Recent UK Passport Applicant Timelines

3rd Child Passport - (2nd renewal) WARNING: Birth Certificate Document Required as additional evidence. This caused small delays, as it required purchasing new birth certificate with express next-day service for £38.50 from our local office (money making schemes). This didn't even arrive next day! I sent these in a hardback card A4 envelope at further cost via Royal Mail. Why does the Passport Office need to see the same documents again?? Awful protocols! Finally, the brand new certificate was returned, in an absolutely terrible condition, creased & folded, almost torn. Not good for those with OCD. The rest of the process from the Corby office was completed in 7 days (Documents received on 15th - Passport printed on 22nd), speed is excellent. Handling needs much improvement.

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

Person confirming identity was deemed not eligible although we had used them twice before. My daughter's birth certificate did not have my middle name as it was optional to include but the passport application had my middle name. They asked for proof of name change (which never happened) after a phone call to clear things up it was approved.

needed to provide a second person to confirm identity documents received June 5 Passport printed June 17

I was very anxious given some of the stories I had read about. I wrote a statement explaining discrepancies of my name. What was on my birth certificate is a name I had never really been known as, the name I had been know by for most of my life (even though it wasn't officially changed until a few years ago) and now my married name. I also supplied various documents from when I was born, my schooling years and my adult life supporting what I had written in my statement. I am happy I still had all of those documents available. This was in addition to the usual documents they asked for (such as original birth certificate/change of name certificate/marriage certificate, copy of the British passport we arrived in Australia on and a copy of my Australian passport). Overall, I was very impressed with how quickly my application was processed. I also received all my documents back 2 days after I received my UK passport.

Amazingly quick service. But it was a bit nerve wracking when my travel date got moved forward and they said they couldn't tell me how long it would take to withdraw application so I could fast-track. Thanks for the advice on the facebook group I didn't withdraw it and it was processed quickly.

Photo taken by Australia Post, which was accepted and used in my Australian passport was rejected by HMPO. But a selfie taken T home myself in the bathroom was accepted.. Parents wedding certificate was rejected as invalid, despite it being accepted a couple of years ago for my mother to get hers. A copy from Births, Deaths & Marriages Aust, was unable to be obtained due to not able to obtain permission from my parents to get a copy. Second round of documents, requested proof of name change. This should have been asked at the first stage of documents when I selected and entered a “other known name”. Third round of documents requested was for a hand written letter, explain why I was applying from outside of the UK. Given my residential address is in Australia, the supporting documents shows my address as Australia, I sent a copy of my Australian passport and Australian drivers license, one would think HMPO could establish why I was applying from outside of Australia without the handwritten letter. Or again, it could have been asked for the first time around.

I had no issues - I am back to my birth name after divorce so needed minimal certificates. Had Birth Certificate sent direct to Passport offie

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.

HMPO are useless, approved one sons passport with documents requested at application. Asked for two separate additional documents, a letter with grandparents information which already had (birth and marriage certificates), and fathers birth certificate when had already issued my renewal.................. They are disorganised, obstructive and intransigent. They need to get their process aligned so people do not have to courier multiple sets of documents with significant cost. Seems to be at the discretion of people rather than a defined process which should be!!

Application submitted on 1st June 2026 Documents received on 4th June 2026 Passport received on 13th June 2026

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