Hemel - missing Special Delivery documents?

I received the usual automated email to say my documents had been received on the 6th. The telephone service can't see the contents of the documents but have a list of what types of document have been received. C191919 - my Special Delivery was scanned with times as below. Do any of yours match? You could have ended up in the same mail bag. Also, the name field reads 'PASSPORT OFFICE' and the signature is DWS, diagonal, with the top left curve of the 'S' overlapping the 'W' slightly. The 'D' is closed at the top left but open at the bottom left where the straight line meets the curve. 30th November 0451 Despatched to Home Counties North MC 0706 Delivered and Signed 0710 Arrived at Home Counties North DO

Update - my application was approved one week after 'documents received', so I can only assume that they have indeed found them. I wonder how long document return will take now that the application has been approved. That makes the timeline as follows: 30th November 2022: Royal Mail delivered documents. 6th January 2023: Documents received. 13th January 2023: Approved.

I have a similar problem, I sent my old passport and my residence permit (colorful photocopy, the website said it could be photocopied if the proof was a residence permit) to the Durham office, a week later they received it, and another week Later they told me that some proof of residence from my country was missing (but I already sent it to them) and just a minute later I received an email from them asking someone to confirm my identity... I don't know what to do, I'm going to ask someone to confirm my identity but I don't know if I should ignore the message of the proof of residence that according to them is missing, because the tracking website is only asking for the confirmation of identity by another person, but the email I received before that left me worried .

I just got my new passport today. I had forgot to mention I had got it through Bootle. Overall it took me surprisingly 11 days from the day I posted my old passport (it seemed it took the post office 5 days to send the old passport to the passport office, despite sending it first class signed for) to receiving my new passport through the door. I still haven't got my old passport yet.

Is anybody else having sent their passport and documents to Hemel stuck on ‘documents received’…? I’ve been waiting on an update since January 10th following sending in an old passport and a deed poll for name change. Slightly frustrating that people seem to have applied last week and received new passports already… can anybody offer insight or advice?

Well I got my old passport back with the corner snipped off today. I had thought they send the old passport back first before sending your new one, but hey ho, maybe it was always like that.

Have you been given any update on this?

Hi JDean, It sounds like the same thing happened to us both. After getting my MP involved my documents were marked as 'received' in early January and the process was smooth from then, approval a week later and printing/delivery quickly afterwards. The real clue came when, 3 full weeks after passport approval, I got an email from Royal Mail advising that my documents were on the way back. The envelope was received by RM in Northern Ireland - so somehow, the documents ended up in HMPO Belfast. I called to query this and was told my application was processed in Liverpool! So they asked me to send documents to Hemel for an application being processed in Liverpool, and somehow they ended up in Belfast. Who knows how many times they went around that circle and how many additional stops were made... Things I learned were: -something in the document receiving/scanning side of things is terribly designed. -once HMPO get to the business of actually examining your application they are reasonably efficient. -printing and delivery are very efficient. -if it's going wrong, get your MP involved - the call centre's promises to escalate things and carry out searches are essentially worthless. Best of luck all.