New Passport Upgrade Service!

Got a phone call at 18.30 tonight, spoke to the guy and my application has been approved and it's now getting printed Hopefully be here in 5-10 days.

I got a call yesterday evening saying my passport had been approved and got an email this morning to say it had been printed. 5 days(ish) for delivery. Never been so glad to get news in my life. Applied online 7th April......application accepted 18th July. 14 1/2 weeks from applying to approved. 15 weeks from applying to delivery.

@DJ_uk did you request to have it posted or could you request to pick it up?

@sazzle I did request initially if I could pick it up from Liverpool but once they confirmed it was processed and printed, I just said post it out. They're posting my Irish one out too, which I'll probs get before the new British one. Usually they don't post supporting docs out until 2 weeks after.

Final Update : I got my passport! I went to go pick it up at Liverpool, they had put me on a "list" of premium appointments as it was just a pick up, literally in and out in 20 minutes. Showed up, proved I was who I said I was with my ID, and then walked out with the passport and got to go home and chill before my 5am flight! So, there is hope to the upgrade service, if you have the right people call you! My process was this, to anyone wondering. 7 days to flight : called, told i was put on upgrades "list" (did not get added actually), told to wait for call. 6 days to flight : called multiple times, was finally put onto upgrades "list", told to wait for callback within 48 hours (but more likely 36 as there were delays), given email to send upgrade request to and told to have documents ready to prove flight 5 days to flight : no call, i called THEM, and a sweet lady gave me a DIFFERENT email adress for the liverpool upgrades office and forwarded me to the upgrade team directly. Upgrade team waived my fee and started my upgrade, told me they would call me back within 48 hours. 4 days to flight : saturday, got a call back from Upgrade Team around 2pm/3pm, lady had documents and told me it would be processed and that i could pick it up on monday (i resheduled to tuesday as i was busy monday with a work meeting i couldnt duck out of to drive to liverpool), and then she even googled the closest office to make sure it definitley WAS liverpool and if not was happy to re-route it so i could pick it up somewhere closer! what an angel! 3 days to flight : weekend / closed 2 days to flight : Passport approved morning, Printed by afternoon (could have picked up then but couldn't make it that day as said above) 1 day to flight : Picked up passport from Liverpool at 9am with appointment made by lady on phone previously. I wish everyone else luck on their quest to get this little laminated piece of paper!

I have also just picked up my passport! After waiting a week for my upgrade call, I called again at 8am and got an urgent call back by midday from Liverpool office to pick my passport from the Peterborough office at 4pm. The process wasn’t as dreadful as I had hoped, I also got a phone call later on from the original call back which is proof that they will get back to you, they just work on the people who need them most urgently first. Best of luck to everyone waiting!

Went to Glasgow office today as I am 13 weeks from application and due to fly on Saturday. Got there at 6.30am and there were 7 people in front of me! Offices open at 8am and obviously take those with appointments up to the front first. Then as they get dealt with the general enquiries people are allowed in. I got in at 8.40ish. Very helpful guy who took me through what he would do to get the passport sorted for me to collect today. My application was in Belfast so he emailed them and marked it as urgent. He said that Belfast will call me back today with a time to go back up to Glasgow to collect the passport. Fingers crossed!!!

Passport Application Update: So today marked 6 weeks post application and I depart early hours on Sunday the 24th of July (4days away). I called the helpline this morning to escalate my application to the upgrade team and the lady on the help desk seemed a little incompetent, as I seemed to know more than her from reading this forum. I felt like she kind of fobbed me off and just told me to send an email to the upgrade team. So I went back on this forum and seen the recent post from @forgotteninnit where they said they didn’t get added to the upgrade list the first time round, which is exactly what had just happened to me. So I called the helpline back and spoken with a very helpful lady this time around which added me to the list and told me I would receive a call within 48hrs from the upgrade team. I was on the phone with the help desk at around 08:25am. I received a phone call from Durham passport office (where my application is) at around 12:10pm this afternoon. They asked me a few security questions and then I paid the upgrade fee which is £100 and booked an appointment at my closest passport office (Liverpool) for 10am tomorrow to collect my passport. Overall up to now it has been a very stressful process and it is left right up to the wire but, it seems the upgrade service does work, they’re just overstretched hence the lack of communication. I’ll update on here further tomorrow on the process once I get to the HMPO. However, I wish everyone the best of luck as I know how stressful this situation is. And thank you to everyone that has updated this forum because I don’t think I would have my passport in time if it wasn’t for this forum.

Final Update: So I arrived at Liverpool HMPO around 10:10am this morning. Had to show security at the entrance an email showing my passport had been printed and I explained it was an urgent upgrade and I’m collecting in person. They let me straight through were I checked in and collect my waiting number. Waited around 15mins until I was called and collected my passport, I was in and out in around 20mins. A Very seamless procedure unlike the run up to this. I wish everyone the best of luck with trying to get hold of their passport and again, thank you to everyone that had their input on this forum that assisted me.

Can anyone tell me if the upgrade service applies to a first time child application. A bit of background.. Daughter was born at the end of December. Reduced service at the registery office (covid), Christmas opening times and a bout of covid meant we didn't get her birth certificate until February. Applied for irish passport in March. Disaster. Still 'processing'. Family wedding end of August in Portugal. Thought sod this, applied for British passport 30th June. Documents received but application not yet processing. Should have done British fast track but because I've already made a standard application, fast track no longer available. Will pay ANYTHING for expedition of British Passport. Irish crew dont seem to offer the same service.

