adult renewal, sent old passport to Durham but transferred to Liverpool for reasons unknown:
Application Approved – 20:17 11 June 2020
Application being processes – 10:12 26 May 2020
Documents Received – 08:48 22 May 2020
Application Received – 15:08 18 May 2020
Application Submitted – 15:07 18 May 2020Quite impressed with the turnaround especially since they transferred my application to Liverpool, for which I’ve only seen bad reviews.
My research about my son and his children in Vietnam threw up this interesting revelation.
If you are abroad and your UK passport has expired or is about to do so and you are freaking out about the lack of any progress here, this may help – but I think only if you still have your expired or about to expire passport. It seems some countries have agreed with the UK to accept such passports up to the end of 2021 as evidence for renewing things like work permits and visas.
This is the information on the Foreign Office’s website for people in Vietnam:
Recognition of extended expiry of passports
The British Government has agreed with the Vietnamese Immigration Department that any passport held by a British national which has an expiry date of 1 January 2020 onwards, or has less than 6 months validity, will now be recognised as expiring on 31 December 2021 when submitted for the purpose of renewing a visa or residence permit.This is because British nationals in Vietnam are unable to renew their passports at this time due to the closure of the UK visa application centres due to COVID-19 and the limited processing of passport applications in the UK. The extended expiry date will temporarily enable British nationals with an expiring UK passport to apply for a visa or residence permit renewal in Vietnam without having to apply for a new passport.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/vietnam/entry-requirements
I’d suggest you check the pages for the country you’re in and see if a similar deal has been struck. This might mean you can hold back from applying until things have returned to normal. If that ever happens
While i am also waiting, can I address a question to the ones who have already received their new passports:
Is everyone getting blue passports now?
Is it office dependent? is it random?
Many thanksI submitted 4 applications in May (all child renewals). Two went to Durham and two to Peterborough. They were all posted (separately) on the 16th May. So far 1 has been approved and sent. The other 3 are at processing.
Timeline for completed application (Peterborough):
New passport received – 10 June
Passport printed and sent 11:14am on 9 June 2020
Application approved 5:36pm on 8 June 2020
Application being processed 12:23pm on 27 May 2020
Documents received 1:24pm on 19 May 2020
Posted – 16 MayFinally got my good news just minutes ago that my passport has been approved. It was a renewal sent to Peterborough on the 28th March, processing since 7th April and with numerous chases and escalations and written proof I needed it for government work purposes.
It was an adult renewal with change of surname due to marriage. Anything that isn’t a standard renewal and requires manual intervention and assessment (such as a name change) is still subject to delays.
Good luck everyone!
To those asking about the new passports, I can say only this: mine is the new blue one. Its internal design is significantly different from the red one. The old title page has been replaced with a new type bearing the holder’s photograph, the number and a 50p-shaped 19-20mm wide hexagonal laminated window that shows your picture on page 3 behind (see below). At the top is a hexagonal outline with the title ‘Series 3’ in it. Page 2, the back of the title page, has all your details on it with main photograph and machine-readable strip as before. The main photograph is now 34 by 43 mm. In the old red passports it was 32 x 40 mm.
The title page with page 2 is much thicker and more rigid than in the old red passport (even more so than the cover). They’re covered with heavy laminate and on p. 2 this is embossed with the large letters UK and various parallel elliptical lines, as well as other features designed to resist forgery or alteration. There is also a tiny panel with your photograph once again and your birthdate printed over this little picture. This laminate bothers me. It’s so firm I can see it beginning to lift with age or if the edge of the page gets damaged. Keep an eye on that.
Page 3 is for official observations as before and is normal paper. It features a smaller colour version of your photograph in much better resolution than in the old ones, and this is the page that you physically sign on receipt (your signature used to appear on p. 2).
So I find it hard to believe the Passport Office will be issuing such different types side by side. Surely they’ll be only the new ones? The new type is clearly far more secure, or is intended to be.
3 months burnt!
Application history
Photo rejected 9:40am on 12 June 2020
Application being processed 3:08pm on 18 March 2020
Documents received 11:44am on 18 March 2020
Application received 9:22am on 14 March 2020
Identity details received 9:22am on 14 March 2020
Email sent to person confirming your identity 9:13am on 14 March 2020
Ask someone to confirm your identity 9:08am on 14 March 2020
Application submitted 9:08am on 14 March 2020How can they reject the application because of the picture/photo?
Before a picture can be accepted, you upload it and it shows you on the graph/meter whether the image is suitable or not.
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