Durham

Iv been calling them none stop for 2weeks straight for my son renewal my daughters come back pretty much straight away. I might have to cancel my wedding today and tell all my family and friends who spent so much money booking the holiday so they can come my wedding. Absolutely devastated I put my application in on the 21st feb

Hi There I was approved 5th April from the Documents received stage on 17th March. Never went into application processing but still took 3 weeks.

Mine has finally gone to print today 6 days after it wad approved. We were due to fly Monday so we would have still had to cancel as they usually take 5ish days to arrive

Well after 11 weeks, many phone calls and a whole lot of stress!! Our daughters passport has arrived this morning. Ours went to Durham office. Our time line was: Application made: 30/1 Documents received 18/2 Application processing 21/2 More documents requested 16/3 Application changed to paper application 1/4 Documents received 4/4 – Durham Approved 4/4 Printed 5/4 Delivered 8/4 Would recommend if you are near 10 weeks ring them up and hurry them along, ours was approved within hours after waiting 2 hours to speak to someone and him sending the examiner a direct message on the 4th.

Well after 10 weeks, many phone calls and a whole lot of stress!! Our daughters passport has arrived this morning. Ours went to Durham office. Our time line was: Application made: 30/1 Documents received 18/2 Application processing 21/2 More documents requested 16/3 Application changed to paper application 1/4 Documents received 4/4 – Durham Approved 4/4 Printed 5/4 Delivered 8/4 Would recommend if you are near 10 weeks ring them up and hurry them along, ours was approved within hours after waiting 2 hours to speak to someone and him sending the examiner a direct message on the 4th.

Finally after nearly 9 weeks of constant phone calls my daughter renewal finally got approved,I’m so relieved and squealed when I saw hmpassport message pop up on my fone. Now to wait for it which is fine as we don’t go away until end of may. Good luck to everyone trying to their passports

What i would do to get that text. No one still not contacted me but I am so glad over people got there passports. Have a good holiday

I rang today and apparently they missing some documents that I have sent, the guy have put a note on there saying what I have sent in as it’s only showing old passport and another document 😭😭

Hi pkenny, Was yours printed centrally or locally?

Mine was printed centrally, it showed up on the tracking on the 7th.

Has anyone managed to get through to the passport office by phone? Everytime I call I get told 'due to the high volume of calls they we can't take your call right now' very frustrating!

I got through just after lunchtime last Friday afternoon, waiting time was only 10 minutes.

I have been following this forum over the last few weeks. Like others I have been waiting for ages trying to understand what is causing this delay. I submitted a renewal application on 04/02/2022 and since then had no updates from the office apart from the fact that they received my documents. I have been calling non stop for over 5 weeks now trying to understand where we are at. My grandmother who lives abroad has been taken ill and she has also suffered a fall and is immobile, she has no-one to care for her apart from my grandfather who is blind. I applied for an emergency request providing evidence form her as a result and did not hear back so chased continuously, spoke to over 30 people over the course of 4 weeks and stayed on hold for hours. 4 weeks later after emailing my MP and chasing continuously they emailed in response to one of my many emails that this was not sufficient to upgrade my application. I have suffered incredible amounts of anxiety and depression and had to take up therapy as a result of this experience. I am so distressed by the process, lack of empathy and the fact it took them 4 weeks to come back to me on an emergency travel request. I have had advisors over the phone say it had been accepted others just out right rude. I have arranged for a temporary nurse to care for my grand mother until I am able to go back. We are on week 9 of my renewal and still 0 updates. I have taken time off work due to my mental health being impacted by this and am lost for words. This morning I tried the number given in this forum for the Durham office, the advisor questioned me as soon as he answered the phone, said you should not call this number, was so incredibly rude and questioned why I had called numerous times when he could tell me nothing (per the notes on the system). He said I don't know why you would call back in such a condescending manner and he is not paid enough to answer this line, I started crying on the spot and am still in tears. I have had enough from this organisation and do not know what to do. No complaints will be taken seriously and they will get away with everything they have put me and others in a similar situation through.

Anyone had experience with time line of hmpo shipping printed passport international via DHL. Mine was printed a week ago but unable to track via DHL.

Anyone had there passport approved recently

Nope. I'm still waiting. Been in processing stage since 18th March

I had my sons approved on Fri and printed and sent the same day. Went to pick it up from tnt yesterday. I was the 4th of March documents received so I think they should be dealing with documents received on the 8th today. That’s the way they seem to be working it for the majority of people.

My documents were received on the 14th March and processing on the 16th, I have rung a few time but last time spoke to someone so rude and wouldn’t tell me anything except just wait, so glad u finally have your passport now fingers crossed won’t be long for the rest of us

Just got through and spoke to someone, there is no point in ringing to see what’s going on as they can’t tell u anything it’s just waiting to be seen by an examiner, I really feel like giving up

So long story! I’ll try and make it as simple as possible! Applied 3 daughters passports March 5th, 2 to Liverpool and one to Glasgow. 3 in Liverpool no problems both back by the 20th March! The other one is another story! After taking a long time for them to acknowledge the old passport I was wrongly told to report the passport lost! Documents then received 2 days later, after lots of calls had the lost report removed so the passport could still be used as documentation. After a week had another text to say docs received again! It seems the passport was moved to Durham. Still not a great situation. Finally changed to processing on the 30th March. And today still no change, apparently waiting to be examined although it had been marked as urgent as we are due to travel soon. So update, still processing. We travel to Florida on the 5th May. I have now been given details to fast track on the new system?! I have sent an email to the london office to be processed! Not heard anything yet, but I’m hopeful it won’t be long.

Hi all, Wanted to update you on our application - feel free to click on my responses to see our specific situation. Timeline: Passport Recieved: 13 April 2022 Passport printed: 12 April 2022 Application approved: 12 April 2022 Application being processed: 11 March 2022 Documents internally sent to Durham: 05 March 2022 Documents received (to peterbourgh): 28 February 2022 Old Passport recorded as being delivered: 18 February 2022 Application received: 17 February 2022 Application submitted: 17 February 2022 Incredibly stressfull process. Multiple calls to HMPO to be told different things. We even contacted our MP. Finally got told after calling on 6th April to write a letter explaning damage to the passport, as all replacement applications require a description of how the damaged occured regardless of doing it on the online application. When I asked why I was not previously told he said no-one had actually looked at the passport application by that point. We got told about the new upgrade process on that day to get passport fast tracked as we were traveling within two weeks. We got a call from an examiner on the 11th, he gave us a choice as he was about to approve the application normally. He could approve it to go to central print (with all the delays about two weeks) or pay for the 'upgrade' and the would print locally like all fast tracked appointments. We paid the extra amount (around £70). My advice would be to keep trying to call HMPO we ended up getting in touch with a VERY helpful chap from the customer service management team who told us about the letter and what exactly to write. I think our application was always going to get 'looked at' on the 11th, so was really lucky we had sent the additional letter stating the damage and we intend to upgrade the application.

Overseas renewal: New passport arriving via DHL on 19th April. Application history Passport printed 1:40pm on 12 April 2022 Application approved 4:48pm on 11 April 2022 Documents received 2:34pm on 30 March 2022 Application received 9:32am on 27 February 2022 Application submitted 9:31am on 27 February 2022

@HongKon8888 am interested in your timeline (assuming you sent from HK) as I sent my passport from HK on April 4th, signed for in Durham April 8th. When was your passport signed for? Hope you get your passport on the 19th!

Anyone know if they working today for the passports

Hi Max, they signed for it on the 10th then it appeared to vanish. Dont worry too much, I think they are pretty good despite all the horror stories online.