Anyone applied for a new children's passport recently?

[obsessedwithsleep]

I left 12 weeks between application and travel but am now feeling a bit stressed out.

How long did it take for you to receive them?

And also on the tracking website, what's the next step after documents received?

Thank you.

Applied check and send 21st March, text to say received on 31st March. Nothing yet, Adult renewal straight forward and apparently still waiting to be examined

You should be ok. At the moment they have a system whereby you can email the upgrades office two weeks before your travel date and they will fast track it for you. Apparently it’s not a guaranteed service but they try to help. I have just done this. Call the Passport Office to arrange, option 8 then 3. Let me know if you’d like more details.
If you try to cancel the application and then rebook Fast Track they say it can take weeks and weeks for the cancellation request letter to arrive, so this isn’t really an option. Hope that helps

@newmummy9 this is so helpful. Thank you so much.

Applied online. One child renewal took 3 weeks, the other has taken 6 weeks so far and has now just been approved, so waiting for it to print. I have had several e mails and a letter requesting documents to be sent, despite me sending them and the post office tracking showing they had been signed for!

Applied for a child’s first passport in February - passport and supporting documents both back within 4 weeks.

Received new passport yesterday. Applied middle of March. So 5 weeks.

My application went in on 21st Feb online, documents sent a couple of days after but not received until 19th March on their system despite tracked and signed for the day after delivery.
We have missed a wedding away in Spain on 14th April so rebooked to go out a month later on May14th. Still in processing for a new new passport.
Sent to Bootle.
Looks like we will miss the post wedding celebration catch up plus a family holiday booked for first week in June.
All out of options, cannot fast track it, no appointments to go and get it. Insurance doesn't cover non issued passports.
So my hope is nearly gone! Just doesn't help not knowing and checking the PEX updates everyday - a billion times!
They were completely aware of travel dates and noted on system but have zero idea why it's taking so long.

Thanks for this info!

OP - I applied mid-March for DD's, was then asked to send our marriage certificate 3 1/2 weeks later and have heard nothing since. Travelling start of June so starting to worry....

www.passportwaitingtime.co.uk

This website is useful, about half way down it shows the waiting times for adult/child/new/renewal and there are graphs showing whether the waits are getting longer or shorter.

I know when I got ours renewed Peterborough was taking forever, but Glasgow had them back to us within a month. The forums on that website might shed light on which offices are working fast or are on a go slow!

We applied for new passports for two DC.

Filled and sent the exact same day, at the same time.

Received DD's in 2 weeks (and her supporting documents). Got a text message saying DS's will arrive on the first week of June!!

Did you send the docs mid-March or do the initial application? This is so stressful!

I sent her birth certificate off the day after I did the application (my friend was quick to verify the photo online), they then asked for my marriage certificate later on so that went later.

I do have a friend who did her DD's application a couple of weeks after me and her passport is on it's way already...

Just renewed 3, 2 x child and 1x adult. All done online and back in 2 weeks.

Ugh dds was sent to Peterborough. Looks like they are the slowest. It's annoying tho that I live 15 mins from the Glasgow office yet have to send it away to there!

I wonder why they wanted your marriage certificate. Was it Bootle?

We applied for our renewals (expired in 2020) plus first passports for the kids 20 March. We got ours back within 3 weeks but kids are still being processed.

It took them almost 2 weeks to acknowledge receipt of documents (sent to Peterborough, signed for so I know they got them next day) and we’ve not heard a peep for the last 10 days.

We don’t travel till end of July so I’m not bothered, but the claim of “5 weeks” hasn’t held true for us!

yes. First passports. DT1s took 6 weeks. DT2s took 7 weeks. We had to cancel our holiday. When I applied it said 18 days…we were due to fly on Monday.

Durham. And I'm assuming it's because my passport is still in my maiden name (though that's true for my friend too 🤷‍♀️).

I’ve just received my son’s first passport this morning, it took just under 5 weeks.

We applied for a new new passport for DS on 3rd Feb this year and it came back on 8th March. It took us a few days for us to post his docs and they also rejected the person who countersigned (weirdly passed the same person for DD!) so also included us submitting a new person etc. It came back within a day of DD and DH's renewals, so it wasn't a significantly longer process for a new application.

Ring up and keep making a fuss. It’s quite stressful and takes ages but definitely worth it. Have you emailed your application to the upgrades team? I did and didn’t hear anything but when I rang to chase I was told my travel date was noted on the application and then a lady rang me today to ask if I’d like to receive the passport in the post or collect it. It’s two days before I travel so they cut it fine but got there in the end. I have spent a long time on hold on the phone but if you don’t get a helpful person you just have to rings back and hope for someone more helpful.

From what I read Bootle/Liverpool is the slowest ☹️

Good luck

@Newmummy9 thank you so much tbh I didn't even realise there was such a team. The killer is I sent my passport in with the application documents in error, didn't realise until after I had posted it all. So that takes a further two weeks after we receive the new new passport. Mum brain and multi tasking - complete fail on all parts!!

I've just not had any response to my daily emails this week. It's been stuck on in processing since 1st April and no response since. Just emails stating ten weeks wait.

Where do I find the email address or is it just the online form format?

Thanks so much, I just hope everyone inside thread gets to getaway, we all need a break that's for sure xx

I sent DD's documents for a first child passport to passport office on 7 April. They were marked as received on 15 April and we've heard nothing further. We had to send docs to the Hemel Hempstead office - does anyone know what kind of turnaround time they have?

Currently renewing ours… sent mine and husbands at the same time. His has been approved and mine is still documents received. Pretty quick tho as we applied on good Friday and sent docs on the Saturday- we were both Bootle office too. Need to change my name on mine, before applying for the kids. Good luck!

Mine and ds1's renewals were sent to Durham we applied 01/04 and sent old passports of on 05/04 and got our passports yesterday

Ds2's renewal was sent to Belfast sent posted his old passport 14/04 and his has already been printed and just waiting for delivery.

DD's new new passport old passport sent to Bootle on the 14/04 just got the email today to say they have received the documents.