Passport renewal only took 1mth!!!

[MarmiteCoriander]

Not an AIBU but I've seen SO many posts recently about passports and renewals and thought others may want to know how quick passport renewals can actually be at the moment.

Applied for renewal online 17th May
28th May old passport posted off
9th Jun emailed that it has been approved
13th Jun told it has been printed
14 th Jun- today- it arrived via a woman in a high vis jacket who took a picture of my house before delivering it!

Mine is an adult renewal, so I assume this is fairly straight forward as no name changes etc.

I applied beginning of Feb. Got it 2 days ago. 17 weeks exactly🤬

First child passport for dd, applied the beginning of February. Still not here. She's meant to be going on a school trip abroad next week 😭 Slowed down by the fact I don't have a passport. They wanted alot of documentation including a second copy of my birth certificate as I was born just after the cut off for accepting the short form. I'm keeping everything crossed.

Lucky you, I think they've lost my son's birth certificate as keep saying they haven't received his documents yet (despite RM saying otherwise).

Just a FYI as I posted in here about possibly fast tracking, I ended up risking going the regular route with 7 weeks to spare.
Got my passport today, 2 weeks from posting it!

I'm relieved!

8 weeks so far for Dd's and still waiting. Still saying documents received.

I did get my new passport within the month, but am still waiting for the return of my valid, overseas passport and old British passport. Says it should arrive within 2 weeks of the other, but no sign- 2.5 weeks on.

Yes I am now waiting for my foreign passport too!

There seems to be absolutely no logic to the system. Surely you would start with the oldest first? We sent 4 at the end of March (all to different places 🤷🏽‍♀️) 3 arrived back within 3 weeks and the last one took nearly 12 weeks with me emailing and ringing to chase. The delayed one was sent to Durham.

Ours went to Durham too. We are overseas residents (but I am from Durham) and so can't get to the UK (as no passports). My dad looks at the queues every day for passport office (next to his gym). Bestie works in the office. MP involved.

Still waiting.

It's a f**king mess.

They go to different passport offices, so can’t do it in chronological order. I also think the straightforward renewals are faster.

but the stories are real. There’s definitely big problems in the passport office

DS first passport took five weeks. It went to Bootle.

We did the kids ones back in feb, didn't take long at all.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who leave this stuff to the last minute, or for people who book a holiday short notice when they don't already have passports.

I'm not surprised the passport service are struggling. There's basically two years worth of people all applying at once!!

What a pointless, narrow minded and unhelpful post. Smacks of 'I am so much better than you' and is completely devoid of empathy.

It's not just people who have been waiting for two years. Passports are due to expire and cannot be renewed that far in advance. Children have been born, turned 16. People use them for ID who are non uk residents. Brexit added further complications. I.D. Cards would be helpful but for some reason UK doesn't issue them.
Also, I understand people not renewing during the pandemic. The world was a scary place, money was an issue for many people and passports for the luxury of travel didn't seem high priority.

And the passport office has struggled for years.

It didn't require a rocket science to anticipate a surge in demand, but still, they failed to put procedures in place to ensure a systematic logical procedure. (And I have friends who work in the offices. It's chaos.) my friends around me of different nationalities are not experiencing anything like the clusterfuck that is the current British passport application system.

@boopdeflouff well put. The OPs experience should not be a cause for celebration at all, it should actually be seen as poor.

The passport office and the DVLA are both failing badly.

For me it was 9 weeks and no progress whatsoever. Ended up taking 2-day trip to HMPO Peterborough. There were a LOT of very unhappy people there - some who had waited months.

Glad it worked out for you, OP but the horror stories are absolutely real. There are thousands of people on 'passport hell' type FB groups. I would not wish people to be complacent about how long it's likely to take.

I've been waiting for mine since March, multiple two-hour+ calls and no one can tell me why :(

*We did the kids ones back in feb, didn't take long at all.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who leave this stuff to the last minute, or for people who book a holiday short notice when they don't already have passports.

I'm not surprised the passport service are struggling. There's basically two years worth of people all applying at once!!*

Oh go away. What do you know about other people's circumstances?

For the record - 10 weeks and waiting.

Two and half weeks for my son’s renewal in June

yes my dad applied for renewal and it came within two weeks.

It’s a matter of luck, pure and simple.

I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who leave this stuff to the last minute, or for people who book a holiday short notice when they don't already have passports.

You sound nice.

Just did my adult renewal. Did online application and posted off old passport on 27 June. Got new passport through my door on 4 July.

ONE WEEK! I couldn’t believe it!

(that was with Corby office)

I applied 19.06 , they received my old passport 24.06 & I received my new passport 01.07. So just under 2 weeks (Bootle office).

DS - applied 28.06, old passport received 05.07, new passport printed yesterday - expect it will arrive Monday, so again just under 2 weeks (Peterborough office).

I'm very happy with that - had been thinking we might not be able to get away at all this summer reading all the horror stories!

On the other hand dd’s is still stuck and going nowhere. From April 😭

Renewal of my 2 DCs took 5 weeks. Sent old passports on same day just after Easter. One processed at Peterborough and the other perhaps Hemel Hempstead? One old passport came back in June and the other came back last week.