New Passport Upgrade Service!

@claloub Go down there! They will see people without appointments my husband went there yesterday. Got there for 8am and was seen very quickly.. we unfortunately had no success but it might be different for you and worth a try at this stage. Goodluck

I spoke with someone from the liverpool office on the phone just now and they said security will turn people away without appointments. Has anyone visited the Liverpool office recently and been seen in relation to the upgrade service?

Is anyone not receiving automatic replies to their emails from liverpool? I was told to send another and haven’t received one for it - worried it hasn’t been received!

@Jules66 I would email all 7 of them. Good luck

How long is it taking for old passports to be received after being signed for at Liverpool passport office

Hi, I e-mailed Liverpool yesterday but have had no automatic reply, etc. Keep checking junk / spam but nothing. They keep saying they will call back. Feel like I’m stuck in lockdown again as they somehow managed to phone my mobile a couple of days ago & it went straight to voicemail, never rang so I have given them my home home phone number & feel too nervous to go out in case I miss them. Travel next week :-(

Hi guys been following this post for days. I had no joy with email or phone due to travel in 6 days I turned up at Durham hmpo today without an ap requested to speak to someone had to wait in a que for bout 20 mins then got seen to vexplained I have put a upgrade request I to progress team 3 times because I heard nothing bk and rang and they told me I was given the wrong email for upgrade team they give me Peterborough so had to re submit to Durham then heard nothing rang again they said they never received it. The woman said she will look into it an I wil get a phone call within 48 hours she said there being prioritised in flight order.i asked wil I get it on time tho am flying in 6 days she said as long as u have give all the info an documents then she doesn't see why not . Come home 2 hours later av had a email and text fast track submitted !! Show up be prepared to wait be respectful and let ya eyes water a lil. Good luck everyone ac read all this thread can't find anyone who never got there passport in time the lady said to me I shud recieve it atleast 48 hours before I fly and she will ring me for it to be collected

Please help my old passport has been signed for at 10:02 this morningsent by special recorded delivery. Does anyone at all know how long it takes after that for application tracker to show it is there? Never known stress like it

about 2-3 weeks seems to be the general rule 5 weeks so far for me

@feckthis. Mine took 15 days to be tracked. Rang this morning and said old passport not linked to application yet you might be lucky, have seen posts passport received back with 2 weeks. Good luck

@laura22222 was your application being delt with Durham or is that your local one? My daughters is Durham but I’m 5.5 hours away so 10 hour round trip 🤦‍♀️ I’m thinking of driving to Peterborough on Friday which is only 2 hours from me and seeing if they can help as I leave early hours Sunday morning and really panicking now 😩

Do you have to wait til Friday to go Peterborough? Am sure there not open weekends. Go asap x

I won’t get time before Friday to go 😩 it says they are open till 3pm on Saturday so just holding out hope on that, I’m on hold to the progress team now she said she is going to apply for an upgrade for me but put me back on hold and have been waiting over 10 mins and she’s not come back, she said the upgrade is not a garenteed service 🙄 I’m going to try see if I can get the day off tomorrow and go there 🤞 my daughters application isn’t an online one it’s a post office application so I’m worried that will mean only Durham can do it too. The stress is really taking it’s toll on me now 😔

I fly tomorrow. Applied for an upgrade for my sons first passport 2 weeks ago and sat tight until a couple of days ago. I wanted to keep faith that they would call and I was determined not to block the inboxes of the upgrade teams. I did call the progress team a few times and found out my upgrade had been moved from London to Durham. Yesterday I cracked and decided to start chasing. I went up to the London office, spoke to someone, but this didn't help at all. I then emailed the upgrade team stating I fly in 2 days and that I am still waiting for the call. Last night I gave up hope and we decided half the family would go ahead, and the rest would follow if/when the passport turned up. I emailed again this morning around 7am with the subject FLYING TOMORROW. Got a call at 1030am from the Durham office and they told me I could pick it up from London at 130pm. I just got back from a successful trip. All circumstances are different but advice from me: don't give up, it was approved and printed in 3 hours. Despite wanting to give the system a chance and let the upgrade teams do their thing, I would recommend waiting until you are 2-3 days out from flying and then sending a couple of emails a day. Phone calls and visits were largely ineffective for me. Good luck

