Okay Team, I’ve been avidly reading this forum and have now joined to comment and discuss.
History: Dear husband realised he was unable to find his passport on the 25th March after much searching by us both. Subsequently cancelled it on the 25th March and received a cancellation reference confirmation via email. He then applied for a replacement passport mere moments later. An email was sent to someone to confirm his identity shortly afterwards and all identity details were received on the 26th March. DH was moved to “Application being processed” exactly one week later and nothing has changed with his application since 01 April.
At the time of application submission, official advice from the passport office was “to allow 4-5 weeks for your application” which recently changed to 10 weeks, moving the goalposts for applications already submitted, including ours. When submitting the application, we decided not to fast track when others needed this service more but our decision (which was based on government guidance at the time) has meant the goal post move may jeopardize our holiday.
I have many questions!! (Sorry!). What does “Application being processed” actually mean? Is the application actually being processed when this message shows or are they just gathering at the bottom of an abyss, waiting to be looked at? Have these applications been switched to manual checking? How many stages are there for this process? Is it more complicated than a “normal” renewal? How long are applications staying on the “Application being processed” stage for? Is there anybody out there who has experienced the “Application being processed” stage and can comment with an application timeline to provide some hope?
We too are due to travel soon so to say I am a nervous wreck is an understatement – I cannot sleep and am forever refreshing the application status hoping for an update! (I think I may be driving my DH crazy with my panic / stress / unable to sleep demeanour as one moment the passport was there when booking our holiday, the next it was gone!). We have until the end of this week to move our once in a lifetime holiday, paying an eye watering price difference to change to new dates or take a risk and hold out in the hope that the passport is approved, sent and arrives in time for travel but if it doesn’t, we lose everything! (The upgrade application seems quite hit and miss which scares me!).
Fingers and toes crossed for all of us!