Passport disaster.

[Goslowlysideways]

Has anyone done a passport renewal in the last month? Or during this COVID fun? I was so busy assuming my holiday would be cancelled I only remembered my daughters passport needed renewing recently. I sent if about 10 days ago and when I checked it said it was being processed on August 4th!
We could ( who knows!) if things go ahead be travelling in two weeks.

The passport office said it will take 6 weeks.

Do I have a hope?
I’m such a muppet.

I sent mine and my 5 year old’s off for renewal on the 21st (mine) and 22nd (his) July, both were received a week later one day apart (mine first) and I got my old and new passports back yesterday. I had a message yesterday (6/8) to say we should receive my son’s within 6 weeks.

@user1481837070 @Thecobwebsarewinning

I have a feeling of impending doom.

I’ll say a prayer to St Jude (patron Saint of desperation and lost causes). He’s normally very helpful!

@Thecobwebsarewinning I will go and make a sacrifice to him.

@Goslowlysideways - phone the passport office every day, tell them your date of travel and ask them to pass it to the escalation team. It has to have been with them for 3 weeks (from the time they received it, not the processing date) for them to do it as a 5 day fast track application.

I managed to get them to speed one up recently, even though they hadn’t had it for the full three weeks. Was approved on the day I spoke to the escalation team, and had it within 4 working days.

Just keep calling if you speak to someone who says they can’t escalate it yet. And DM them on Twitter in the meantime as they pick those up too.

They will also ask you for proof of your booked travel date. Good luck. We got it back with one day to go 😅 But would have been earlier if I’d known it could be escalated (after some staff on the phone line telling me it couldn’t be done)

DDs took just over a week. Got it back yesterday.

Honestly I think you've got good reason to be hopeful. It's so annoying when this happens, dont beat yourself up.

I’ve just had a further text saying my passport is with a courier for delivery. That’s nine working days. I did not request urgent service. Fingers crossed that you get yours as quickly.

On the one show on Wednesday they did a piece saying if you were due to travel and have proof of travel that you can get it sped up.
I hope it comes through in time and that you have a brilliant holiday
Years ago I realised I lost my passport and had to apply for a new one it arrived the morning we travelled. Honestly never been more tense in all of my days

Thecobwebsarewinning you mean St Jude, patron saint of south London?

@Goslowlysideways we applied for hers via post office check and send rather than online as we needed to send adoption order and certificates with the application. Don't know if this has sped the application up at all? How did you do it? X

Thank you all so much for all the help.
I am just going to try not to stress. On the grand scheme of things it’s not worth stressing about too much. I’m trying to be positive.
Thanks everyone has really helped.

Good luck. Our last 3 have only taken a couple of weeks. Impressively fast.

We had a renewal back within 2 weeks very recently.

@ErnestTheBavarian That’s reassuring.
@Voice0fReason I am attempting to remain calm. Thank you

The passport office received my son's old passport on 1st July and we received it back on the 14th July. They also rejected our first photo in that time period. Fingers crossed yours will arrive on time!

Sympathy for you OP. I thought the passport office would be quiet at the moment because of covid and people not traveling, so I didn’t rush to send off for my baby’s first passport. Finally did, allowing six weeks... now looking very uncertain whether we will actually receive it before we were due to go. We may well not end up going anyway with everything else going on, but I don’t want to not go because we don’t have the passport!

Mine took 10 days last month. I was surprised it was so quick! It arrived 3 or 4 days after the email saying it had been processed.

Sent mine off to Glasgow 21st july for renewal, was back by 4th august so exactly 2 weeks!

Did a renewal online. It was actually very fast.

[quote Goslowlysideways]@Thecobwebsarewinning I will go and make a sacrifice to him.[/quote]
I suppose if you sacrifice your dd then that solves the problem.

I wonder if it’s worse because I’m in London?!
Too hot to panic.

APPLICATION APPROVED AND BEING PRINTED. WOOOOO

@Goslowlysideways great news. Have a great holiday.