Passport renewal times

[demonheed]

Hi, we were given a surprise trip away in feb but need passport renewals for 2 of us.

Should I pay the fast track or do people think 5 weeks will be long enough? Thanks

Did mine (including name change) and DS first passport just before Christmas and both came back in a week. I'd imagine it'll start getting busier in the new year though. That was all online which seemed much more sensible and streamlined way of doing things

I just renewed mine 2 weeks ago and it came back in less than a week. And I don't live in the UK, so it had to be sent to Ireland.

I’m hoping for a quick turnaround too - sent off old child passport on 23rd December - hoping it’s back soon!

Documents received on 28th Dec…..so hopefully not too long a turnaround

Renewed mine at the Post Office early December and it came back in a week.

Mine took two weeks last year - around July/August I think.

Took 2 weeks for DS, October 2023.

If it's a straightforward renewal it should be very quick, mine was a week.

The main thing is to check that your photos are acceptable before you submit the application. I think you can do this online, if you take your own photo. If you want to be absolutely sure get your photos done somewhere where they will check for you.

Approved at 9.42am! So hopefully back by the start of next week - that’s pretty good for over the Christmas season.

hi
sounds very efficient. Quick question if I may

sent my ds’s off for renewal last week
am a bit concerned that they should have his old one by now yet the tracker system hasn’t acknowledged it - just says “please send old passport”

do you recall if there was a delay between you sending it and them acknowledging receipt? There are some horror stories around saying that they took weeks to acknowledge receipt even though they were definitely delivered, but mostly back in 2022. I def think things will be slowing down as we get towards the spring. Not travelling till April so hopefully ok but hate this!

Oh sorry rtff in your case they did acknowledge receipt pretty quickly.
fingers crossed for ours.

anyone else been waiting a little bit? Bloody disaster if the old passport gets lost. Stupidly I didn’t track.

When I did it in feb last year, they never parked it as received, I just got a text saying it was being printed. The tracker doesn’t work…

MIL did hers last week - only took 5 days to come. I did the application online for her with a code to upload the photos so we knew that they would be accepted.

DH and I did ours in the autumn and they were slightly slower but still less than 2 weeks.

No need to fast track. I renewed mine online( not fast track) on 3rd January and sent the old passport back that day, they acknowledged receipt and informed me it had been approved the next day, got the new passport and the old one back 2 days later, so from applying to receiving new one was 3 days, fantastic service!

Sounds like they are very efficient even if I can’t trust the tracker
fingers crossed

Wish I had read this before today. I've just done a round trip of 400 miles to Newport to fast track my renewal.

The sum total of 3 bloody Welsh minute's spent talking to the person in the office.

I'll get it by next week. I bloody better after all that today!!!

My tracker has now updated as
”passport received” two days after I sent it. Phew hopefully not too long now they have everything they need.

DH’s just done a straightforward renewal: applied online and sent his old passport back with Royal Mail Tracked and the new passport was delivered within the week. Very efficient at the moment it seems.

Is your current passport still in date? We did both DD's passports at the post office (post office woman filled in the form online and took the photos on the iPad) on about January 3rd. Both passports back nine days later. Really impressed with that and with post office service.

Want one (still in date ) the first week in December.

Posted on a Tuesday it was back with me on the Thursday.

Still can't quite believe it.

sent one not went one 🙄

If you can afford it go fast track to avoid the stress and anxiety!

Did mine on line Fri coming tomorrow 6 days including weekend

unless I need it urgently I’d rather the passport office didn’t get extra money for what is already an extremely expensive service, especially for children

EU citizens can travel anywhere within the EU with an identity card only. Passports are a total rip off.

Last week door to door 6 days.
Was surprised it was so quick