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.