When does the 10 weeks countdown start ?

[wrightstar]

this is my daughters child renewal timeline. When we applied in March it said approx wait time was 5 weeks. Then of course it changed to 10 weeks. We lost almost a month on our application because it kept rejecting the photo and the countersignature, we then changed to printed version of the digital form once photo was accepted and the same person countersigned it. This whole process cost us 22 days.

Does the 10 week count down start when it went in to the ‘processing’ stage or when they received the application? Do they still honour the 5 weeks as thats what it was when we applied or do timescales go out the window all together?

If it starts at ‘processing’ then we’ll have to cancel our holiday as the 10th week starts the day after we are due to fly. I cant afford to wait until 2 days before to cancel the trip as id lose all the money, if we cancelled sooner we would lose less.

We don’t fly until 25th June but nothing on this forum fills me with positivity.

Application history
Application being processed 12:18pm on 22 April 2022
Use paper form to confirm identity 1:56pm on 12 April 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 1:46pm on 12 April 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 1:39pm on 12 April 2022
Identity details received 12:49pm on 12 April 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 12:45pm on 12 April 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 4:09pm on 11 April 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 4:06pm on 11 April 2022
New photo received 2:23pm on 11 April 2022
Photo rejected 2:03pm on 11 April 2022
Documents received 4:41pm on 7 April 2022
Application received 8:19pm on 30 March 2022
Identity details received 8:19pm on 30 March 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 1:28pm on 30 March 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 11:00am on 30 March 2022
Application submitted 11:00am on 30 March 2022

[France22]

Wrightstar. Don’t lose hope at least you gave moved from received to processing. My damaged passport Has been in docs received since end April.

Try contacting your MP. I did on Saturday and he us looking into it this week. MPs have a have a new dept set up.
Keep positive

[davbell87]

I believe it’s 10 weeks from application assuming everything goes to plan. Worth noting it’s not a contractual timeline and just a guideline…. Could take less time could take longer… just depends on what it is they are looking into and the volume they have to deal with.

We have been in “processing” now since March 31st, so coming up to 7 weeks. Looking through this forum it seems to be between 6 to 8 weeks in the processing stage, followed by 1 to 2 weeks for printing and delivery.

You can pay to upgrade to a fast track if you are due to fly within two weeks. Just need to provide them your flight details and pay for the service.

[Angry mother]

I’ve been told it’s 10 weeks since documents received and acknowledged by them

[Bonz]

I’ve had two answers from official sources that don’t quite seem to tally.

On the page where you can check the status of your application, it says this:

I need to travel soon, can I speed up my application?
You are not eligible yet to ask for your application to be processed faster. This is because we received your documents less than 10 weeks ago.

We’ll update this page when you are eligible to get your passport sooner, with details of how to ask for it.

Now, what’s not clear there is what they mean be ‘received your documents’ – is that when the documents arrived, or when they acknowledged they had arrived?

On Twitter, I got a response that seemed to suggest the former:

Her Majesty’s Passport Office
@HM_Passport
·
May 9
Hi, please allow up to ten weeks from the date that the documents requested were physically delivered to the address we provided. Any time we have taken after that point, including updating the application tracker, does not affect the timeframe.

There appears to be a lag of around two weeks (average) between documents being signed for as delivered and being updated as received on the tracker, and that two weeks will in many cases be crucial. In my case, I applied 13 weeks before my flight date, had my docs signed for at Bootle just three days later, but they were not logged as received until 11 weeks before my flight. It still puts me within the 10 weeks, but with a much smaller margin for error! In some cases, the two-week lag from documents being “physically delivered” and subsequently signed for may make the difference, and it’s not clear when the 10-week clock starts ticking.

I hope the response I got on Twitter is the correct one, as that would give all of us who are waiting a little more breathing space.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Bonz.

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