Peterborough

[RichMLindsR]

It looks like I am going to need to do the upgrade and call this Friday as within 2 weeks of travel. Hanban – thats awful, your husband did but you didn’t – have you missed your travel??
The whole thing is so stressful

[lizwebbo2022]

I applied for passport on 16th April docs sent next day recorded
They ‘received’ docs on 16th may
Then went to application processing on 18th May

Then as of last week it has gone back a step to ‘received documents’ again and completly removed any log of the processing part?

Has this happened to anyone else? It’s ridiculous!

I have had to spend £500 moving this holiday to end of august and now I’m worried I won’t even get it in time for that!

[PV]

I applied for a lost child passport on 1st May and am due to travel on 27th June. I was put forward for an upgrade when I was within 2 weeks of travel and heard nothing from the upgrade team.

On 22nd June, I decided to email our local MP and received a call back from the MP office within an hour! The person I spoke to raised our issue with the passport office in London that afternoon.

I received a call from the Glasgow passport office upgrade team where the passport was being processed before 5pm the same afternoon. I paid the upgrade fee and was told I could collect from Peterborough, my local passport office, today. I had a call midday to say the passport could be collected at my chosen time. The passport has since been collected and I am very relieved!

If you’re in a similar position, my advice is contact your local MP. I do not believe it was coincidence that I was contacted by the upgrade team on the same day.

I really hope this helps those awaiting a call from the upgrade team.

Thanks to all those that have contributed to this forum. It has helped me.

[jackthomson687]

Passport renewal –

Received old passport on 25th June

I am going away on the 31st August
Reading different peoples experiences has got me worried. Can anyone tell me what there experience from the stage I am at the moment

[RichMLindsR]

Thought I’d give some hope to anyone travelling soon.

This morning I drove to Peterborough without an appointment. I got there at 6:15am and was 7 from the front but found out your position in the queue is not relevant.
Staff were brilliant and sorted people into groups 1. Anyone travelling in next 24 hours straight to the front, anyone travelling in next 48 hours behind them next, then anyone waiting over 10 weeks to fill in a form to get a call back from someone inside…. I was on the call back list, which this time did materialise.

As far as I know everyone that needed one to fly within 48 hours got theirs, they managed to dig out and look at my application and print the passport by 1.15pm (I did have to pay the upgrade fee).

The staff at the office all clearly care about people and know what they are doing (unlike all of the call centre staff on the “help” line.)

Good luck to anyone in the loop and might be good to know if all else fails and you fit into one of the three groups above then there is a way.

[Pass2121]

Hi guys,

Been following this forum and the dates everyone is posting since I applied for my child’s renewal. We realised two weeks ago that we fall under the 6 month validity for our holiday destination. So applied online on the 14th of June – and received today from Peterborough. Honestly the only reason it was stressful was because of us, the passport office were amazing.

I wrote them a little note when I sent off the documents, not sure if that made a difference but the service was lightening. Hope everyones documents come quickly.

[Pra]

@RichMLindsR Thank you for the update. is it 10 weeks from when old passport was received? My son’s application is now in week 10, so looking at my options to expedite things. due to travel in 2 weeks’ time. Can I ask if you applied for an upgrade before you turned up at Peterborough? Was there a very long queue when you got there? Thank you.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by Pra.

[RichMLindsR]

Hi,

I did apply for the upgrade but had no confidence in it at all so turned up with no appointment.

I arrived at 6:30 and was 7th in line but this was irrelevant as a lady came out about 7:45 and prioritised in flight date order. To be honest it shocked me how calm and organised everyone was and how easy they made it – I expected carnage but didnt see a single argument or anyone kicking off. Complete polar opposite of the phone line.

Obviously take all your supporting docs with you just in case but mine weren’t needed as they had everything there.

Good luck

[Pra]

@RichMLindsR Thank you very much for the prompt reply. I will call them today for an upgrade and will be going to Peterborough next week if there is no movement in the application.

[shenniko]

Were due to fly out End of August, and so far the process hasnt been very long on the waiting side..

Does anyone know how long it usually takes to print the actual passport now everything has been approved?:

Your new passport is being printed. We’ll update this page when it’s ready to dispatch.

Application history
StatusDate
Application approved 1:03pm on 1 July 2022
Identity details received 1:00pm on 1 July 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 4:53pm on 29 June 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 2:28pm on 29 June 2022
New photo received 10:20am on 24 June 2022
Photo rejected 7:26am on 24 June 2022
Documents received 6:03pm on 16 June 2022
Application received 9:56am on 12 June 2022
Application submitted 9:56am on 12 June 2022

[JakeM]

Are Peterborough able to do interviews if you turn up? And then issue a passport in the same day?

My application is with Peterborough and I fly on Thursday. My plan was to drive 3 hours to the Peterborough office tomorrow morning, but I’ve just been told to email to book my interview (which I have done).

[JCM0907]

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.

[dibdob59]

@JCM0907

Thank you for the detailed report on Peterborough but I have a couple of queries please.

In queue 4, why did you have to pay £102 to get a passport you had already paid for in your original application?

In queue 5, did applicants have to be travelling within a certain number of days once they had waited over 10 weeks?

You mention the staff were checking travel/holiday bookings and wanted to see evidence of a return journey. So they weren’t just checking the outbound date of travel being in the next 48 hours?

I wonder how this affects people travelling abroad for a longer period over the summer who may not have booked their return journey yet?

If you have answers to any of the above I would be grateful. Thank you.

[JCM0907]

I’ll do my best @dibdob59

The £102 paid on the day was to upgrade to the online premium service, which costs a total of £177. (They took the £75 I already paid when I started my online appli action so I just needed to pay the outstanding).

No, these were people who were just wanting their passport sorted. If they were travelling soon they were sorted in to queue’s 1, 3 or 4 to be seen and hopefully sorted on the day. Worth mentioning i heard anyone waiting over 10 weren’t being charged the upgrade fee.

No, staff wanted to see evidence of a return trip to avoid people booking a sneaky cheap flight in the next 48hrs to speed up their application. I’m sure if people are travelling for a longer period this will be evidenced by having details of accommodation booked for the duration – but this is something they can talk to staff about if they need to attend.

This is only my experience on the day, I’m not trying to do a job for HMPO but just wanting to offer a bit of advice to those who were in the same situation I found myself in.

[dibdob59]

@JCM0907

Thank you so much for the very detailed information. Just to clarify, you had not phoned or emailed any department in advance to book an appointment or upgrade, you just went straight to Peterborough to sort it out?

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