Durham

Have you applied for the 2 week upgrade service?

Is that the same as fasttrack? I was told I couldn't fast track as first adult passport

I’m not too sure if it’s the same as fast track, i no they have the new option to upgrade within 2 weeks of travel, I’ll have a read up and see if it’s differnt with first passport and get back to you

As far as I've been told, the upgrade service is eligible to anyone who can prove they are travelling in the next 2 weeks. I I applied in February and still in the processing stage and fly out end of May, they said as they have had my application for over 10 weeks I can get it expedited 2 weeks before travel at 0 cost, otherwise I would have to pay. I'm surprised they have not mentioned this to you??

Just been looking online and can’t see anything about not being able to upgrade on a first time passport. Give them a call and see if they can give you the details of the upgrade team. Good luck 🤞

One guy was going to upgrade it for me and said I should have the passport in 48hours but when I confirmed it was first adult, they said I couldn't do this. So frustrating as each operator says something different!! I'm in a queue now, see what they say. I appreciate they are busy but I know others who have applied similar time to me and had their's back 😢 Thanks for your advice, hope you manage to get sorted soon too

it’s absolutely ridiculous, it’s like they all just make up what there doing, I’ve had some people I’ve spoken to who have been completely useless and others who couldn’t be more helpful. Hopefully you can get through to someone who knows what there doing and has some compassion! There seems to be no order in how they are processing peoples applications either 🙄 good luck 🤞

GOOD LUCK

My passport application has been sitting at Durham office since 28/3 processing. I've just spoken to a lady at Newport office who is going to email them to chase it up as nothing holding it up that she can see.

mine is at Durham too, been processing since 16th March. I have been told nothing is holding mine up either. I have emailed my MP I have had enough of this! People are applying for passports after me and its getting approved within days and I am 6 weeks down the line and its still sitting 'processing'

I've not even mananaged to get through to talk to anyone yet and i've been calling sicne they opened this morning

number i have are: 01633 285419 - Newport office 03001231973

I'm still in a queue, currently at 1hr 25....🙄

Just been told mines now at Durham office after sending it in to Liverpool, not sure exactly when that happened as I've contacted them over 5 times and didn't get told until today. First adult passport timeline: Applied/Confirmed ID/Sent documents 5th March Acknowledgment of documents received 29th March Processing 1st April Was told it would be 4 weeks total but now 7 ½ weeks in and all they've done in that time is linked my documents, it's still in a pile waiting to be seen by an examiner. I'm now guessing that the delay with documents was internal transfer maybe? Wish they'd told me that before I spent money on new birth certificates thinking they'd lost them. Holiday was booked for 16th may, 73 days after application but rebooking tonight at £600 cost as I have zero confidence in them sending it before then despite being over 10 weeks after.

Hi do the number 01633 take ages to answer

Sorry to hear of your horror with this service too!! I did sit in a queue for 2hours earlier, although I still not much further forward. I'm not sure if this will help but I was given an email for Durham upgrades, if you want to try.... DurhamUpgradeTeam@hmpo.gov.uk Good luck and hope you get sorted soon. 🤞🏼 I've accepted the fact I'm not flying this Friday. Deeply disappointed 😥

Don’t know why they have people answering phones as they can’t tell u anything except it’s in a queue waiting to be seen by an examiner, well I know that 🤯🤯, no pony bloody ringing at all 🤬🤬

Adult renewal from US. Applied online, and requested to send old passport to Durham. I was actually impressed with how easy this was (the online application was very simple). The biggest delay was between my old passport arriving at the Passport Office, and them actually acknowledging that it had arrived. Other than that, everything was pretty fast. (* items below are my annotations) *Received in US (via DHL) 26 April 2022 Passport printed 10:41am on 20 April 2022 Application approved 4:44pm on 14 April 2022 Documents received 5:07pm on 12 April 2022 *Documents signed for in Durham, 8:44am on 25 March 2022 *Documents sent to Durham from US, 18 March 2022 Application received 7:38pm on 18 March 2022 Application submitted 7:38pm on 18 March 2022

@es1202 my application (a renewal from the US) took 18 days from the Post Office confirming delivery in Durham, and the Passport Office updating status to "Documents Received". During this time I received a number of e-mails asking me to send my old passport. I think it is just taking a long time to get the documents into their system, even after they have physically arrived. If yours is on a similar timeline, it should be changing status within the next few days. Once received, mine went through approval and printing quite quickly, and I just received it today.

Update that my application is now in ‘Documents received’ on 27th April when they were signed for on 8th April, 19 days ago. Timeline almost matching @ChaddyOwl so based on all the updates here I’m hoping for the next status to be Approved in the next 2-3 days and not In Progress…

Not sure what Durham are playing at, mine were signed for in Durhan on the 8th March but took 34 days before they appeared as being received on the 11th April, the day before @ChaddyOwl, being 16 days and mine are still being processed Application being processed 5:30pm on 11 April 2022 Documents received 2:07pm on 11 April 2022 Application received 6:03am on 20 February 2022 Application submitted 6:03am on 20 February 2022

@penfold69 mine were signed for in Durham on 14 March but not logged as received until 13 April. The following day moved to processing and have sat there ever since.

Just got off the phone to them again, mine have now came out of the queue as of yesterday and is now waiting for the examiner to look at it,still can’t tell me how long as she don’t know how big there work load is, really hope I hear very soon

Passportwaiting when do you fly?

Luckily we haven’t booked anything yet, but want it bk ASAP so I can book a late deal