[chrissy]

Hi pclem0003,

I used the passport upgrade service and had the option for the passport to be sent via Royal Mail’s special delivery service. They called on Monday morning, said they could get my son’s passport printed the next day and said it would be delivered by Royal Mail on Wednesday by 1pm, which was ok for us. There was also the option to collect from the passport office but I live in South West England and the passport was processed in Glasgow, so wasn’t convenient. Hope this helps.

A word of caution when you sent your email requesting the upgrade. Be aware that the email address can be case sensitive. I didn’t know that was the case and I had originally sent the request to glasgowupgradeteam@hmpo.gov.uk (all in small case). I didn’t get an automated confirmation message (I didn’t know I was meant to receive one) but also didn’t get any failure message indicating that it wasn’t delivered, so I thought everything was ok. I then waited for 6 days (4 working + weekend) and had heard nothing back so was getting worried. I called the passport enquiry line and the lady I spoke to was the one that told me that I should have received an acknowledgement and I should resend the email. When I double checked the address with her she mentioned that she believed it was case sensitive and the correct address was GlasgowUpgradeTeam@hmpo.gov.uk. So I forwarded the original email to that address and got the automated response straight after. I can’t tell you how I felt at that point, realising the amount of time that had been wasted, only 9 days away from the day we were traveling.

I was next to the phone all day the next day (Friday 20th) hoping I would get a call from Glasgow and when the day ended and heard nothing back I lost all hope. Then a small miracle happened. They called me on Monday morning, as I mentioned earlier, told me I could have the passport on Wednesday, which we did. We are flying this evening 🙂

Apologies for the long message.
Hope it gives hope to everyone.

[Author]

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