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If anyone’s interested, as well as my wife’s (13 days Hemel Hempstead) we have three other family member passport renewals in the last fortnight:
1. Bootle, adult renewal 12 days from initial application, new one delivered 5 April, a week after the old passport was delivered to HMPO.
2. Bootle, child renewal, applied the same day, printed on 8 April, now en route.
3. Bootle, adult renewal but requiring maiden to married name changed, applied the same day as 1. and 2., email to say it was being printed 8 April. The human intervention to check marriage certificate seems to have had an impact of only about 4 days.Both 2. and 3. should be delivered by 12 April, exactly 14 days after all three applications’ old passports were delivered to HMPO Bootle.
The Independent has a story though that the 10-week rule is going to stay, clearly so HMPO can cover its back: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-office-10-week-rule-b2316573.html
Here’s an extract if you can’t access that:
Today, three in 1,000 applications take longer than 10 weeks. And, according to Matthew Rycroft – permanent secretary at the Home Office – there are no plans for reducing the target time to its pre-Covid level.
“We have actually decided to keep it at 10 weeks,” he told MPs. “We know that it will be spiky and there will be times when it will take the full 10 weeks.
“We are going to keep the 10 weeks, because we know we will need that flexibility at some point during the year.”Interestingly the same story refers to people unofficially holding two or more UK passports. Apparently, short of manually checking against names, HMPO has no way of checking if people have two passports. Certainly sounds like a way round the renewal problem – but I’m amazed it happens.
The interesting details from your timeline, DragonNinja, show that documents at HMPOs are also being worked through during the evening to be recorded as ‘received’ against individual applications, and passports are being approved even early in the morning on a weekend day, despite it being a bank holiday weekend. Along with clear evidence of passports being printed in the middle of the night (my wife’s was printed after midnight last Saturday), this points to procedures carrying on at all hours. I wonder if that’s normal or part of the contingency plans for the strike weeks?
However, it ain’t arrived until it’s arrived so nothing is guaranteed until then. Bear in mind it could be delivered by DHL (as my wife’s was) or TNT and that you may well not get any tracking information beforehand. You might, but we didn’t.
If you look at Latest Passport Waiting Times on this site it’s still overwhelmingly the case today (but not 100% exclusively) that those currently reporting receipt of passports had originally sent their applications to Bootle, Corby, or Hemel Hempstead in the last 2-3 weeks.
It would be most instructive to know whether these three HMPOs are responsible for most of the applications being processed at present, or whether there are loads of other applications which have been sent to the striking offices and which are now in limbo or being processed far more slowly and we’re just not hearing about them.
However, the story seems to be dead in the news which suggests there aren’t many people (yet?) being stuck without passports due to the strikes.
I’ll guess DragonNinja that your passport will be printed within 39-40 hours of approval (that seems to be the norm, regardless of day or night, so I predict by c. 0200 on Monday morning) and you might get it by Wednesday next week.
Although some people are still reporting to this site a very quick turnaround on applications it’s quite noticeable that these are largely applications sent to the (apparently) non-striking HMPOs at Bootle, Corby, and Hemel Hempstead (though I spotted one that went to London). It’s impossible to know whether this is representative of the wider picture since the sample is self-selecting. It may be that applications sent to other HMPOs which hadn’t been processed by the end of last week before the strike started are indeed sitting in a pile gathering dust now.
My wife’s took thirteen days (Hemel Hempstead), arriving here on 4 April, but another family member had theirs back today (6 April). That took only seven days from applying to receiving the passport (Bootle), which is remarkable.
The Home Office is sticking to the 10-week waiting time for the obvious reason that it will probably be easily able to meet that, even with the striking HMPOs, while I’ll bet they are silently processing applications as fast as possible where they can. It’s a pity it’s all so opaque – it would be interesting to know if some applications are still being sent to the striking offices, or whether as many as possible are now being directed to the non-striking ones. The story seems to have disappeared from the news.
I can only imagine how frustrating this is for Saracen and others in the same position.
My wife’s (normal adult renewal) passport turned up at 4.25pm on Tuesday 4 April. That’s 13 days since applying (inc two weekends)- application sent to Hemel Hempstead. It was printed just before 1am on Saturday 1 April. I’ve uploaded the details to this site but I made a small mistake: it was delivered by DHL, NOT TNT. We never received any tracking notification so had no idea when it was going to show up.
It’s early days yet but I’m mightily glad we sent the application in when we did, despite the strikes, and ignored those dire warnings about massive delays. Now we can relax (mine expires in seven years). I hope those whose applications are still pending get good news soon.
That’s a very interesting post kingClackers. Thank you. So, from reading the link I see that once the passport has been approved and electronically sent for printing it effectively passes out of the hands of HMPO and is transferred to the third-party French printing contractor in Durham and then on to the courier. This ought to mean that anyone whose application reached the approval stage by Friday (31 March) ought to be safe, even if their application went to a an office where staff are striking from Monday.
I note also that a period of time lasting c. 36-40 hours (usually closer to 39 hours) generally elapses between approval and printing, and that the latter can occur at any time of day or night, seven days a week. My wife’s passport was printed just before 0100 this morning. Since it’s a weekend we won’t expect it before Monday or Tuesday. However, we gave our landline number because we receive no mobile signal in the house so I am not sure if we’ll get a tracking number.
