It seems (hopefully) that things are speeding up at Peterborough now. The hardest thing is having the passport waiting to be opened once you send it in. It caused me many sleepless nights and stress knowing the passport had been signed for but no updates on the tracker and then messages asking me to resend the old passport!
It took two weeks exactly to acknowledge passport received, then the process has been very fast, including them putting my child’s renewal on hold as I needed someone else to confirm identity. I was worried this hold and the fact that the photo was classed as ‘fair’ would slow things down, but passport was approved the next day after a new person confirmed identity and was printed two days later. Once passport arrives I will post timeline.
It’s the waiting two weeks for tracker to update that’s the most stressful!