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Hello, so I’ve been on/off on this thread as I received my passport and my application was approved recently.
I will forewarn anyone applying from Canada/ USA (as I applied from canada so I can speak from experience), you need to allow AT LEAST 4 months to get your UK passport and supporting docs back!!! I had applied back in March and did not receive my UK passport until end of June and my Canadian passport didn’t come until July 20th. I cannot travel without my Canadian passport to some places (for example USA lets Canadians enter without a visa, UK needs a visa). I had a trip booked for NYC and had to postpone from June to August, due to this chaos!!!
I was so close to having to apply for an electronic visa for my UK passport to enter USA, but I had to open a ticket with DHL as they held my documents in customs for a week! Please allow for at least 4 months if you’re applying from abroad, especially North America.
For reference, I had applied for a First Adult Passport and had to send my original documents including my Canadian passport. Therefore could not travel anywhere until I got it back. Account for trouble with DHL as well when trying to get your documents back after approval. DHL WILL HOLD YOUR DOCS IN CUSTOMS, this was a headache to get them released as well. I went through the nightmare of calling HMPO every week, 8-10x and emailed dozens of times as well. It truly takes at least 4 months!
Take care folks!
Awesome ! I got a notification today to via my cellphone .. it shows eta July 4! Fingers crossed we’re almost at the finish line 😀
@bobokitty Hey! No I have not yet. But don’t worry, based on the previous posts here it seems like it takes around 3-4 days for a DHL pickup to occur from the HMPO, from the time the tracker shows our passports are printed. Fingers crossed it won’t take upto 3 weeks to receive our documents , but I’m sure it’ll be soon!
Hi @bobokitty like I mentioned before you won’t find anything yet. DHL will send YOU an email with the details once it’s available. Please be patient, we’ve been patient this long 😄 it will arrive soon!
I’ve been entering my PEX number like crazy into DHL tracking since Friday and nothing appears.. it’s because they’ve not created a waybill yet for us. Once it gets collected, scanned and shipped DHL will email you with the information! Don’t worry
@bobokitty hey, you will have to wait until you receive a notification from DHL. DHL is the courier that HMPO has contracted to send out passports overseas. I read some previous posts here and also got this info from the advice line on Friday.
Mine was also shipped out last Friday, but when I called back Friday afternoon it was still sitting in their post room. Meaning it’ll probably be done on Monday! Give it a week I’d say to reach you.
Until DHL actually collects the passport they won’t have any shipping and/or tracking information for you.
FYI anyone joining this forum now, it would appear for Overseas First Adult Applicants, the timeline to get to printing the passport is roughly 10-12 weeks from the date ALL your documents show as received in the HMPO tracker system online.
I am solely basing this off of myself and another overseas applicant who also had their documents received a few days before mine. Mine were shown as received in the system on April 16, and as of today June 23 passport has been sent for printing.
Will update accordingly once it’s been shipped out. Fingers crossed we can make our vacation in August !!
@bobokitty that’s amazing news! Mine also got approved this morning, so grateful 🥲 I believe it’s best to give maybe 1-2 week timeline based on how things have been going so far. Apparently once it’s in printing it’s super fast and it’s sent to us (overseas) via DHL. There’s a DHL tracking link that I assume would get sent to us too. Just based on previous posts above.
@cya, it may have worked for you and everyone you know but it does not mean it will work for everyone you don’t know lol. The people in this forum all have their own personal reasons as to why they need their passports so urgently (myself included). It’s a bit rude to entail that someone would do that to “top their tan up.” Also what you have written in your post is to blatantly lie to HMPO and book a quick flight and show that as proof lol.
Also, you need to understand that not everyone in this forum is applying from Europe. That includes myself and @bobokitty. We don’t have the option to book cheap flights (even if we wanted to), it costs a hell of a lot more than 10 euros to go to the nearest province here.
We all have our own personal reasons that we deem urgent, and if that means for someone to “top their tan up,” then so be it- it is none of anyones business and surely not correct to judge.