So I spoke to another lady who was really lovely in the progress team and she has sent off for another upgrade request, this time I got an email automatically completely differnt from what I have had when emailing myself, plus when I applied on the 1st of May on the phone I never had an automatic response so I’m now wondering if it never went through 🤷‍♀️ I got an email from noreply@postroom.com this time, the email asked me to send evidence within the next 48hours with applications name in the subject header, I have done this now so preying they pick it up 🙏🏻 I’m also on hold now to speak to someone else who she said might be able to help, by far the most helpful and kindest person I’ve spoken to out of my many calls, will update if I hear anything 🤞 I’m so scared of missing the call I haven’t even been going shopping incase I loose signal and miss it 🙈 can’t wait for this stress to be over 😩

How do you get in contact with the progress team?

Is that even possible. They have told me few times they are putting me through to progress team then I end up back with someone who can’t help and can only tell me my daughters passport still processing

Is the progress team sane as upgrade team?

Like many on here I am starting to panic. My application has been processing for nearly 6 weeks. I have emailed the upgrade team and I am due to fly on the 22nd May. I only hope I get the call otherwise I will have to cancel my family holiday. Mine was for a change of surname. I had three passport applications one for me and a renewal for my children’s. I accidentally sent my marriage certificate with my sons application. My marriage certificate was used to agree his as they needed proof of my name change. I had to write a letter to my daughters and my application as they also needed my marriage certificate but it was with my sons application. They were supposed to link all the accounts but only linked my daughters to my sons so her passport was agreed and I have now got both of theirs back. I am just waiting for mine which was only linked a couple of days ago. I had called numerous times to check that they don’t need my original marriage certificate again for mine and I have been told each time no as all the accounts are linked they will use my sons application as proof of name change. I am now panicking that they will call me and reject it as they need my marriage certificate. I am waiting a call back from the progress team to quadruple check it’s not needed again. If not I will drive to Peterborough with it as I need to keep this holiday. I wish everyone waiting good luck

The progress team are the only ones who can send off for the upgrade, when you speak to the normal customer service people and ask to be upgraded they should put you straight through to the progress team. I finally spoke to someone today who was by far the most helpful, she said she would send off for my upgrade again today and advised me to send another email, soon as she sent off for it I received an email from noreply@postroom.com asking me to send in evidence which last time I didn’t get so I’m wondering if it wasn’t done properly before, anyways she said she will transfer me to the customer service manager to see if they can do anything as she had done everything she could do, I waited 3 hours on hold to speak to them and soon as the wait hit 3 hours the phone cut off 😩 all I can do now is sit and wait and prey for the best 🙏🏻

The progress team are the only ones who can send off for the upgrade, when you speak to the normal customer service people and ask to be upgraded they should put you straight through to the progress team. I finally spoke to someone today who was by far the most helpful, she said she would send off for my upgrade again today and advised me to send another email, soon as she sent off for it I received an email from noreply@postroom.com asking me to send in evidence which last time I didn’t get so I’m wondering if it wasn’t done properly before, anyways she said she will transfer me to the customer service manager to see if they can do anything as she had done everything she could do, I waited 3 hours on hold to speak to them and soon as the wait hit 3 hours the phone cut off, all I can do now is sit and wait and prey for the best

So just had email saying old documents received 14 days after so I’m now going back to upgrade team and hope

Hi all, due to fly on 5th June so not at the two week point just yet but starting to panic. What is the phone number for the upgrade team? There’s so many phone numbers I can’t figure out which is which. Also did everyone get an update to say ‘application processing’ ?? I applied for my sons first passport on 26/3/22 and the last update I got was 7/4/22 to say ‘documents received’ but nothing about it being processed yet. It was an online application so I don’t know if that makes a difference?? I called one of the numbers on this forum and they said that the application is with the examiners, but I haven’t had the update to state that. Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi. I'm at same stage as you. For upgrade you need to ring normal passport no and they will pass you to team. Lots of people not had update but received passport. Good luck

We are travelling on the 25th May, just needed to simply renew passport snd sent off 6 weeks ago. Rang and rang the advice line at the end of last week which was a nightmare as you just can’t get through. Finally got through to someone on Tuesday after trying to call for 5 hours. after ranting on she put me through to someone who gave me advice to email upgrade team with all the holidays details. He said I would hear back within 48 hours. Nothing yet. The money of £85 has been taken from my account. So stressful for the whole family. Do the upgrade team contact you or do they just send you your passport. Confused??