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An addendum to the previous post. This afternoon (Saturday 6 June) I did get the callback from the Passport Office (over 24 hours after I left my number). I decided to have the same conversation with the operator and see what he said. The story – needless to say – was a little different, though much was the same:
1. This time I was told the courier companies are collecting every day (instead of only a couple of times a week as I was told earlier today) but a passport probably won’t be collected until the day after the day on which the ‘printed and sent’ email went out. It could be TNT or DX, he confirmed.
2. He said that the courier company has to enter the passport on its system and send out tracking information by text and/or email to the passport holder, but their systems may not update over a weekend until Monday. He said tracking information should always be sent out by the courier company.
3. He added that the courier companies are so busy and sometimes understaffed that this may result in a delay to delivery, also because there is at present high demand for passports.
So, there you go – two conversations with two Passport Office agents asked the same questions and some differences and similarities in the stories. He suggested that if I had heard nothing by Wednesday next week to call in again.
OK – some delivery information. I managed to get through to the Passport Office Advice line today (Saturday 6 June) on 0300 222 0000. I asked some very specific questions about delivery and tracking. As we all know this information is never wholly reliable, but this is what I was told by the Passport Office chap who answered my call:
1. He said: the Passport Office is using TNT for delivery but is also still using DX to finish off the remaining part of DX’s contract (TNT started taking over in January 2020).
2. He said:the courier companies have significantly reduced the number of days they collect passports from the individual passport offices. This used to be done 6 days a week, but now it’s only about 2. This means that your nice new passport (and perhaps mine) is still at the passport office in a bag awaiting courier collection, despite the email being sent out to you that says it’s been printed and sent. Clearly we have no idea when those reduced days are. If they’re Monday and Wednesday – for instance – then your passport might be ready on Thursday but not collected until the Monday.
3. He said: once the courier company collects the passports they are entered into the courier’s system along with contact details for each passport holder. This should result in an email and/or text to be sent to you with tracking information and date of delivery. Obviously, if couriers are making collections with reduced frequency from the passport offices then a few days may elapse before you even get the tracking information.
4. He said: if your letterbox is in the front door of an individual home (i.e. NOT a shared front door) then a signature is not normally a requirement – the courier will push the passport through into your house. If your letterbox is in a metal box OUTSIDE then they will need to get someone to come to the door to receive the passport.
5. I told the operator that not everyone seems to have received tracking information. He said it goes into spam sometimes, but that the couriers always send out tracking information. Whether that’s true remains to be seen. All I can say is that I’ve heard nothing so far in terms of tracking since the ‘printed and sent’ email on 4 June.
6. This is my speculation but it would seem the critical factor is when the courier collects the passports from the passport office. Since the courier is allowed 2-3 days to deliver once it has your passport, this could in theory mean an overall period of up to 6 days or so before your passport is actually delivered, despite some people apparently receiving theirs within 1-2 days.
I don’t know about anyone else, but the amount of money I’d pay and the distance I’d drive to end this here and now is increasing exponentially by the day. The frustrated impotent exasperation is becoming all-consuming.
When (if!) my passport finally arrives I will give full details here of exactly what did and didn’t happen with regard to tracking information, what courier was involved and how the passport was delivered, and precisely how long it took to get here after supposedly being sent.
As for the advice line, that’s become much busier. If you call up now you’ll probably be held in the queue. After 70 seconds you’ll be offered the callback service or you can continue to hold. This offer repeats every 35 seconds. Shortly after 3 minutes of waiting you are taken to the callback service anyway – I did that yesterday but nobody ever called me back. It took me several goes of re-dialling to speak to a person.
Thank you lewlewduckie. That’s very useful to know about the lack of tracking, and not needing the signature – I had a feeling that must be the case or else the email from the PO about having printed and sent the passport would provide the relevant guidance for tracking.
The delivery details seem to vary. I checked with my neighbour. He renewed his passport in February, before lockdown. His passport was delivered by TNT three days after the ‘printed and sent’ email from the PO. No tracking either, but he had to sign for it – probably because it was the first time he’d had a passport sent to that address (he only moved in late last year).
One question: when your passport arrived, did it have a separate TNT consignment number on the envelope? Or just the Passport Application Number starting PEX?
Thanks hottoast. The plot thickens. I have had no text from TNT but then I don’t recall ever giving the Passport Office my mobile number (where I live there’s no signal in the house so I don’t usually bother with it), so TNT wouldn’t have it anyway to send me a tracking number or link. I certainly haven’t had any texts from the Passport Office updating me on the passport; I’ve only had their emails which included the latest saying it was printed and sent on 4 June – this added no information about tracking delivery or anything.
Did you pay for expedited delivery? That might explain it. It’s all very odd.
Thanks hottoast but, yes, I put a space into my postcode along with my Passport Application Number. All I get on the TNT site is an error message, saying ‘Error. We could not find what you were looking for’.
I even emailed TNT and they said they had no record of anything at my postcode or under my PAN number. Which TNT link did you use for tracking? Did you just enter your postcode and the Passport Application Number?
I don’t know whether to panic or not; this has been stressful enough already. I thought it was all over, but instead I’m now freaking out. I also contacted the Passport Office to ask about tracking. I was asked to send a Twitter direct message which I did, but have had no reply. I tried telephoning but it diverted to their callback service, and no one has called back either.