Just be nice and spread that positivity you’re trying to put out.@Upsidedown Oh dear since February.. that’s a quite a long time. Did you call their advice line at all? Did they give any insight as to why it’s taking so long for you?
Unfortunately, this entire process has been nothing short of a nightmare for me, however, today’s phone call was a little promising than the rest lol. They said overseas applications are being processed within 10-12 weeks, but yours is the same as mine, it’s at 10 weeks. Mine were marked received on April 16.@passnos, I’ve not received my UK passport yet, let alone my Canadian! My application was showing Docs Received as of April 16, moved into processing stage May 14. I called today because it’s been 10 weeks my docs have been received and no movement. I had to postpone my flight to USA because I had no passport on hand. I was wondering what situation you’re in, but yours is different as it’s a renewal so they have your prior application / info on file it would seem!!
@passnos, quick question first; are you applying for a first adult passport? Are you applying from canada/ USA? Just asking in terms of timelines, because I’ve not found too many people in this forum in the same situation as me (first time applicant, Canadian applicant and docs received back in April). Just trying to ballpark a timeframe for myself.
Anyways, further to your question about DHL, I got this from their website: DHL will usually make 2 separate deliveries. One will be to deliver your new passport and the other will be to deliver the supporting documents that you sent with your passport application. There may be a rare occasion where we are able to send you your new passport and supporting documents in the same package.
Your passport and supporting documents will normally be delivered separately and may be several days apart.
Hello! Just a general update for my fellow overseas passport awaitees .. I decided to call the HMPO Advice Line, I’m applying from Toronto ,Canada. I got through to an agent fairly quickly (3-4min on hold), he was surprised to hear that I’ve been waiting this long as my docs were received on April 16th. He put me right through to the Progress Team and the agent there was helpful as well. The agent said that it taking normally 10-12 weeks for overseas applicants to get their passports printed. This week is my 10th week and she said by July 9th I would be passed through the Examiner and printed. FYI, she did tell me that the Processing stage means that the applications is waiting to be examined now, meaning it’s just sitting at some examiner’s desk now. It’s a little relieving to have some answers, but who knows how accurate they are!? I am hoping there is some substance to what I was told, 10-12 weeks folks for those of you overseas. I will call back at the beginning of next week until July 9th for updates. She did state (as it says online as well) that the supporting docs (so my Canadian passport) will come 2 weeks after my UK one. I need my Canadian passport urgently for travel now postponed from June to August, and she put me through to the Customer Service Management line and I got a voicemail that said “we are busy at the moment and no longer taking calls.” And the call dropped lol. The agent said only that Progress team can perhaps let the examiner know to send my Canadian passport back if they’re done looking at it… I thought I was speaking with the progress team lol, very confused! Anyways 10-12 weeks is what we’re working with now!!! FYI:
First Adult Passport Application
Overseas: Canada
Docs Received: April 16
In processing: May 14Hey @bobokitty any updates yet?
Hey @passnos I’m not sure if you read my previous posts here from a day or so ago. I’ve applied from canada and my application was received Mar 22. My documents were received back in April too. I was told I had to request in writing for my supporting docs back as I’m overseas, I did.. twice. Sent via Canada post obviously I didn’t pay for tracking for a measly piece of paper as it’s a waste of money, but it did arrive there I’m sure. I’ve done this twice and it got me no replies from HMPO. I called into the advice line and received this information that overseas applicants have to submit in writing if they want their supporting docs back faster than normal. As per normal timelines, what I’ve read (based on my research) is that they send you the UK oassport first and then later you get your original docs back… could be weeks after. I’ve had to already postpone a flight from June to August now because of this chaos. I have no
Hopes for myself or anyone else applying overseas especially anyone planning to go on vacation in the next 1-2 months, ain’t no way that’s happening.Here’s the thing though, and this is why I am worried; the old passport (my Canadian one in this case) is the passport I used to book my trip and my passport number I booked with has to match the one I will be travelling with. Therefore I can’t use the new UK one they’ll give me lol. I wonder if that’s not the case for you? I always thought you have to travel with the same passport … as the numbers will be different on both.
