AIBU to say how completely impressed I am...

[VeryQuaintIrene]

...with the UK passport renewal service?

I am quite in shock. Last time I renewed it took literally months, but this time I submitted my online application on the 7th and then had to send my old one off (I'm resident in the US, so it took about 4 days to get there even with priority mail). Last night, DHL delivered me the new one. They also kept me informed throughout the whole process as to what is happening. Was I just lucky or is there something that actually is working well even in pandemic times?!

Always been pretty quick for me. Last one I got was DD's first one and from posting times I worked out it had couldn't have been in the passport office for more than 36 hours before they had it turned around, birth certificate back in the post and passport on the way. It is pretty slick!

I got a new passport with my married name last year and was pleasantly surprised by how quick it was!

I imagine that they’re probably twiddling their thumbs at the passport office as everyone is in lockdown, only emergency travel is happening and there is very little point in renewing a passport at the moment if you live in the UK as we can’t go anywhere or make any plans to go anywhere - that might have something to do with the speedy turnaround...!

It's normally quite quick at this point in the year anyway but I suspect this year they are even less busy as lots of people won't be bothering to renew yet until things are more certain.

Mine was hand delivered by a man in a car

Yes Ds sent his off for renewal on the 23rd Dec, considering Christmas and New Year closing, brand new dark blue / black passport arrived 13th January.

"Mine was hand delivered by a man in a car"

Your description of a courier made me smile 😊

Well I don't expect they're getting many applications these days

@seasideseas

I recognised him a few weeks later and said the the person I was with ‘here’s your passport’ and it was.

I applied online for mine for the 11th, took a photo on my phone to upload, and my passport arrived this afternoon. I'm really impressed. Now to do ds's renewal

When I renewed in 2019, my passport took 7 days to arrive - it’s their standard timescale during quieter times. It was a name change application so presumably normal renewals would have been even faster

Yes, it’s great. Links up the the DVLA, too, so one photo does for both.

There are a few really good online Government services - GRO is another, and tex self-assessment (after a few dodgy years) also works well.

Like anything governmental, we usually only hear/read of the (comparatively few) problematic cases. The vast majority are delivered well.