Does anyone know if passports that have been printed and sent can be tracked through a courier? This information isn’t apparent anywhere, including the Passport Office email that told me my new passport is on its way.
I’ve found some references to TNT being involved but my application number (PAN) doesn’t work on their tracking site. I’m not concerned – I’d just like to know which day it’s going to come, and whether I need to be around to receive it.
Has anyone else managed to track their delivery?
My standard renewal application to Peterborough is now completed:
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 JuneNow awaiting delivery within the next few days
My standard renewal application to Peterborough is now completed:
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 JuneObviously I have to wait for it to arrive now, but as far as I can see processing time has reduced to about three weeks. Once approved it seems to be by the next working day that the passport is printed and sent out. It would seem that another 2-3 days elapse before delivery.
Things are definitely speeding up.
My timeline with a renewal at Peterborough is now:
Application made online: 28 April 2020
Old passport received at Peterborough: 29 April
Application being processed: 12 May
Application approved: 2.52 pm, 3 June (15 working days since processing initiated)I was entirely reconciled to waiting until July or even longer so this was a nice surprise today. It isn’t over until it’s over, but I imagine I will have the passport within 5-7 days now.
Presumably then rjo when you applied you went through the Replace Online service, whereas because the damage to mine was so minor I went through the Renew Online procedure.
Replace Online is for damaged, lost or stolen passports. Identity confirmation is usually necessary for lost or stolen, but for damaged only (I think) where the photo page, chip, laminate are damaged and/or details are indecipherable.
I completely share your frustration. If it’s going to take 7-10 weeks one could accept that far more easily if they just said when, i.e. ‘your application should be completed by 10 July’ or whenever. As it is we are simply in a fog.
Ironically, in 2011 my passport was stolen (in Athens). I came back on an emergency passport. I applied for the replacement passport the day after I came back (on a Tuesday). The new passport arrived on the Friday. Happy days. Mind you, if that hadn’t happened I’d have renewed the stolen passport in 2014 and not had the problem now.
Thanks rjo. The only damage to my passport is a small tear (about 12 mm) at the edge of an internal page and to be fair it hasn’t been queried on passing through immigration anywhere including the UK, but of course one is advised to get a passport with any damage replaced because some countries’ immigration officers can get agitated about the slightest problem. There isn’t any damage to the key pages with my picture which is what would cause problems with a UK renewal application (perhaps that’s the case with yours?) and other very specific damage (see below). Mine is otherwise only going through a standard renewal and that’s all I applied for, though I pointed out with a post-it note that one page had a small tear in it.
The UK Passport Office’s definition of damage (which then crucially requires identity to be confirmed) is:
details are indecipherable
the laminate has lifted enough to allow the possibility of photo substitution
discolouration to the bio-data page
chemical or ink spillage on any page
missing or detached pages
the chip or antenna shows through the end paper on the back cover for the new style e-passports
the chip has been identified as damaged after investigationNone of those apply to mine.
WWFC’s application to Peterborough was submitted a week before mine but my documents (i.e. old passport) arrived at Peterborough on 29 April only one day after WWFC’s.
Despite that, my application wasn’t even admitted to ‘being processed’ for another THIRTEEN DAYS (12 May), twelve days after WWFC’s new passport was sent out.
Mine is still ‘being processed’ (27 May) which as we all now know is a a very elastic term. It sounds like something is happening but in reality it is probability just heaped up in a long stack of applications awaiting processing. As it happens I can afford to be patient, and I also fully accepted from the outset that I’d have to wait an extended length of time, but that doesn’t mean I am not very confused by the intense variability in service. Mine is a standard online renewal with no complications. The online photo submission page said the picture I had uploaded was right into the Good sector. My old passport had not expired but a) had a damaged page and b) will be useless from September on for helping my son and his small children out of Vietnam where they are stuck for the moment, because it would no longer have enough time left on it. I was assured by someone on the Passport Office helpline that I had done the right thing because it is in the queue and I ought to get the new one in time.
Shannon81x: which passport office did your partner’s passport go to? Was it the same one as yours? We’re beginning to build up a picture here but it’s crucial to know which offices applications were made so that we can identify the ones operating some sort of service and those that aren’t.
Daily Express story link below (from yesterday). As ever with newspapers the story seems to contain some contradictions such as saying that only urgent passport cases are being processed, while later on it quotes a Home Office spokesperson saying that standard renewals are being processed but are taking longer than usual. The story seems to have been inspired by one in the Telegraph on 22 May.
My application is at Peterborough. I was in the city centre last week taking a walk round the outside of the cathedral. The Passport Office is quite close. As I walked back on my way home I noticed two members of the PO staff returning to the office in the mid-afternoon and going in through the staff entrance. If nothing else that does at least prove some of the staff are at work though what they’re doing is anyone’s guess.
What there’s no indication of anywhere is whether Passport Office staff are going to gradually building their service back up. One would have expected a modicum of normal service resumption as the lockdown eases. I might add that there are all sorts of other areas that have shut down, like birth registration for example.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/passports-expiring-lockdown-coronavirus/
