Recent UK Passport Applicant Timelines

Application submitted 28/02 Documents sent 28/02 Documents arrived 03/03 Documents acknowledged 03/03 Approved 12/03 Printed 12/03 Royal Mail received 13/03 Delivered 14/03

Followed the timeline I expected from seeing others. It took them 4 days to mark documents as received (delivered 24th Feb not uploaded and acknowledged as received until 28th Feb) passport was then approved after 9 days. And delivered 3 days after it was approved (2 days after printing). Returned documents arrived the day before the passport did

:Application submitted 4:58pm on 25 feb 2026 :Docs received 9.54pm 27 feb 26 :photo rejected 1pm 9th March : new photo submitted 2.33pm 9th March : Application approved 2.34pm 9th March : passport printed 6.25pm 10th March : passport delivered 1.30pm 12th March

The tracking was a little bit slow on letting me know my documents were received, had to speak with a chat bot to sort it out give them my tracking number and then they found them.

Passport printed 10 March 2026 Application approved 8 March 2026 Documents received 27 February 2026 Application received 23 February 2026 Application submitted 23 February 2026

Overall pretty straightforward. Changed name (added a middle name), so renewed my passport: submitted an old passport, Statutory Declaration for Change of Name (I live in Scotland), utility bill in a new name. Submitted online application on Sunday, 22nd of February. Sent old passport and other docs to Corby Office on 23/02/2026 with special delivery. Royal Mail delivered docs on 24/02/2026 HMPO marked "received documents" on 27/02/2026 Application approved on 09/03/26 Printed on 10/03/26 New passport and original documents with an old passport delivered on 11/03/26 in separate envelopes.

Very straightforward. For comparison my partner submitted application in same date , old passports were returned on same date but to be processed at a different centre. My partner's application is still awaiting approval.

Submitted 15/2 Sent documents 17/2 (late afternoon) Documents delivered by RM 20/2 (early morning) Documents received by PO 23/2 (evening) Photo [‘amber’ rating] rejected 4/3 (early morning) New photo [‘green’ rating] submitted 5/3 (2:14pm) Application approved 5/3 (2:15pm) Printed 6/3 (early morning) Delivered 7/3 (morning) This was an adult renewal with name change

I had to send extra documents which delayed receipt by a week

I had to send extra documents

This was for the replacement of a damaged passport. There’s no option for replacement so I thought I’d specify on here.

Adult renewal arrived in 3 days. Amazing.

3 days to receipt of old passport 7 days to confirm approval 3 days later passport received

Good, my picture was rejected and i re-submitted a couple of hours later snd my application was approved an hour or so later.

My passport was received on 16/02/2026. I was then emailed a week later (23/02/2026) that there was water damage on the passport, and I would have to send a supporting letter explaining it. This letter was delivered on 24/02/2026. It was then approved on the 2nd (a week later), and I received my new passport on the 4th. Despite it seeming like a while, the water damage/letter did not cause any serious delay (I was worried it would), so I am happy with this experience.

Submitted 14 Feb Royal Mail tracked as delivered 16 Feb Marked as received 20 Feb Authorised 27 Feb Printed 27 Feb Sent to Royal Mail 2 March Received 3 March We’d checked times on this site and had hoped to receive quicker as we had pending travel but it took longer than the average listed times. I understand changing regulations for expats has meant a lot of additional applications which is slowing things down. We wish we had fast tracked as it was stressful.

Quick and easy. Was kept up to date with progress via text messages Total time: 8 working days from them receiving my old passport to me receiving my new one!! Application submitted 9:08pm on 18 February 2026 Application received 9:09pm on 18 February 2026 Documents received 3:56pm on 20 February 2026 Application approved 7:55am on 2 March 2026 Passport printed 7:54am on 3 March 2026 Passport recieved 9:43am on 4 March 2026