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I applied for an adult renewal in March and got mine in three weeks. Applied on the same day for a child’s first passport and am still waiting.
It’s a little alarmist to suggest all applications across a three-month span have “gone into a black hole”.
But not all applications go into ‘processing’ on the timeline, so I’m not sure how that can be the starting point for the 10 weeks.
Also, HMPO tweeted this: “Linking your documents to your passport application will take longer during busy periods. Don’t worry, this does not affect our advice to allow up to ten weeks to get your passport.”
Thank you @stp – I tend to air on the side of optimism, but I have nothing concrete to reassure my wife with! Apparently, going on holiday without our daughter is not a viable option…
I have refrained from chasing up anything for the reason you highlighted, whereby applications can potentially get knocked into the manual route just by asking about them. That’s a cruel kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
For now it’s not urgent, but I wanted to have some knowledge of what I might need to do if it does come down to crunch time.
Can anyone shed any light on the reasons why an application might go into manual processing?
For those of us with applications left hanging on ‘documents received’, I understand the next thing we’re likely to see is either ‘approved’ or ‘processing’. I wonder what the red flags might be that would hint that it may go to the latter?
Also, I’ve seen timelines that show things like ‘photo rejected’ or identity details being requested several times – assuming there’s no ‘processing’ update, I guess those applications are still on the digital route? But perhaps multiple issues with any of those things (photo, identity details etc) could push it into manual.
I’m fretting over a first child’s passport and am on ‘documents received’ since May 9. I have concerns over the eligibility of the photo and the validity of the countersignature, but I wonder if either of those would necessarily mean a switch to manual processing – they seem like the kind of issues that an automatic digital system should be able to handle!
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
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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.
Strange. It seems like if they do reject it, they’re quick to check when you submit again – it appears to mean someone is basically on the case so things will move. I’m braced and ready with a different countersignatory and photo.
Incidentally, I applied for a passport renewal myself on the same day as applying for my daughter’s first – mine has been approved today. I was hoping hers came first, but I guess that was never likely!
I thought that meant my friend had filled in the form, not that all the details had been checked and confirmed. But could it in fact mean I’ve ‘passed’ that stage?
@rachmac thank you – I had considered it might be best to be proactive, but then I didn’t want to flag a potential issue if they were ready to let it slide… I think they do have discretion, as the point is to avoid fraudulent applications and not to be sticklers where all other details tally (of course it’s different with incorrect info, but in my case it’s about the profession of the person who countersigned my docs).And @stolenpassport – the full timeline for mine is in my initial post. That’s where I’m at for now.
