Recent UK Passport Applicant Timelines

1 adult renewal expired 1 adult renewal expores feb 2027 1 child renewal expired 1 child 1st passport Docs sent 3 old passports, 2 childrens birth certificate and 1 parent birth cert Adults recieved 25th july, childrens due today 28th so all in all around 13days

Submitted application 21/07, documents received 24/07, approved early 25/07 (Saturday) and printed and posted on Monday 27/07 for receipt on 28/07

Photo got approved straight away, make sure it's on the good scale. Longest time was waiting for my application to be approved

UK passport expired 2005. Technically a first time adult application. 3 name changes. Original documents Birth certificate Marriage certificate Change of name certificate Colour Photocopy of Australian passport including front/back cover. Colour photocopy of Australian driving license 2 recent bills with current address. Death certificate as I was travelling for my brother’s funeral.

Applying for first Adult Passport after registration from India. Compulsory Paper application with all documents submitted in person via VFS global office in Chennai. After initial application submitted on 19th March, it took Eight weeks for any further updates from HMPO — in my case this was then requesting an online interview. After Interview completed (75min long), further documents were requested which again required another inperson appointment with VFS global Chennai. After second round of documents submitted, it took another 6 weeks until application was approved and new passport couriered to Chennai for collection.

47 days and still no update or requests for documents etc , no emails other than when I had identity confirmed also 47 days ago.

Had difficulty with photo getting jpeg ! Friend took it with her phone eventually. HMPO process smooth and well communicated. Nightmare with DHL delivery, came on wrong day then didn’t turn up when rearranged, finally made it on day 3 but a LOT of waiting around ! Deducted a point for pic hassle and one for delivery hassle.

Photo was rejected because my daughter smiled a bit so took a new one with neutral facial expression and got approval after 30 mins of sending it. The application was approved on a Sunday morning.

Documents delivered on 10th but status changed to received on 15th

super quick

Took a week for the passport office to state documents received. We were advised up to 3 weeks from date documents received, had the passport back 10 days after status changed to documents received.

My passport had 9 years left on it but I got married abroad and wanted my new name. I chose to renew my passport, I only had to send my marriage certificate and old passport. Documents uploaded 7th July. Approved on 15th, delivered to me on 17th July

03/07/26- submitted online form and sent old passport 06/07/26- Passport office received my old passport 15/07/26- Passport approved and printed 17/07/26- Received new passport

Got photo made application send old passport same day 14th july 24 hour tracked, appoved thursday 16th passport arrived 18th july. Standadrd service

No hassle at all. My old passport had already been invalidated (I didn't realise that the 3-months rule applies within Schengen even if you have permanent residence in a Schengen country, so I had to get a temporary passport) but I just checked the damage box and explained.

Submitted online 28th June. Passport arrived 30th. Postage not processed until 1st July

Arranging photograph was a bit of a faff as this sort of thing is done automatically at local town hall counters in Belgium and photo booths don't seem to provide digital links. The photographer I found had appropriate software to ensure compliance specifically with UK rules although it did not generate the special UK special codes. All in all reasonably efficient service by UK standards (got the renewed passport in about 3 weeks) but considerably less efficient than the turnaround time for a Belgian passport (3 days). Quite stressful to be without a passport for a prolonged period but in the end no emergency occurred so all was OK.

We had to use an agent in the end as trying to navigate the passport office was a nightmare. I was already in Europe when this came into effect my eta was cancelled after only 3 months and I had to return to Australia to facilitate a new UK passport as my Schengen days had ended I had intended to return to complete my UK vacation after spending 3 months in UK September to December 2025 however I could not The extra travel costly

Amazing. Was great

Requested long form birth certificate even though short form contained all citizenship information of child and parents. No acknowledgement of receipt of this document which was sent later, but the passport was approved and printed the day after tracking indicated it was received. Passport received 3 days after printing and documents 3 days after that.

I submitted my application on May 30th but didn’t send out my documents until June 11th. The turnaround time was a lot quicker than I expected..