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on support documents for me. We are due to travel on 11 August and have had no progress since applying on 31 May. We will begin fast track next week when we have 2 weeks to go. Unfortunately I used my partners and my passport as documentation as he is a citizen and I am not, and both of these are now stuck in the system. If I fast track is there any way of collecting my documents along with my daughters passport?

CarmellaSorano I believe you can upgrade a child’s first passport but you have to have been 6 weeks from application/documents received depending on who you talk to and 2 weeks of travel. Best bet is to ring the helpline when those two criteria are met and asked to get added to the upgrades list.

Julir usually you get any supporting documents returned to you within 3 weeks of receiving your passport. They are in a mailroom somewhere so it’s unlikely if you turn up to the passport office that they will be able to find them and give them to you as they are prioritising scanning in applications and received documents. I’m sure if you make them aware though of your situation they might be able to speed things up.

Firstly thanks to everyone posting in this forum. It’s made my process a lot less stressful seeing so many success stories and put my mind at ease a little. I submitted my renewal online 7 weeks ago and travel in 12 days. I’ve emailed the Upgrade team my flight info and request expedition. I’ve also spoken to a helpful chap on one of the numbers posted on here that bypass the switchboards, he’s confident that it will process in time. Quick question just want to see what people think. If all else fails and I get no progress I’ll goto my local office. As my flight is on Friday 5th of August early doors, can I technically turn on from the Tuesday so it leaves Wednesday and Thursday to process or is Wednesday the earliest? When I sent my email to the upgrade team I made it clear my date of travel was 5/8 but noted I have a stupid early flight so need it by 4/8. If I don’t have a passport in hand by close of business Thursday I’m not travelling. But no sure if this is too early?! Does anyone have any tips on what to take to the office? Obviously ID and flight info, just wondering if I’ll need anything else?

Also worth checking out this thread https://www.passportwaitingtime.co.uk/forums/topic/traveled-to-passport-office/ And this FB group: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=passport%20chaos%202022

Hi all. Just a quick thank you for all the information. Just had an odd experience that may help or not help. We fly in 2 weeks and we need our daughters passport that we applied for just over 7 weeks ago. I called to go through the upgrade system this morning and I spoke to the lady who told me the procedure. The worrying thing is that the passport is in Peterborough, the email we got from the upgrades team was from Liverpool but the lady on the phone was adamant that all upgrades requests go through Durham! Anyway, fingers crossed we get the call but this has been a stressful few weeks.

Hi please can anyone tell me the email for the Liverpool upgrade service team/ where to find it ?

Hi can I have the email for liverpool and durham upgrade team please!

hello 1. you need to make sure your passports are upgraded in durham or liverpool as if you send a email to the wrong upgrade team it would confuse the whole system and might delay u actually getting the passport 2. to be on the upgrade team you must have evidence for travelling in less than 2 weeks + have a passport application in the system for a minimum of 6 weeks give me one sec for me to find the email

Hi - our passport was sent off just under 8 weeks ago , but passport office are saying that we can’t upgrade as they only received it 5 and a half weeks ago.. can I still send an email asking for an upgrade ?

3. alternatively you can call the passport team phone number and ask for the customer service management team or the progress team to tell u where ur passport is being upgraded and to give the email usually the email would be: (the place)upgradeteam@hmpo.gov.uk the place = liverpool , durham, belfast ,peterborough etc --> basically substitute it for where u upgrade application is PS:please call the upgrades team or progress team because they need to do something from their side for the upgrades thing to be actually considered + u have to draft the email in a certain way, i only wrote the email in case ur approved for an upgrade and lost the email usually after email sent u are meant to get an automatic reply 5hours after confirming that upgrades team got it

wait before u sent the email would u mind me asking when are u guys travelling? like the exact date in regards to previous question yes they are correct only qualify for an upgrade if both criteria is met, yes they only count the dates from when they received the passport (5 1/2 weeks) not when u sent it (8weeks ago)

Ah okay. We travel on 18th.. and I think the application has been had by them for around 5 1/2 week. Have seen a lot of people just going to the passport office and collecting the passport if travelling within 48 hours too .. so this is also an option if upgrade team don’t reply. Have already emailed .. but will email next Friday when my application has been there for 6 weeks :)

Hi everyone. How long did it take you to receive a response from the upgrade team? I finally managed to request an upgrade from Liverpool on Saturday after speaking to the helpline. Tried to chase on the phone but must have caught an intern on his first day who seemed clueless on the process!

Hi everyone, We applied for my daughters passport on the 16th of March, after misplacing the passport we then sent all the information to Durham as we were told (it took 2 weeks for them to tell us where to send it too) all received on the 23rd of June nearly 1.5 months since we sent the information to Durham. Then nothing. Then after reading this forum (which has been so helpful) we applied to upgrade and expedite on the 30th of July as we travel on the 13th of august. Still nothing, countless phone calls day in day out no help what so ever just told to be patient. Then I decided yesterday enough is enough I'm going up to London passport office to get this sorted as it was breaking my 10 year olds heart. Got here at 7.30, told them the situation and that i am traveling on Sat and it has been since the 16th of march didn't mention the delay in sending over the information as it was there fault. They told me to come back at 1pm to collect, I did it wasn't ready as the lady in Durham hadn't processed it! anyway an hour later it was processed and i collected it!!! Im so happy. So i would recommend get yourself up to your local office the week of travel don't leave it to late and go by the date of application. It isn't a free service and they have no right in lying and being unhelpful over the phone it is a lot harder to lie to people face to face. But keep your calm. Good luck!