Anyone been affected by the delays in issuing passports this summer? Appazo it’s been quite a thing.
I need to renew one of my kids’ passports before a holiday in October. Everything I’m reading suggests the turnaround time used to be 3 weeks, now they’re saying 10 weeks. I think I’m right in saying it’s 10 weeks max, and the backlog is improving.
We travel in 10 weeks and 4 days.
You’ll be fine, £49 online renewal and it will get to you in time.
Pay £122 for a fast track service, the delays could be worse (and I know this based on actual information not just because I’m risk averse generally)
People have posted about getting renewals back in days. A colleague waited 14 weeks then ended up driving to Liverpool and Newport to collect in person, including an overnight stay. It seems very random.
I applied to renew last Monday, got our ID confirmation person to respond immediately, they’ve confirmed receipt of the old passports but no further update yet.
If you can afford it, maybe pay the extra for the peace of mind? If you can’t, I’d take my chances with the standard renewal.
I would imagine the bulk of the current delays are due to passports people are renewing for school summer holidays, and that once over that hump in September things should be smoother.
I renewed in May. Was a little worried about the 10 week thing they were saying, but I had it in between a week to ten days (think that timeframe included a bank holiday also). My mum renewed hers earlier in the year too, same thing.
So would be surprised if you had any issues needing it by October but obviously could have got worse.
So loads of people I know keep saying they got their passport back in days recently but I sent off M’s a while back and it’s taking forever (this might be because I lost her last one and had to sort that out too, maybe it holds it up but I don’t think so)
I’d pay the extra if that’s a possibility, I know a few different people who haven’t been able to go on holiday because they haven’t had their passport in time.