Recent UK Passport Applicant Timelines

I paid for next day delivery of my old passport and tracked delivery of my new one but otherwise it was a normal application. Can't believe how quick and easy it was!

Thurs 02/07 (9am) filled out online form Thurs 02/07 (1pm) sent old passport via Special Delivery (next day) Fri 03/07 HMPO SMS to say old passport received Sat 04/07 HMPO SMS to say application approved Mon 06/07 Royal Mail SMS to say passport will arrive on 07/07 (I opted for Recorded Delivery when applying)

Applying was easy and sending my old british passport was simple. however the passport office told me over 2 weeks after my application that they required my other passport as a dual national which set everything back, and meant i was panicking about missing my upcoming holiday and having no passport at all. Applied: 8th june old british passport received: 11th june german passport received : 21st june passport approved : 22nd june passport printed: 7pm 22nd june passport delivered: 24th june

14th June: Application submitted and received. 16th June: Old passport sent with Royal Mail 24hr postage. 17th June: Documents received. 25th June: Application approved and passport printed. 27th June: Passport has arrived! Impressed by how fast the service was.

I was challenged on the photo when I initially submitted, the form told me the background colour was too similar to the rest of the photo. I submitted it anyway and had no issues

Documents received 3:47pm on 8 June 2026 Overall much quicker than i expected. From documents received, it took 7 days for my application to be approved, printed later that day and was sent out to me with next day delivery.

Passport printed on 16 June 2026 Application approved on 15 June 2026 Documents received on 8 June 2026 (posted on 5 June 2026) Application submitted and received on 4 June 2026

Simple adult renewal. Only document sent was recently expired passport. Received new passport & old passport back on the same day. New passport delivered & documents returned - 18 June 2026 (Thursday) Passport printed 11:05pm on 16 June 2026 Application approved 8:47am on 16 June 2026 (Tuesday) Documents received 1:37pm on 9 June 2026 (Tuesday) Application received 9:29pm on 7 June 2026 Application submitted 9:28pm on 7 June 2026 (Sunday)

Took photo in booth in Sainsbury's Saturday lunchtime, completed application online, too late to get Saturday post so it went Monday 1st class. New passport received Friday. 6 days. Zero problems.

Took photo on phone on 8 June, posted old passport on 9. June, new passport received 19 June. Clear instructions on photo quality, took half a dozen attempts to get a good quality photo.

Did passport renewal for me and my husband. Posted both to Corby in 1 envelope (could have chosen Hemel Hempsted) by special delivery. Both old passports received on 11th June. Got the passport approved emails for both exactly a week later on 18th June in the morning and both passports printed that evening. Royal Mail delivered both passports on 20th June. Very fast service . Now waiting for old passports to be sent.

My passport was initially water damaged (to the point where the signature and previous immigration information had smudged) so required a replacement. No issues with digital photo submission from myself, just making sure to have a lot of light and a white background, and setting a timer to take the headshot (as I had no one else available) seemed to be sufficient. Application was processed quite quickly following the old passport being received and aligns to current wait times noted.

28/05/2026 - Application Submitted 03/06/2026 - Documents Received 09/06/2026 - Application Approved & PP printed 11/06/2026 - PP delivered

Easy experience, had to provide photocopy of dual nationality passport so may have taken longer than usual to review.

Application submitted: 31st May Documents received: 3rd June (21:45pm) Application approved: 10th June (11:05am) Passport printed: 11th June (02:45am) Passport delivered: 12th June Corby passport office, adult renewal and name change after wedding. Documents were sent off 1st class tracked late Monday 1st June.