[StephieC]

@csy30006, you would get a text if the passport has been printed, ours was printed the following day after being approved, then royal mail next day delivery to us.

[StephieC]

@Lost1874, Our tickets were booked for 23 June, and I received the passport in the post on 22 June. It could have been quicker if I had travelled to a passport office where they’d print it there and then, but we couldn’t make it so had to wait for Royal Mail delivery.
I was told they’re working to meeting travel dates that are couple of days away, but it is not guaranteed that they will meet it 100%.

I put the applicant name and the date of travel in the email subject for the upgrade request
then in the body of the email, it was literally bullet points with no waffle

Applicant Full Name
Application Ref Number
Email
Contact Phone Number
Evidence of Booked travel (I attached the eticket for our flight)

Hope this helps

[StephieC]

Hiya,
would be good to add a field for which passport office for people submitting their experience

[StephieC]

it seems they’re literally cutting it down to the last day or two before travel for people to collect at local office or have it delivered by special delivery at extra cost

my son’s application was sent to Belfast, so the email was BelfastUpgradeTeam@hmpo.gov.uk, but I think you need to call the adviceline first and they can transfer your call to the Progress team, who will initiate the upgrade request for you.

[StephieC]

Just to share our experience of our kids’ applications, both were submitted on 02 May 2022, identity was confirmed on 05 May 2022, documents sent and received over next day even though it took over 10 days for the online tracking to update as received,

1. First child passport for our daughter –
Passport printed 4:15pm on 7 June 2022
Application approved 1:52pm on 3 June 2022
Documents received 4:54pm on 17 May 2022

2. Child renewal for our son –
Passport printed 10:47am on 21 June 2022
Application approved 3:23pm on 20 June 2022
Documents received 10:00am on 16 May 2022

with our sons’ renewal, it was stuck in “processing” the day after the documents’ been received, but similar to many others, that stage disappeared due to system glitch.
We applied for upgrade on 16 June 2022, received email acknowledgement from Belfast on 17 June 2022. Heard nothing over the weekend, then Monday got a call from withheld number (which was the Belfast office) to take payment of £102 plus postage (either £21.50 or £7.50 depending on whether it’s 9am or 1pm delivery). Received text to say the passport has been approved on 20 June 2022 and the passport has been received today 22 June 2022 (together with the old passport in the same envelope).

Thankfully, we’ve received all passports before our booked travels but the system is definitely broken and really ought to be sorted asap

Good luck to everyone still waiting!!

[StephieC]

Our situation is almost identical to you
sent off first child passport for our daughter, which is already back now
sent our son’s child renewal same time and it’s been stuck in processing for weeks
we’ve applied for upgrade last week, as flight is due on 23/06
received an acknowledgement email but no one has been in touch to take payment yet, which makes me super stressed!
we’re at least 2hrs away from the nearest office, which is Newport, but I can’t actually drive down and hang around all day coz we’ve got no one to watch the kids.

[StephieC]

so I think I finally understood their “rules” after countless phone calls (they never spelled it all out clearly at any given time, I had to piece it together like bl00dy Sherlock!)
Rule is: you can apply for upgrade if it’s been at least 6 weeks since your application AND it’s two weeks before your booked travel

[StephieC]

think the tracker going backwards is just a system glitch, just been on the phone and apparently it still says processing on their end and they’ve been getting a lot of the same calls about the tracker

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