New Passport Upgrade Service!

I posted earlier to ask if anyone has emailed without first getting through on the phone. (3rd post up) Whilst writing the email to request the upgrade for me and my son, I went to check the status of my application and it said its been printed!!! Applied 2nd May Old passport signed for 4th May Documents acknowledged 9th May Application approved 11th May Printed 12th May Arrives in my hands....TBC Old document was sent to Newport, so it seems they are on fire! Same cannot be said for my Son's applied same day and old passport signed for same day, however no status updated still says "send us your old passport" Despite doing the applications one after the other I was asked to send his to Peterborough. Fingers crossed for everyone here.

That’s great you’ve got yours! How often did you chase? We fly 2 weeks today and the email reply said not to. 😬

Hi - has anyone been able to get through to Durham office by phone? I got zero luck when I called the 0300 number (option 8 then 3). THey put me through to the team that gives a status update but not the actual upgrade team. So I'm no closer.... fly on Sunday. Any advice? I've emailed 'URGENT', nothing back. Should I go up there? Long old drive but I'm desperate now. They've confirmed receipt of upgrade request and travel on Tuesday last week Thank you!!

We fly two weeks today & have had an acknowledgment from the London Team that they’ll deal with it asap. How often would you chase, it said specifically not to chase as it could affect your place in the queue :( So anxious, it’s my sons renewal and has been in ‘being processing’ stage since 27th Apr

Hi, I fly on the 23rd of may. Sent the initial email off to the upgrade team and got a automated reply stating this is only for people we asked to contact us. Sent another email today and got another automated email stating they have received the email but do not send anymore. I’m flying on a Monday morning so hope they will get back to me by the Friday.

Update, I applied for an upgrade on the 1st of May, I leave on Sunday 15th May so I applied for upgrade as soon as I could, I did so with the progress team on the phone who at the time told me they would send off for the upgrade and told me to email myself too. I didn’t get any confirmation email atall so a few days later tried emailing from a different email with the advice of how to write it from another user on here and I got an automatic email sent from DurhamUpgradeTeam@hmpo.gov.uk saying they have noted my date of travel and not to email again. Didn’t hear anything atall so have been calling to check on progress but wasn’t given anything but to sit and wait till 48-72hours before travel. Yesterday I was really worried so called up to speak to the progress team again and asked them to re apply for an upgrade as I was unsure if it actually worked the first time, the lady on the phone was really lovely and said of course so she sent off for an urgent upgrade stating I need the passport by Saturday 14th May. She then told me to email myself with evidence stating it was my second email. Well before I had even got off the phone I had an automatic email from noreply@postroom.com which said Thank you for contacting us about your passport application, that you have asked, to be upgraded. Your request has now been sent to the relevant team who will contact you within 48 hours to discuss further. For your application to be processed using this service, you will need to provide evidence to support your request to assess If you are eligible for your application to be upgraded. If the evidence is not in English, a translation must be provided. You must send this evidence to us within 48 hours, or your application will continue to be processed under our standard service. The evidence should be sent by email to the following email address and the subject header of the email should state the applicant's name: DurhamUpgradeTeam@hmpo.gov.uk HM Passport Office will contact you by telephone or email if we need more information from you. Yours sincerely, Her Majesty's Passport Office. I then called again this morning to see if there was any update and was told my application had been handed over to an assessor and all travel evidence had been received so I was likely to receive a call today. Well I can happily say I did at 10am this morning saying my daughters passport was done and they asked if I wanted to collect or have it sent out for 1 day delivery. I said I would definitely collect it and they had it all ready to pick up at 3pm today 🙌 just got home with the passport and I’m over the moon. Anyways my point of this long message is to anyone who hasn’t received an email similar to the one I just put it’s worth calling up again and asking them to re apply for your upgrade. Wishing everyone the best of luck, I really didn’t think it was going to happen but it did so please everyone don’t loose hope, just keep calling and trying 🤞

Hi, we are waiting for the Durham upgrade team to call us back to upgrade we fly on the 23rd. Has anyone had them actually call back? Also has anyone had the cost confirmed for the upgrade?

@amber9514 what was the format of the email you send?

