February, March and April - Black hole

Mine was reveived May 5th and still hasn't even been updated

Its seems if you applied in February, March and April your passport application has gone into a black hole as if you had applied in May you are getting passports back within weeks.

Not everyone - I applied on the 21st Feb and had my passport in my hand on 22nd March

I applied for an adult renewal in March and got mine in three weeks. Applied on the same day for a child's first passport and am still waiting. It's a little alarmist to suggest all applications across a three-month span have "gone into a black hole".

Well I don't think it is alarmist, since my husband's was submitted 18 Feb and son's 22/2 and we are still waiting...4 weeks between documents being signed for and officially received, then another 4 weeks in processing, now we are being told 2-3 weeks till letter they requested which arrived last week will be dealt with. They haven't even looked at my son's application yet! and what's the bet we have to go through it all again. It's completely unacceptable.

totally agree with upsidedown, shambolic system in place, we all understand the extreme pressure the passport office are under with such a high demand but it cannot be that difficult to separate old passports and documents by the week that they are received by the office and worked through, to not even acknowledge receipt of these items even with proof of signature that they have arrived is a disgrace. I'm approaching 30 days and not any confirmation yet....

10/03 applied 20/04 processing 29/05 still processing Yay

Same here. 18th March applied 29th April Processing Today still processing my 2 childrens passports. Had my other sons back for 3 weeks now and applied at the same time. Holiday in five weeks and extremely stressed!

Hi all, Same with me! I’ve applied from New Zealand on 10th March . It only took a week for them to receive my old passport from DHL tracking but didn’t show as processing till 6th April! I am still waiting and need to move home soon and I need to transfer visa that can take 30 days and got a flight to UK in August :(

It took an entire month for them to “Receive” documents after they were sent. Shambles.

I have applied on 15th Feb, processing since 9th March. I have asked for an upgrade on 15th May (2 weeks before we were due to travel) but nobody called me back to explain the procedure. I have contacted them several times but no reply. When called them on Sunday (the day we were going to travel) I was told not to contact them as I'm not travelling in the next 2 weeks. This is unacceptable and unfortunately I can't do anything about it.

Well now I am at 9 weeks since applying 29th March. I don’t blame anyone who was lucky enough to get theirs returned quicker than 10 weeks but HMPO really needs to put resources aside to help those whose applications are hitting/over 10 weeks. And not just try to get their stats down for recent applicants. You shouldn’t have to wait to 2 weeks before. And that doesn’t help anyone who needs it for other reasons. We also need my other half’s for a house sale. You follow the guidance and what do you get - blamed and then made to feel you shouldn’t be angry about it. The stress this is causing is unreal. Some of the stories I have read on here and on Facebook have been heartbreaking. When will they get their act together! Rant over. 😞

It's terrible isn't it, I think we would all feel better if we felt confident there was some kind of process or system, rather than the mess we are all a part of now. I too have read some awful stories. Hope you get some good news soon.