Durham

Applied online 10th August Obtained Passport 4th Sept.

I applied for my passport renewal on Sept 4th after realising it was to run out prior to my mid October holiday. I sent my old passport by recorded next day delivery on the 6th. It was signed for at 8am on the 7th. It's now over 48 hours an still my status hasn't been updated. This is a concern to me because this could mean the whole process is long winded and random. I really hope this isn't an indication of this, as my wife who is a nurse and worked solidly throughout the pandemic, will not be very happy with me if we are forced to cancel her first foreign holiday in 2 years! I have my fingers crossed I am stressing for nothing but the lack of updates is very concerning at the moment.

Hi Stevep27, It is so stressful, I feel for you. It took 5 days for my passport to 'get in the sytsem' from the date Royal mail tracking had delivered it. In the meantime I phoned and emailed ( phoning you have to hang on a while) think speaking is all important though. When you get through explain you are really desperate as you are travelling on xxxx ( maybe give a couple of days leeway as TNT aren't brilliant) and ask for this to be noted on your application. Give them the royal mail tracking number, when they received it, and application number. They then put a note on file. When your application gets in the system the operator opening it sees your date of travel and if they can, responds accordingly. As I mentioned mine was 'received', processed, approved, printed and despatched on the same day as I had 5 days left before travel date. Good Luck!!

Thank you so much for your response suzimac I have now sent an email enquiry but have not called as yet. I'm really not sure if I should call but seeing as it worked for you I may well follow your advice. My issue is my wife's holidays are booked and fixed but we have held off booking the actual holiday due to the uncertainty of the traffic light system. I planned on booking this week but that's when I found my passport was going to be out of date. So if I call I cannot hand on heart say I have a travel date and it would be wrong for me to book now due to the uncertainty of passport issue/receipt. Therefore I am really hoping things go through quickly but if they haven't even registered old passport acceptance by tomorrow then I may well bite the bullet and give them a call.

Hi Stevep, I definitely think it was the conversation that made the difference. I received a reply to the email once the passport had been received by me so it may not be as speedy. I think you could state your 'travel date' as your holiday date with your hand on heart, since this is when you will have to travel for your wife to get her hard earned holiday. They didn't ask for any details, just 'date of flight' so I would do what you can. If they can get a note on file today, it looks like it should get in the system any day now ( avge 5 days) and if the note is there when opened it should be pretty quick!

Hi Suzimac, I took your advice on Thursday lunchtime and called the passport office. The time quoted for a call was approx 30 minutes sobi thought I would wait. It got to 26 minutes and the call went through only to get a message suggesting a callback. Very frustrating when this could have happened much earlier. Never the less I put in my number and waited all afternoon. Just when I thought I wouldn't get a call the phone rang at 6.45. So I did as you suggested gave the guy all the information including holiday date and requested he noted this on ky file. I also asked why the passport had not been marked as received after 4 days. He seemed to suggest this is normal but I feel its not right they should promote this tracking tool yet not keep it up to date.He promised to to add the note so I was happy to have spoken to him. This morning (Saturday) I finally received notification they had received my passport and like you immediately received a message saying my passport had been approved and was ready for printing. No other messages so far. It seems your suggested way forward has worked as it seems from previous timelines I should receive the new passport within the next few days. Thank you again for pushing me to make the call as it seems to have helped get the application through quickly. Hopefully our experiences may help others in a similar situation to get their passports in good time for travel. Thanks again Steve

Hi Steve, Great to hear you have managed to sort this. I presume you will receive passport early part of this week, so good luck. Glad to have helped and hope you enjoy you and your wife's well deserved holiday.

Passport printed and sent 14 September 2021 Application approved 14 September 2021 Documents received 26 August 2021 Application received 11 August 2021 Identity details received 11 August 2021 Email sent to person confirming your identity 11 August 2021 Ask someone to confirm your identity 11 August 2021 Application submitted 11 August 2021 Applied from Canada

I've submitted my adult renewal on 26th August, documents received on 1st September but application has sat in a queue ever since. I'm due to travel in October and now starting to really worry I won't get my passport back in time. When I rang the passport office, they said it can be up to 10 weeks and they noted my travel date and that was it. Other applications appear to be quicker than mine? How do they work? I assumed the did the applications in the order they were submitted?

Hi Lbr272, If they have noted travel date you should be okay. I think they work in order they are received and if a travel date is noted they also try and achieve the deadline for that.They have to quote the 10 week timescale but as you can see from the average this is well above that. You should receive passport about two weeks before travel. If you haven't, phone and push for travel date to show on file. This has worked for a number of us at Durham PO, they really do try and get them back on time.

Hi Lbr272, As suzimac says just make sure you request they put the note with flight date (maybe give yourself a couple of days additional travel time) on your file. This worked for me last week. I spoke to someone late Thursday and it was approved Saturday morning and I received the passport Tuesday morning. Please note they don't update the system that often so I wasn't expecting my passport. It arrived before they sent the email message to say it had been posted. I do think they have to quote the 10 weeks but they do seem to respond if your travel is imminent and you let them know.