What was the format that you put the email in? Made up you got your passport

I have rang loads of times and each time told we have to email ourselves and they can do the upgrade for us, but your saying they did the upgrade for you also and that’s when it seems to progress quickly, so frustrating that they tell people different

Well I've made a cock up ...i don't fly till 17th June so hope there is time yet...didn't send my boys birth certs with the passport....now I am starting to panic a bit...will be sending again recorded delivery tommorrow It wasn't clear to me anyway...should have double checked...eeek

Call this number bang on 8am, 0300 105 0850. It is the progress team, these are the only people who can send off for the upgrade. As far as I’m aware they have to do there half for it to work, it could possibly work without them but from what I’ve been told by the progress team they need to apply for it. You should then get an email the same as what I posted. I then sent off an email with the evidence which was this…. ………….. Hello, sorry to email again but I just received an email from noreply@postroom.com asking me to send it evidence of travel for my daughter with her name in the subject header, as my previous emails didn’t have her name in the subject header I am resending so I don’t get it wrong. I need her passport by the 14/05/2022 as we leave home on Sunday at 3am. . Expedite post office barcode- (number) Holiday travel – Sunday 15th may 2022 06:20am Applicant – (name of applicant) D.O.B – Address – Contact number – My name- Email address – Proof of travel – photos attached below of euro tunnel .……………. I can’t seem to add spaces between lines on here but I did in my email so it was clearer to read. Also where I put expedite post office barcode if you have on online application I think it’s called a PEX number so put that there. My header for this email was…………. Evidence for travel (name) (ref number) URGENT passport needed 14/05/2022.

Also for some reason I was never asked to pay any money for the upgrade 🤷‍♀️ Hasn’t been 10 weeks for me yet. I applied on the 23rd through the post office and they received application in Belfast on the 1st April then sent it to Durham and they received it on the 4th April. Also this was Durham that processed the upgrade so for those who are asking if Durham are successfully doing upgrades the answer is yes 🙌 also on the phone I was as polite as I could possibly be to the progress team don’t no if that made a differnce but I’m sure it does as both people I spoke to were really lovely back to me and tried everything they could so even if you are waiting ages to get through put on your best phone voice 🙈🤣

Also one more thing just incase it helps anyone, for some reason I never got reply’s when using my hotmail address so I have been using my gmail. That could be irrelevant but just thought I would say incase it’s the same for anyone else 🤞

Thanks so much! That’s exactly what I’ve put in the email so hoping they back soon - 12 days to go 😩 Yeah I’ve been super nice on the phone to try and get me further and tbh they’ve actually been good it’s just the lack of communication form the upgrade team. Ours is also in Durham so praying they call us back.

Wishing you the best of luck 🤞 definitely call them again closer the time maybe 4 days before and ask them to re do the upgrade, tell them you think it may not have worked the first time as you haven’t had confirmation, call 0300 105 0850 bang on 8am you shouldn’t have to wait long atall, I was spectacle about Durham but they definitely are handling the upgrades even if it is a close call 🙌

Are they really handing out passports 48 hours before travel? I have to use my passport to get a visa approved and I'm travelling on 29th May which is a Sunday so if I get it Friday then it'll be too late to get my visa approved. What am I suppose to do?

@amber9514 is that number the progress team for all offices or just Durham, my daughters passport with Peterborough. The main number just keep telling me they can’t put through to progress team or upgrade team. We fly next Sunday

That’s the number for the general progress team, there’s no direct contact for Durham, that number has always put me straight through to the progress team and they are by far the most helpful, call up bang on 8 and you will either get straight through or wait about 10mins, it doesn’t make you press any buttons as it’s a direct number.

Thank you. Appreciate it x

Good Morning, We fly tomorrow and to give people hope we got the call to collect our passport on Wednesday. There was alot of calls and emails but they do get back to you. We were polite and also when we had our passport we sent a thankyou email. We collected from london but they do offer next day post. Keep the faith

Hi, another issue that we’ve had this morning, got sn email saying that they won’t accept the birth certificates as they’re copies however they are replacement ones from the registry office. Has anyone ever had thsi?

That's what I am doing today....literally have a certified birth certificate copy ready to send along with a back up letter from my partner (mother) just in case they have an issue with the certificate I have it in an envelope ready to send today As far as I know the real original birth certificate sits in an official government store so all we can get is certified copies....I maybe wrong but I had my partner searching the house last night and all we have is certified copies ..we bought 4 at the time of the birth signing. They won't accept photo copies as far as I know but I think certified copies are good

Just a bit more hope for those that are waiting. I send my application off for my 2 sons first passports on February 14th. Flying on the 18th May. Applied for upgrade 2 weeks before. Sent 3 emails and spoke on the phone about 3 times to helpful people that had put note on my account. Yesterday morning 7.50am I had a phone call from Liverpool upgrade team to say both passports would be done that morning and out for special deliver. The passports were delivered by Royal Mail at 7.30am this morning! Feel lucky I have them 5 days before we fly but I have been waiting 12 weeks. Good luck everyone

@hayleylou Congrats! I am still waiting and I fly on the 18th. Starting to wonder if I should call up again? Getting nervous now.