New Passport Upgrade Service!

sazzle 1. you can queue up in peterborough if you are on the liverpool upgrades team (to reassure you i was in the belfast upgrades team queued up in victoria london HMPO where i later go my passport printed + collected from so it is very much possible) 2. you are travelling on the friday 22/07/2022 here is the steps you should take if you haven't heard anything back 48hours before travel (don't go earlier as they will likely send you back since they are swamped with work) - wednesday 20/07/22 (this is 48hours before travel) morning ---> go early to your nearest HMPO office with all flight evidence etc - they will make you fill a form the will either print your passport that day or ask you to collect on thursday which is the next day - thursday 21/07/22 if it wasn't printed on wednesday they will ask you to collect today - friday 22/07 -- you travel ik it seems like a close call since you receive passport 1 day before travel and that's stressful but that's how i did it

Thanks for the info hjiki. That will be exactly the same time for me (Wednesday - Sunday). What time did you fly out on Sunday? I read on this forum, if your departure time is early hours in the morning then you can class your departure as the day before (Saturday) so if this is the case 48hrs for me would be Thursday. I’ve already got it in my head that I’m driving to the HMPO which has my application 48hrs before departure, which is Durham. Even though I live 30min a away from Liverpool HMPO.

in regards to the first part idk if you should physically go on thursday because a lady that i met queuing at HMPO was travelling on the same day as me (sunday) and she went on thursday and after waiting for 5hours they just told her to come back tommorow (friday) when she hits the 48hour mark so you can go but i wouldn't recommend it as they might turn you away 2. yes to the email part (based on my knowledge) i think my flight was at 3;35pm from luton airport on sunday on my email subject line: i wrote this ' 02/07/2022 + my application reference number' i did this even though i was travelling on the 3rd however in my actual email i wrote a short thing to explain why i put the 2nd in the subject line this is exactly what i wrote (this is not the whole email just the part relevant to what you asked) : ' Travelling on the 03/07/2022 but need the passport by 02/07/2022 at the latest since on the 3rd I'll have to be at the airport, thus in the subject line I have written the 2nd' i made it specific because i didn't want it to seem like i was lying since the flight evidence states i'm travelling on the 3rd (so if i was you i would write something like that) i tried to be as specific as possible don't hesistate to ask any other questions when time are you travelling?

If Saturday was a full working day for them then I would go Friday but with it only being open half of the day I’m worried it may not be enough time if I go Friday. I think it’s worth the chance to travel Thursday at least they can see I’m being active chasing it up. I’m due to fly at 06:25am on Sunday 24th July. So hopefully they may take the early departure and half working day (Saturday) into account.

Hjiki I would go 48 hours beforehand but I’m at work until the Thursday which is the day before travel so I’m going to have to go first thing in the Friday. Eek! Really hope it works out. The system is so flawed, how did they not pre-empt that people would be travelling this time of year?! Anyway I will hope for the best and go the day before with fingers toes and eyes crossed!

First thing on the Thursday I mean

6 days to go and no call back yet from the upgrade team to take payment.

After it reaching a week until my flight, I frantically called the support line. Unaware of this upgrade service until then (I had been busy worrying about work the last few weeks and assumed my passport would "show up" on time - the fool that i was), they told me they would start the request and someone would call me back. the next day, nobody called back by 6pm, so I re-called the support line and they informed me nothing had been done, and they forwarded me to the support line again, who promised THIS time they would start my request to upgrade. today, the third day in this hellish process, nobody called me. As it approached 7pm, i called the support line once more and they informed me the "upgrade team" is behind shedule, and taking upwards of 3 days to call people back for "urgent" requests. It's now 4 days until i fly, and nobody is being helpful at all!! at this rate i'm going to have to drive all the way to the passport office to beg them to give me my passport 24 hours before my flight- which is about 3 hours from where i live and even further from where i'm supposed to be catching my plane from!!!! what a nightmare! But it does seem the passport upgrade service is overwhelmed at the moment- likely due to a number of requests all reaching the 10+ week timeline now (i wonder how backed up they are for it to have gotten this bad, yikes)!

@forgotteninnit if it helps from experience it is possible to put yourself in an upgrades list and get a passport within 4days i got my little brothers today put on upgrades list ; wednesday 13/7 passport collected and printed ; friday 15/7 travelling : sunday 17/7 so it was done within 2 days so don't be overly stressed i can tell you step by step what you need to do to help you if you want me to just lmk also when are you flying and at what time also which HMPO is closest to you (durham?)

