July 28, 2022

Passport Application Experiences 28th July 2022

Read Latest Comments

Passport Application Experiences

Feedback, experiences, timelines, tips and useful information from people that have recently been through the UK passport application process.

1st Adult Passport

Type of Application:
First UK Adult Passport

Submission Date:
2022-06-21

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
4 Star – Easy

Comments:
Application history

StatusDate
Passport printed 5:32am on 26 July 2022
Application approved 12:00pm on 23 July 2022
Documents received 4:13pm on 28 June 2022
Application received 12:02pm on 22 June 2022
Identity details received 12:02pm on 22 June 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 1:52pm on 21 June 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 1:32am on 21 June 2022
Application submitted 1:32am on 21 June 2022

All on all just under five weeks. Missus applied on same date with me and hers is still at the “we have received your documents” stage. We submitted together to same branch office.

Adult Renewal Passport

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-07-21

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy

Comments:
Passport received 27 July 2022
Passport printed 1:00am on 27 July 2022
Application approved 8:48am on 26 July 2022
Documents received 9:30am on 25 July 2022
Application received 10:40am on 21 July 2022
Application submitted 10:40am on 21 July 2022

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-07-21

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy

Comments:
If it wasn’t for this forum I would’ve spent an extra £80 to get the fast track appointment and also wouldn’t have gotten the passport for another 3 weeks due to waiting time for appointments. I applied online and it was a relatively easy experience. I do understand that many people have not had an easy experience, but the Bootle office seem to be processing the passports very quickly. I would definitely recommend using Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm as there is a delay with many royal mail letters.
This is the timescale:
11:27 21/07 – application submitted
11:28 21/07 – application received
08:30 25/07 – documents received
07:54 26/07 – application approved
00:19 27/07 – passport printed
12:36 27/07 – passport delivered

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-03-28

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
Application submitted 28/3/22 documents received 12/4/22. No updates after. Waited 10 weeks then starting chasing using email, customer service number and text service. MP involved also. Received correspondence on 22/7/22 which I signed and sent back. They received Monday 25/7/22. Phone call received yesterday passport finally approved and printed. Finally received passport after almost 18 weeks of waiting absolute shambles.

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-05-02

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
My passport seemed to go into a black hole. I received a text saying they’d received the documents 3 weeks later (despite it being signed for 2w5d prior) and have had to wait until 2 weeks before I travel to chase to get it. I still have to travel to my local passport office (over an hour away) because I fear it wouldn’t get here in time for my travel in 3 days.

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-07-20

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy

Comments:
27-07-22 – Passport received in 7 days.
Sister also applied an hour after me. Passport arrived same time (7 days)

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-06-26

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
4 Star – Easy

Comments:
It was okay but everything went very quiet after getting the message that they’d safely got my old passport.

Filled in form: 26 June
Confirmed they rec’d old passport: 28 June
Radio silence until…
Confirmed application approved: 24 July
Confirmed printed: later on, on 24 July

TNT promised delivery on 26 July but it didn’t arrive, however it did on 27 July.

All in all not bad, TNT tracking is woefully lacking though.

Thanks to this website for keeping me sane in the process! Great work.

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-04-28

Date Received:
2022-07-26

Overall Experience:
3 Star – Average

Comments:
Very little information between old passport being received and new passport being approved. You just have to hope and pray that something is actually happening!

Type of Application:
Adult Passport Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-02-15

Date Received:
2022-07-16

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
I outline my experience in detail in these three blog posts

https://digitaltim.uk/2022/04/18/how-to-design-a-perfectly-dysfunctional-service/

https://digitaltim.uk/2022/07/18/designing-a-dysfunctional-service-part-2-the-sage-continues/

https://digitaltim.uk/2022/07/25/a-dysfunctional-passport-service-part-3-the-final-chapter/

Feel free to use any comments from my blog posts – or simply just state – it took 5 months and I missed two planned trips away – so much unnecessary stress and wasted time and effort

Lost or Stolen Passport Application

Type of Application:
Lost/Stolen Passport

Submission Date:
2022-07-01

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
5 Star – Very Easy

Comments:
Was delivered 1:30pm 27 July
Passport printed 12:18am on 27 July 2022
Application approved 6:46pm on 25 July 2022
Identity details received 7:51am on 1 July 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 7:38am on 1 July 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 1:17am on 1 July 2022
Application submitted 1:17am on 1 July 2022

Type of Application:
Lost/Stolen Passport

Submission Date:
2022-06-30

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
4 Star – Easy

Comments:
Passport printed 10:56pm on 26 July 2022
Application approved 6:52pm on 25 July 2022
Identity details received 9:12am on 1 July 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 6:29am on 1 July 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 11:47am on 30 June 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 7:02am on 30 June 2022
Application submitted 7:02am on 30 June 2022

Type of Application:
Lost/Stolen Passport

Submission Date:
2022-06-09

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
2 Star – Stressful

Comments:
I put it in on the 10th of June and had everything completed on the 10th. No progress was made so when I got into the two week window of my travel (which was after my 6 week wait) I emailed to upgrade my application. I didn’t get a response for this but yesterday I got a call from a private number from someone who offered to upgrade my application for 101 pounds to get it in 24 hours. Sure enough, my passport was approved and printed the same day and was collected by my friend from the passport office today.

