Obviously did things the wrong way round but thankfully ultimately an easy enough process with a happy ending.
As you (stupidly) do, we booked a holiday for December, in August 2022 without even thinking about passports. A few weeks later, September 2022, over breakfast, after a yawn and a cup of tea, decided to begin thinking about passports.
My youngest did not yet have a passport, my eldest ran out in 5 months, and my Mrs needed renewing – only mine was good. No problem we thought, we’ve got plenty of time, way more than the 3 weeks it takes, but then anxiety kicked in after doing a bit of googling and reading all the articles, and forums like these re delays.
Applications submitted: 9th September 2022
Documents received: 16th September 2022
2 Passports (Youngest + Mrs) approved 28th September 2022, arrived 29th September 2022.
I got an email asking for extra information re my eldest, her birth certificate, this was not originally asked for, just her old passport BUT as I submitted the application as their father, they wanted either A. proof I was on the birth certificate or B. proof the mother approved this application. In my opinion, a bit stupid because I had also applied for the mother’s passport at the same time, and they had approved and posted a siblings passport BUT I get it, it’s one of the most important, sacred documents, they needed to double check.
Posted eldest birth certificate: 30th September 2022
Passport approved: 4th October 2022, arrived 5th October 2022.
So 2x passports arrived in about 3 weeks, the other a week later, fresh passports all in hand, a whole load of worry over nothing, glad it turned out alright for us, hope it does for anybody else in the same situation. We await the return of old documents but can see them arriving by end of next week as things stand.
Our neighbour did a similar thing, her and my mrs were talking about craving a holiday so I think they have one booked in now for January, she had however already got her youngest’s first passport earlier in the year, and it took 11 weeks. Perhaps the backlog is now cleared / things are much better now?