@mr_cr9 i have good news today that can reassure you even more we are going to travel on 17/7 a family trip my lil brother didn't receive his first child british passport so this is what i did wednesday 13/7 --> sent an upgrade email friday 15/7 today (48hours before) --> received a call ,passport was then printed and collected from victoria going to travel sunday 17/7 PS: i did go to my nearest HMPO today because i was in the 48hour mark overall they did it in 2days so this success story proves that it is possible to get within 2 1/2 days i hope this eases your worry lmk if you need anything else

just want to say i'm so grateful for this forum helped me get passports for 2 of my family members my self included without this ik it would be highly unlikely that i would have got a passport so i'm so thankful, i was so stressed and sympathise with everyone that's why even though i don't have any personal need for this forum anymore i will still check this forum to answer questions EVERYONE FEEL FREE TO ASK ME ANY DOUBTS AT ALL OR ANYTHING YOU NEED CLARITY ON (i'll answer to the best of my ability) ask as many questions as you guys like i want to give back to everyone this forum was truly a lifesaver PS: good luck everyone rooting for you to get the passport that you need PS: good luck everyone

@hjiki thank you so much for your replies, i'm put slightly more at ease about everything! hopefully tomorrow (sat 16/07) they finalise me on the upgrades list after a call back! I know they're closed sunday (17/07), so if it took them two days it would hopefully be ready monday (18/07) if your estimation is right! Also, I'm flying from london on Weds at 5am, so really i'd need to be able to pick it up tuesday (18/08) at the latest! My closest HMPO is Liverpool, which is i believe where my passport currently is! my process so far has been requesting the upgrade, and then 48 hours of silence, if that also helps.

@hjiki this is music to my ears. So it is achievable to get a passport within the same short time frame I have. I just hope they can pull it out the bag for me. Thank you for your feedback @hjiki and the rest of the guys. I’ll keep you all up to date with my application. @hjiki you go and enjoy your holiday now and have a well deserved cocktail on the beach, enjoy.

@hjiki quick question. Did you receive the call to pay and collect on Friday or did the upgrade team call you before the passport collection phone call?

@forgotteninnit make sure you call them and ask them 1. where your application is (like what upgrade team you will be on durham,belfast,liverpool etc 2. what your application reference number is when you talk to the progress team or customer service management team today stay on call whilst they send you an email like make sure you receive an upgrade email then only cut the call cuz sometimes they send it to the wrong email address

@mr_cr9 i'm travelling on the 17/7 so friday (yesterday) i hit the 48hour deadline so i was already at my nearest HMPO my mother (who i listed as an alternative contact cuz this application was to do with my baby brother) got a call from the upgrades team whilst i was at the HMPO conveniently at around 11 ish they told her passport approved and ready to print and i could collect it later today - takes a little while to print around 1-2hours since i was already there i took a break went to my nearest shop, ate and came back at around 3 ish to print in short roughly 11am --> call from upgrades team passport approved + ready to print roughly 2-3am --> collected my passport you have to wait a lil while after upgrades team call you to collect passport because the HMPO still needs to print + put passport together good luck :)

@mr_cr9 ps; if upgrade team call you to say passport approved ready to print, if they need payment they most likely will ask for bank details over the phone (within the same phone call) so for me the belfast team called me passport ready to print, took my bank details over the phone etc

@mr_cr9 ps; if upgrade team call you to say passport approved ready to print, if they need payment they most likely will ask for bank details over the phone (within the same phone call) so for me the belfast team called me passport ready to print, took my bank details over the phone etc

Update: I got a callback at 9am, which had no noise and immediatley cut off! I was horrified that my chance to upgrade might have been jeaprodised, but after calling the general line they re-listed me for an urgent callback and assured me someone would be in touch later today. I got that callback today around 2pm to confirm my details, and they've said I should be clear to pick up my passport on Tuesday (24 hours to flight) from Liverpool unless they find any glaring holes in my paperwork! thank you all so much for your help, and I'll update again if any problems pop up on monday in case anyone else has similar problems in the future!

i'm extremely happy for you :) ik usually the upgrades team will call only once and if we don't pick up it becomes our loss so i'm happy they called you again going forward make sure you go to collect your passport early on tuesday if they didn't give you a specific time this allow for worst case scenario if there's any problems etc they can fix it since you will receive it 24hours before travel did the upgrades team take any payment? i hope whatever i said helped you once again i'm truly happy for you the process was so stressful

update again! I got the confirmation text today that it's been approved! Should be printed today ready for pickup tomorrow. They gave me the time of 10am to pickup from liverpool tomorrow via an email! Also, the upgrades team ended up waiving my fee for upgrade (as it had been both 11 weeks and so close to the flight date)! I wish everyone else luck with their own passports!!

That is so good congrats! I have still not received my call yet about an upgrade and I am supposed to be going on Friday. I feel like I can't even get excited about my holiday as I can't see it happening! Really holding out hope that I can get it before then, if not it'll be a long day at Peterborough office waiting for it on Thursday :(

Has anyone on here upgraded two passports at the same time? I called Friday the 8th July to upgrade 2 new applications was told to put both applications on the one email, had a call yesterday that one has been approved but nothing on the other should I be calling back up or wait it out worried that they’ve just upgraded one and not both

I was told they were working to my travel date which came and went. Requested an urgent call back on Friday and got a call on Sunday morning. He agreed the expedited upgrade had failed but gave no explanation. Put through for another upgrade. 16 weeks, still no passport and no-one you can contact to get an honest answer or information. Absolute disgrace.

What’s the latest time people have received there call backs?