Passport Help

[mphJ]

Hi all

So I renewed my (U.K.)passport online last Monday , 01/03/22 for £75 and posted my old passport as they requested the next day 02/03/22, 2nd class signed for

But I checked the Royal Mail tracking today and the last update on it is it being received at the post office where I posted it , I would have thought it would have been delivered by now ?

If the worst has happened and they’ve lost my old passport do I have to pay another £75 ? 😳

Thanks for any help

[Truckosaurus]

The Royal Mail tracking is very basic, it seems to only log 'posted' and 'delivered' with nothing in between.

[crustyclown777]

I've recently gone through the renewal process.
My experience was similar to yours, my passport was received and signed for by the Passport Office 2 weeks before they actually acknowledged documents received on the portal.

This seems like the normal experience based from looking at other forums.

[pidsy]

Same here.

I had proof of delivery 3 days after my application started.

Took just over 3 weeks for Liverpool office to update it to received.

I thought they’d lost it after a week so called, spent almost an hour on hold only to be told it’s quite common, they’re very busy and if it hadn’t updated afyer 4 weeks - call them back.

[Your Dad]

We've recently sent renewals off, one for an expired passport that went to Liverpool and two for current passports that went to Corby. All applications done online on 20th Feb, expired/current passports all posted 1st class on 22nd Feb. Confirmation that they were received came through on 3rd March and confirmation applications were approved today.

Looks like it takes Passport Office about a week from them actually having documents received to processing and acknowledging receipt.

[mphJ]

Thanks for the replies

Yes that seems like the case but what worries me is that the Royal Mail tracking still says it’s not been delivered there , despite being sent a week ago

[pidsy]

Does the tracking say it’s still in transit?

My Royal Mail tracking was signed for as “passports” after 3 days but the passport tracking didn’t reflect this for 3 weeks.

[Nimby]

A week ago I got the email "Your new passport is on its way. ...We’ve sent your new passport by secure delivery. In most cases it will be delivered by TNT delivery services who will contact you with a tracking reference in the next few days. Your old passport will arrive separately and could take up to 2 weeks to arrive. It won’t be in the same envelope as your new passport."

Old, cancelled passport arrived today. Nothing from TNT or anyone else about the new one.

[caiss4]

Just some dates for reference. I applied to renew my passport on 8th February. I sent my old passport 'signed for' on the 9th and received a confirmation of receipt on 16th Feb. My application was approved on 27th Feb and it was despatched via TNT on 1st March although I didn't actually receive it until 8th March! So 4 weeks in total.

[Ashfordian]

mphJ said:

Thanks for the replies

Yes that seems like the case but what worries me is that the Royal Mail tracking still says it’s not been delivered there , despite being sent a week ago

Logistically, they must have 1000's of signed for passport returns a day. I wonder how they manage to process this. Surely they cannot manually scan them all? Does PH have any definite information on how this works from the Royal Mail or Passport office side?

From my experience of the process so far, I posted my passport back normal 1st class on Tuesday 1st March and received the message that the Passport Office have received (processed) the letter earlier this evening. My thinking to this was that with the number passport returns daily, the letter was going to be automatically sorted to the correct delivery office and then delivery sack(s), and the only time a human hand was going to touch it was when emptying the postbox at my end and when taking it out of the delivery sack at the passport office.

[Your Dad]

Your Dad said:

We've recently sent renewals off, one for an expired passport that went to Liverpool and two for current passports that went to Corby. All applications done online on 20th Feb, expired/current passports all posted 1st class on 22nd Feb. Confirmation that they were received came through on 3rd March and confirmation applications were approved today.

Looks like it takes Passport Office about a week from them actually having documents received to processing and acknowledging receipt.

This morning we've had confirmation all passport applications/renewals have been sent by TNT, and we have to wait for them to supply tracking details & deliver.

[Nimby]

Your Dad said:

This morning we've had confirmation all passport applications/renewals have been sent by TNT, and we have to wait for them to supply tracking details & deliver.

How long after the "it's on its way..." email was that?

[Your Dad]

Nimby said:

Your Dad said:

This morning we've had confirmation all passport applications/renewals have been sent by TNT, and we have to wait for them to supply tracking details & deliver.

How long after the "it's on its way..." email was that?

It's all SMS comms from HMPO, last email was 'Send us your old passport' on 22nd Feb.

SMS yesterday confirming applications approved, another this morning saying 'We've sent your new passport by secure delivery using TNT who will contact you with tracking details in the next few days"

[Nimby]

Ahh. I'm guessing you paid the £10 extra for secure delivery?
I didn't, and in spite of the email a week ago telling me to expect TNT tracking info, mine arrived by normal post this morning.

[Your Dad]

Nimby said:

Ahh. I'm guessing you paid the £10 extra for secure delivery?

I paid £75.50 for the adult renewal, and £49 for the child renewal, which appears to be the standard price. I noticed an optional £5 fee to have documents (old passport) returned, but we didn’t select that.

TNT are reporting all three new passports are out for delivery today, they usually deliver in my neighbourhood late afternoon so they may still turn up today.

[Nimby]

On checking the website:
- It's £10 extra to apply manually rather than online, not for secure return as I thought
- New passports are sent either by normal mail or courier (in spite what my email said)
- I didn't pay for return of my old passport (didn't see that option) but got it back anyway.

[cheeky_chops]

Your Dad said:

Your Dad said:

We've recently sent renewals off, one for an expired passport that went to Liverpool and two for current passports that went to Corby. All applications done online on 20th Feb, expired/current passports all posted 1st class on 22nd Feb. Confirmation that they were received came through on 3rd March and confirmation applications were approved today.

Looks like it takes Passport Office about a week from them actually having documents received to processing and acknowledging receipt.

This morning we've had confirmation all passport applications/renewals have been sent by TNT, and we have to wait for them to supply tracking details & deliver.

Warning to anyone how erratic the service can be...

My son was offered a last minute place on the school ski trip (6 weeks notice) so with the gov website was saying "3 weeks" we applied for renewal on 19th Feb (day before above). His old passport was received 23rd and "application processing" 24th feb. Three weeks and 5 days later and Its still being processed!

Customer helpline have escalated today but that has a 72hr SLA. Last week i was told i could do an on the day appointment, turns out its only for adult renewals only so weve missed the 1 week urgent window as no appointments available til next Tuesday

So we are in the lap of the HMPO gods now. Unlikely but if theres anyone who has any HMPO contacts .....