It will be interesting to see what happens to other applicants from Monday onwards. Either the process leading to approval at striking offices will slow down drastically or the contingency plans will kick in and nothing will change.
I can only wish you well. We had an email today (Thursday 30 March)to say my wife’s passport (standard renewal) has been approved at Hemel Hempstead and sent for printing. We had an email on Monday (27 March) acknowledging receipt of the old passport, which had actually been delivered (by SD) to them on 23 March. Based on other people’s experiences we ought to have the passport by early next week. This is rather interesting because it certainly doesn’t provide a picture of passport offices choking under an impending backlog of applications as the strike approaches, but obviously we have no idea how applications are being distributed or what will happen next week, especially to the striking offices (which Hemel Hempstead and Corby aren’t).
Many months ago I posted about my grandson’s suspended first-time passport application from Vietnam. He was born in Hanoi in December 2019. The application was made by my son in January. Both parents are 100% British born but work in Vietnam. The application was suspended by the PO in March 2020 by cancelling the online interview. In late June my son wrote to our local MP about the delay and total silence. He also wrote to ask for his son’s birth certificate to be returned. The birth certificate was returned but with no further information. The interview was then suddenly arranged for 22 September and conducted online from a Passport Officer’s home address (the PO having finally got their acts together with the software). The passport was printed on 24 September and a day or two later the MP wrote to my son to say that had happened – the PO told my son nothing. By using Twitter messaging I managed to get the DHL tracking number out of the PO which had also not been supplied to my son. The passport arrived at Hanoi on 1 October and was collected by my son today (2 October). We have no idea whether the MP’s intervention made all the difference, but it is interesting the PO kept him up to speed but not us.
Application time: 8.5 MONTHS
Delay time: 7 MONTHS
The passport is a blue Brexit one, and of course has a picture of a one-month-old child in a passport for a ten-month-old.
I just found this website. It details the reopening of certain Visa Application Centres in the UK and overseas. The next key date seems to be 22 June. This will be of interest especially go people who have applied for UK passports overseas and whose applications were suspended in March (like for example my baby grandson in Vietnanm, whose application has been on ice since March along with all his identity documents stuck in Durham):
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.
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
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.
Hello Rothbard. Pleased to be of help. Of course it’s ridiculous that this sort of information isn’t automatically available, is it not? Why on Earth doesn’t the Passport Office tell you how to track the delivery when they tell you they’ve sent it? Why did TNT not send me tracking information? Why did two Passport Office members of staff insist that the courier would automatically send tracking information when that never happened? The list is endless …
Delighted you now know your delivery information. Fingers crossed!!
Yes: I did get the new blue one with its rather differently displayed information: larger b&w photo and a small colour one on the facing page, as well as sort of title page with the photo on that too.
Further to my post above, my passport has now arrived.
Application made: 28 April
Old passport received at Peterborough: 29 April
Application being processed: 12 May
Application approved: 3 June
Passport printed and sent: 4 June
Passport received: 4.50 pm, 8 June (note that this is a Monday – a weekend slowed the delivery process)Note also that although the PO and TNT had my email address and mobile number, I never received any tracking information in either an email or a text, despite the PO Advice Line insisting that I would do so. You may well need to contact TNT direct on delivery.hmpo@fedex.com to get the crucial consignment number, without which you’ll get nowhere. Tell them your postcode and Passport Application Number.
OK. As promised: details of delivery.
1. Despite being told by TWO Passport Office members of staff on their Advice Line this weekend (6/7 June) that I would ‘definitely’ receive a text and/or email from the courier to confirm tracking details, I received nothing after the passport left Peterborough’s PO.
2. Thanks to a very helpful person at TNT who responded to my query on Friday when she told me the passport had not yet appeared on their system, she emailed me this morning (Monday 8 June) to tell me the passport had now appeared on the system and was out for delivery today. She provided me with a link that showed the TNT consignment number which is completely different from the Passport Application Number. It would appear you won’t get anywhere tracking it without the consignment number. You can try with the PAN but don’t include any letters.
The email address to contact TNT is delivery.hmpo@fedex.com (yes, TNT is part of Fedex)
The tracking page is delivery.tnt.com/tracking
3. The envelope with the passport showed only the TNT tracking number, not the PAN. On the back someone had written in biro my mobile number which shows that the PO and TNT had it, but I never received any texts from either.
4. The passport was delivered by a courier driving a small van, not a big TNT van. I assume the passports are delivered in batches by drivers only delivering passports. They do not seem to deliver passports on Saturday or Sunday.
5. The tracking showed that the passport was collected late in the evening on the date it was printed (Thursday 5 June) and was entered into TNT’s system the next day, even though that did not show up until this morning.
Summary of my timeline: application 28 April, old passport received 29 April, being processed 12 May, approved 4 June, printed 5 June and sent (Thursday), received 4.50 pm Monday 8 June. Five weeks and six days.
I have found this to be a monumentally stressful experience. I cannot imagine how much more frustrating it is for anyone else on this forum still stuck in limbo. You have my sympathy – truly. Now I am going to go and enjoy not having to worry about this again for 9 1/2 years.
