1st Adult Passport
Submission Date
2022-02-19
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
4 Star – Easy
Applying for a passport is very stressful, I know. However you should realise that :
1) each application is checked MANUALLY and it requires time.
2) you are not the only one waiting for a passport. You cannot start panicking and bombarding them with daily phone calls after 2 weeks from your application! You won’t speed up things, nope.
3) They clearly tell you not to book holidays. Did you listen to them? No. They say that a passport might take up to 10 weeks : if you have applied in March, why booking a trip in April?! Maybe because a friend of a friend had his passport delivered in 20 days?! Well, each case can be different, just deal with it.
Nobody cares if “you have to go on holiday”, this is not a priority in life. So, calling them and say that you have to go because it’s an emergency is ridiculous and disrespectful towards those who actually have a serious problem (a dead relative , a parent who is in the hospital ).
Submission Date
2022-02-24
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
2 Star – Stressful
Application submitted – 24/02/2022
Documents received – 15/03/2022
Application being processed – 25/03/2022
Application approved – 01/04/2022
Passport printed – 02/04/2022
Adult Renewal Passport
Submission Date
2022-03-22
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy
All completed online after having new photo taken at the local Tesco where you are given an id number. Entering the number shows your new photo and the rest is easy to complete. Then sent old passport back signed for delivery just in case! Really pleased with the whole process.
Submission Date
2022-03-08
Date Received
2022-03-31
Experience:
4 Star – Easy
Really fast, but tracking took ages to even recognise that they had my passport, ended up receiving it only a few days after they even acknowledged they had it.
Submission Date
2022-02-14
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
2 Star – Stressful
Email
From start to finish the online renewal of my son’s passport took 7 weeks. It arrived today and we go on holiday in 3 days. At time of submitting application the average time was 3 weeks. We would have gone with a fast track application if we had known the actual time it would take. The grey area is between “passport approved” and delivery which took 10 days. It seems after printing there is quite a delay between going to TNT then out for delivery. But once printing done happened quite quickly.
The comments on this site helped keep my hopes up and so adding our experience today.
Application submitted 14th Feb
Documents posted 15th Feb
Documents received 22nd Feb
Application processed 8th March
Application approved 26th March
Passport printed 1st April
Passport received TNT 2nd April
Passport delivered 4th April
When we realised we were running out of time we booked a Fast track appointment at Peterborough but once there were told they couldn’t do it as we already had an application in the system and would have to withdraw that one first which can take up to 2 weeks before starting again. So that was a waste of time, money and effort travelling all way to Peterborough in person to do. Learned a lesson – allow 10 weeks! Good luck.
Submission Date
2022-03-06
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy
Smooth and easy process, tracking updates on HMPO website seem to be delayed, we’d sent off the old passport but we’re still receiving texts to say we needed to send off the old passport. Kept my eye on the the passport waiting’s Twitter page which was most useful, it was 6 days from approved to printed which other people had stated, I didn’t receive any tracking info but did see that you can track it on TNT final mile with your post code and PEX number. Printed on Thursday, checked TNT tracking Friday which said delivery today (Monday) and just received it as stated.
1st Child Passport
Submission Date
2022-03-02
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
3 Star – Average
The overall time from application to receiving wasn’t bad at all however there were two points in the process it was stressful as it was taking longer than expected.
i) Took a long time to acknowledge receipt of documents from date of delivery of parcel tracking (15 days).
ii) Time from application approval to passport printing was longer than adult renewal (adult renewal was 48 hours and first child’s passport was 5 days).
Submission Date
2022-02-15
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
4 Star – Easy
Peterborough office, Pretty simple.
Submission Date
2022-03-03
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
2 Star – Stressful
Took about 2 weeks for the documents received phase, but quick after that!
Child Renewal Passport
Submission Date
2022-03-06
Date Received
2022-03-29
Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy
Took 8 days for documents to be marked as received (against proof of delivery from Royal Mail)
Submission Date
2022-03-14
Date Received
2022-04-01
Experience:
4 Star – Easy
Passport received without tracking information. Online status still says “printed”.
Submission Date
2022-03-06
Date Received
2022-04-04
Experience:
4 Star – Easy
It would be less stressful if the tracking system was more accurate.