Passport collected 1:14pm on 27 July 2022
Passport printed 2:01pm on 26 July 2022
Application approved 12:13pm on 26 July 2022
Identity details received 9:04am on 10 June 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 8:56am on 10 June 2022
Email sent to person confirming your identity 11:01pm on 9 June 2022
Ask someone to confirm your identity 11:00pm on 9 June 2022
Application submitted 11:00pm on 9 June 2022

I will say that although the process was stressful, I did find everyone I spoke to very helpful and am happy to have received my passport in good time for travel.

Type of Application:
Lost/Stolen Passport

Submission Date:
20222-04-15

Date Received:
Not Received

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
AWFUL – After 3 months of promises and escalating, and expediting – application was withdrawn by HMPO in error!
Reapplied 19th July – still waiting – already cancelled family holiday.

Type of Application:
Lost/Stolen Passport (Fast Track)

Submission Date:
2022-07-04

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
I realised I was unable to find my passport and would need to order a fast-track passport (requiring an in-person appointment) to be able to go on holiday. There were no appointments on the booking system and I had to use a Twitter account which alerts you when new appointments become available. The first appointments were ten days from when I was looking and I had a choice of either Belfast or Glasgow (neither exactly close to London, where I live!). I attended an appointment at the Glasgow passport office on Thursday 14th July at 3.30pm (with huge difficulties and expense in getting there) and was told that I would receive my passport by the 22nd July, with a text the day before, but when I did not receive a text on the 21st I was highly concerned and rang the passport helpline. I was on hold for a long time and spoke to two people who could not find me on the system, before finally speaking to a third person who said that she could find my application but did not know what the hold-up was; she said she would send an email to the Glasgow office. The call lasted an hour and a half, most of which was spent on hold. The next day, I rang the passport helpline again, spending more time on hold, before eventually speaking to a woman who told me that the hold-up was due to an error in the Glasgow office as a second authorisation signature had not been provided; she said she would speak to the Glasgow office and ensure the passport application was processed that day. This phone call lasted an hour and 22 minutes. I then heard from a woman in the Glasgow office and had multiple conversations with her – she eventually told me my passport was printed at 21.30 on Friday 22nd July and that I should receive my passport by Tuesday 26th July. On that date I got a text to say it was out for delivery, followed by one saying it couldn’t be delivered and I needed to reschedule the delivery. I rang TNT, the delivery company used by the passport office, and they told me that apparently it wasn’t delivered because no one was home, even though you are not required to be home for a passport delivery! I rearranged the delivery and eventually received the passport on Wednesday the 27th , five days after the date it was supposed to be delivered. For many travellers, this delay would have caused them to miss a holiday and is unacceptable, given the one week time-frame promised by the system. It was extremely difficult to actually speak to anyone who could help me get to the bottom of the problem. I have requested a refund and compensation but have so far heard nothing back. I would say the following to other travellers:
1. Don’t assume that a fast track passport will arrive in a week!
2. Keep chasing using the phone line, even though you will spend a long time on hold – if I hadn’t done this my passport application would probably still be sitting on a desk in Glasgow!
3. Try to get a phone number and email address of someone in the office where you have your appointment – it was easier once I had this as I didn’t have to spend hours on hold!

Child Renewal

Type of Application:
Child Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-04-15

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
1 Star – Very Stressful

Comments:
My house sale was quicker than a simple renewal absolute nightmare they are incompetent.

Type of Application:
Child Renewal

Submission Date:
2022-05-11

Date Received:
2022-07-27

Overall Experience:
3 Star – Average

Comments:
Submitted 11 May
Document received (Royal Mail track 15th May
Officially received 24th May
Then got another mail to say Documents received 6th June
Then went to processing then went back to document received 24th May
Messaged them 15th July to say what’s happening and suddenly
Approved 23rd July
Printed 25th July
Received 27th July

11 weeks since submitted

1 Week Fast Track Application

Type of Application:
1 Week Fast Track Service

Submission Date:
2022-05-17

Date Received:
2022-05-21

Overall Experience:
Please Rate out of 5

Comments:
Excellent experience in difficult times.
I decided to go straight for fast track despite having 8 weeks until our holiday for my baby’s first passport. This was the best decision I made.
3 week wait for appointment.
Appointment Tuesday 17th May 2pm.
Passport through door Sat 21st May 1pm.
Experience at the passport office was excellent. Very efficient, polite happy staff.
I honestly cannot fault the fast track service. Completely worth the money to save my stress levels.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This field is required.

You may use these <abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">html</abbr> tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*This field is required.