27 days Phone calls made, hope abandoned, holiday lost, money wasted Passport posted through door 15:10 16 September Passport printed and sent 14 September 2021 Application approved 13 September 2021 Documents received 25 August 2021 Application received 20 August 2021 Application submitted 20 August 2021 UK Adult renewal. ROW expiry April 22, special region expired June 21 (although used June & August)

Hi all, for those who have said they've managed to speak to someone at Durham and get some help/hurry things along, I'd be SO grateful if you could give me some insight. What number did you call, or email address did you message? I can only find the main HMPO number and no one is interested in helping me. Supposed to be going away 3 October and today got an update saying there's a problem and a letter has been sent - but I'm away from home for the next couple of weeks so can't receive or action this! Any ideas what such problems usually concern? I may have to pop back to London to intercept the letter if they won't resend elsewhere, should it usually come through in a few days?

I don't have a number for Durham, but you can try this number 0300 123 1973. It goes to the HMPO office (in Liverpool I think), rather than the general outsourced call centre. They are very helpful (although still limited in what they can actually do to speed things up) and can actually look into your application and see a bit more than the call centre folks seem to be able to do.

It's order by date of documents received, not date the application was submitted. Current timeframes for Durham (and generally from what I can see) are 17-21 days from date docs are logged onto their system as received (usually a few days after they have physically been received).

Thank you for all the information everyone! Date application submitted - 26th August 2021 Documents received - 1st September 2021 Application approved - 20th September 2021 Passport posted out to me - 21st September 2021 Just waiting for it to arrive :-)

We are waiting for child renewals (one from Durham and one from Liverpool) I've called PO number - but they said that they can't put a note on the system and that if people are told this, it's just to get them off the phone! I had no idea it would take this long, so starting to panic a bit! Application submitted - 8th September Identity checked - 10th September Documents signed for 14th September Documents Declared as received - 18th September We really need back by 10th October I called PO to see whether I needed to switch to FastTrack/1 week - but they said I'd need to have passports returned which would take weeks 'as they'd need to find them' - so I'm a bit stuck How are people chasing applications up and quickening them up - aware need to wait a longer - but really thought 4 weeks would be ample time to get them back.....

Hi Caroline Have you tried asking if the application can be cancelled and application reported as lost so you can use the 1 week fast track? 1 week.faat track is available for lost and stolen passports so I see no reason why this can't be done, you may just have to pay again and lose your original payment for the renewal. That's my next plan of action, I plan to ask them tomorrow when I call again. I submitted mine on 30th August so will keep you updated on mine.

Oh this has can given me a bit of hope. I'm 6 days behind you although mines an adult renewal which I think are reported as the same processing times as children. Really happy for you

Thanks. I’m not sure - knowing my luck I’d not get an appointment! Feel a bit stuck - going by others timescales we should get them back; but it’s going to be very tight...which is not helpful! Please let me know the outcome of the ‘mark as lost’ approach....

Passport application for my daughter to Durham office. Her previous passport was a child one so this is her first adult passport. Times as below. I will update on the printing and postal service. Thank you to others who have posted info here it has been helpful managing expectations. Application history Status Date Application approved 9:24pm on 24 September 2021 Documents received 7:32am on 7 September 2021 Application received 3:25pm on 26 August 2021 Application submitted 3:25pm on 26 August 2021

Hi all, Really interesting and promising thread! I am desperately waiting for my sons child renewal, I have googled and actioned everything to try and nudge this along (emails, calls to various numbers, Twitter etc) and have had our travel date added but as of today still hasn’t gone to an examiner. Dates as follows: Application submitted 5th September Documents received 11th September No ID check required as he is 12. We fly on 20th October but Emirates have said we can move with no fees latest of Monday. So we REALLY need to at least know if it approved this week. Judging by the other dates on this thread it could be possible, more positive here than Twitter which is depressing!! Hoping Durham are one of the more organised offices. It does seem people who received the ‘application processing’ update end up with a longer wait? Doesn’t seem as much of that on this thread so fingers crossed. Would love to hear recent posters updates! Thanks Sam PS with 6.5 weeks to go I wish I had have just done a fast track application but I remembered the last renewal only took one week and they usually say 3. RIP the glorious Pre Covid days!!

Hi Sam I was in the same anxious wait as you last week but I hope I can give you some reasurrance. I submitted my renewal on 30th August, docs received on 6th September, approved and sent on Friday 24th Sept and I received my passport on Saturday 25th. I've been on twitter and looked at lots of messages and it looks like they work in date of docs received, so, if you go by my timeline you are 5 days behind me and should get approval by end of the week. The previous post should also give some hope, child passport approved on Friday and 3 days behind you. I really think you will get it approved any day now.

Thanks for the reassurance, this thread is really useful, I will definitely update when it is eventually approved this week!! (that's my positive thinking!!)

Hi. Just to update my post from yesterday. I actually received my daughters passport today. My wife has it in her hand :-) I'm still awaiting one from the Newport Office for my youngest. Dates below. There was no update between Documents received and application approved which is obviously unsettling. Status Date Passport printed and sent 1:20pm on 27 September 2021 Application approved 9:24pm on 24 September 2021 Documents received 7:32am on 7 September 2021 Application received 3:25pm on 26 August 2021 Application submitted 3:25pm on 26 August 2021