Recent UK Passport Applicant Timelines

Application submitted 26th Feb Documents posted from Aus 27th Feb Documents arrived 6th of March Marked as received on application 11th March Additional documents requested 23rd of March Additional documents sent 25th of March Additional documents delivered 30th of March Additional documents scanned in April 1 Application approved 3rd of April Passport printed 7th of April Passport delivered to Australia 13th of April

Generally easy. Issue with father’s birth certificate and needing a different “original” caused delay. Not having a tracking number for delivery of passport is stressful. Also HMPO could have explained that if one orders a new BCertificate it can be sent directly to HMPO. That would have saved time and $$ bills.

Dual national living in UK Application received - 30th March (documents sent that day for next day delivery) Documents received - 2nd April Application approved - 9th April Passport printed - 13th April Passport delivered - 14th April

Lots of delay between stages, but no issues overall

The process was frustrating due to getting the required documents, but once they were sorted it was smooth and straightforward, if on the expensive side as we wanted to send documents from New Zealand securely. The frustrating part was we knew we needed my UK birth cert, which took a month to be processed and sent to me. Once that was received, we discovered we also needed marriage and birth certs for grandparents too, and again I needed to order from GRO, adding another month on top. All in all, from becoming aware of the need for our children to have British passports, to having the passport in our hands took four and a half months. We needed to get NZ passports for our kids done before we could apply obviously, and the contrast between those two processes was stark. Granted, these are NZ born children but the NZ process is entirely online and from submission to delivered passports was under two weeks. All in all - the UK system works, but being far away from it makes everything that much slower.

Passport Received: 7:30pm on 13 April 2026 Passport printed 8:31pm on 7 April 2026 Application approved 12:53pm on 7 April 2026 Documents received 9:33pm on 24 March 2026 Application received 11:01pm on 20 March 2026

Passport delivered: 1.31pm on 11th April 2026 Passport printed 8:51am on 10 April 2026 Application approved 4:55am on 9 April 2026 Documents received 6:18pm on 8 April 2026 Application received 1:30pm on 6 April 2026 Application submitted 1:29pm on 6 April 2026

Learned we needed UK passports for our Canadian born children as their father is from the UK. Mailed initial documents end of February. We were asked for additional documents (address confirmation and original marriage certificate) march 13, which I mailed the same day. Passports approved march 28. Arrived April 8

Spoke numerous times regarding my Selena, assistance- NIL. Absolute debacle 😡

When we picked a guarantor we did not know that the person would have to provide a copy of their own passport page to UK passport office (they had a Canadian passport). Our guarantor said he was not willing. If we knew up front we could have used someone with a UK passport and they didn't need to provide the page. Also I spent a lot of time phoning and going on chat, only to be told untrue information such as - link for new guarantor will be received in 24 hours, will be received in 48 hours, etc. What happens is you have to wait for someone to review the application, reject the guarantor and then you receive a link for new guarantor. This information should be given to applicants.

Submitted the supporting document twice. The track page took a few days (longer than the royalmail delivery day) to update. The document sent only appeared once in the track page and worried it was lost. The return of documents came in twice as well because the passport office sent them separately. Also, it made me worried when I had the 1st document returned and not receiving the 2nd one. The passport office asked you to use a strong envelope to send but they just returned the document in a normal envelope. All in all, received passport and all the supporting document in around 1 month.

It took 5 days from when documents were delivered to HMPO until they were scanned/marked received. I had an issue where they were asking for previous marriage certificate to validate name changes between birth certificate and new passport in spite of the fact that the submitted expired passport had already taken that into consideration and a marriage certificate for name change from expired passport to new passport had been supplied. Quoting the government policy page/paragraph in Web Chat caused an update for the examiner and the passport was then approved, printed and sent out quickly.

Super Easy for 2/4 passports the other 2 have been super tricky!

Application submitted: March 10th Documents delivered: March 16th Documents acknowledged as received: March 19th Application approved: March 31st Passport printed: April 1st Passport dispatched: April 7th Received: April 10th

Applied March 1. First batch of documents (Cdn passport and British birth certificate) arrived at Hemel on March 4. Did a web chat on March 9 to see where they were. They were marked as received on March 12. Got an email on March 23 asking for passport I originally entered Canada on, why I wasn't applying from within the UK and proof of my current address. I had entered Canada as a young child on my mother's passport and didn't have that. I was able to send a signed/dated later explaining that and how/when I originally emigrated to Canada. My supporting docs arrived at Hemel on March 25. I did another web chat to follow up on March 31. They were able to tell me the docs had been scanned in. My application was approved on April 1 and it was printed on April 2. I received a tracking number from DHL through WhatsApp on April 7 (likely delayed because of Easter) and the passport arrived on April 9. Still haven't heard anything about supporting documents being returned.

I was a little stressed when the envelope containing my supporting documents returned with only my expired UK passport and no other documents. They did however arrive 5 days later which included my much needed Canadian passport. I only had tracking for the first two DHL envelopes. All three were just left on my front step without signing for them.

Communication was terrible. Inconsistencies in asking for more supporting documentation. Took too long with no reason given. Lied about when passport and supporting documentation was sent. Passport and supporting documents sent back in 3 different packages at different times??

Noticed my passport was missing when my husband was doing his renewal, reported mine lost, submitted online application with photo-me code, referee for my identity sent everything back this was all on 30 March. Husbands done on the same day, his was a renewal so he had to send back expired passport) he received his 8 April and I received mine 9 April, there was also the Easter bank holiday Friday & Monday during this.

I received my passport today, but am still awaiting my original document submission including my current Canadian passport which is needed for travel soon. Overall the experience was positive, HMPO is well organized considering they must be receiving a large volume of applications with the recent changes in the law. I was kept informed every step of the way, and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. Overall the process has taken 40 days. 01 March - Application submitted 04 March - Identity confirmed, and application received 05 March - Documents couriered to the UK 16 March - Documents received 28 March - Application approved 30 March - Passport printed 09 April - Passport delivered