UK Passport Renewal

[gmpwt]

Following the instructions on the GOV.UK website I have submitted 4 e-mails in the last month to the [email protected] requesting an appointment but have received no response even to advise that the dates I am requesting are not available.

 

Has there been a change to the process so that the GOV.UK website is not displaying the correct information?

 

Is there a VFS contact number specifically dealing with UK passport renewals as the number I have found seems to only offer options for non UK personnel applying for UK visas?

[harry94]

Hello i contacted the passport renewal office from the Uk goverment website and received an appointment with in Three days . I am going tomorrow as my appointment is monday .

[Crossy]

Just a heads-up (I used an agent to do the actual submission) but it's just taken 14 weeks from the date the UK charged my card to my receiving an email saying my new passport is ready for collection.

 

Make sure you are applying in plenty of time, I thought I had but it's still cutting it fine to do my extension renewal.

 

[blackcab]

As the British Embassy do not advise on passport applications this topic has been moved to the UK forum. 

[OJAS]

22 hours ago, harry94 said:

I am going tomorrow as my appointment is monday .

Confusing statement. If, indeed, you are going to the Trendy building on Monday (as opposed to today as now is), please be warned that there are absolutely no toilet facilities on the 5th or 8th floors or even in the VFS office, as I discovered to my cost last week (although there may well be some lurking in some obscure corner somewhere else in that wretched building). And, if coming be car, please ensure that you take the parking ticket with you (rather than leaving it in the car) so that you can then get it stamped by VFS and obtain a reduction in the parking charge as a result (another lesson learnt the hard way on my part last week).

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by OJAS

[OJAS]

22 hours ago, Crossy said:

Just a heads-up (I used an agent to do the actual submission) but it's just taken 14 weeks from the date the UK charged my card to my receiving an email saying my new passport is ready for collection.

I was told 11 weeks minimum last week. However, it would appear that our American cousins can receive their new passports within 3 weeks MAXIMUM and without the need for 2 trips in person as part of the renewal process to a run-down office building with an extremely silly name in Bangkok (or to fork out an extra 5,000 THB for an agent to make these trips on our behalf):

 

Says it all about those masters of bungling incompetence and ineptitude called HMPO, I think. Now that the rush for new passports in the UK in time for summer holidays is presumably behind us, one would have thought that waiting times for new passports should now be decreasing rather than increasing as appears to be the case in practice!

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by OJAS

[garygooner]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

that there are absolutely no toilet facilities on the 5th or 8th floors or even in the VFS office

Toilets on the ground floor. 

What's the problem.

[garygooner]

Applied for mine 8 weeks ago, so I reckon that's about half way. Hoping to get before new year ..... hoping! 

[harry94]

I went to Trendy building monday to renew my passport . i was told fifteen weeks waiting time . Also yes there are toilets on the eight floor because i used them .

[CharlieH]

Just an update on passport process times.

I submitted Sept 1st Notice for collection Nov.14

 

 

[Gabe H Coud]

Apologies if this has been discussed before

 

do you need your photo ID on renewal application countersigning or not?

 

Reason i ask is ive heard both yes and no and not just once

 

And if yes, is there a time limit from when they were counter signed to the application date eg 6 months?

 

TIA

 

 

[hotandsticky]

1 minute ago, Gabe H Coud said:

Apologies if this has been discussed before

 

do you need your photo ID on renewal application countersigning or not?

 

Reason i ask is ive heard both yes and no and not just once

 

And if yes, is there a time limit from when they were counter signed to the application date eg 6 months?

 

TIA

 

 

No.....unless your appearance has changed significantly (ie can't be recognised) since the last renewal.

[Gabe H Coud]

well yes, as inferred in my post that's one of the answers ive heard

 

Therefore it seems to me that 'you' (the applicant) are the sole judge of whether your current passport photo is still a similar and recognisable likeness of the photo that you are submitting with renewal application

 

Although i guess the Passport Office in UK could disagree and reject application and say you need counter sigs

 

 

 

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Gabe H Coud

[hotandsticky]

8 minutes ago, Gabe H Coud said:

well yes, as inferred in my post that's one of the answers ive heard

 

Therefore it seems to me that 'you' (the applicant) are the sole judge of whether your current passport photo is still a similar and recognisable likeness of the photo that you are submitting with renewal application

 

 

It is the correct answer.....................most people's appearance does not change that significantly over, say, 10 years.

 

 

A friend had to have his countersigned because he had lost over 100lb and his face was half the size of 10 years earlier!

[Gabe H Coud]

4 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

It is the correct answer.....................most people's appearance does not change that significantly over, say, 10 years.

 

 

A friend had to have his countersigned because he had lost over 100lb and his face was half the size of 10 years earlier!

as per my edit, it seems the applicant is simply taking the risk that the Passport office in UK agrees that the new photo fairly matches the old

 

if in any doubt get counter sigs i guess

 

 

[hotandsticky]

14 minutes ago, Gabe H Coud said:

as per my edit, it seems the applicant is simply taking the risk that the Passport office in UK agrees that the new photo fairly matches the old

 

if in any doubt get counter sigs i guess

 

 

There is no risk........it is obvious  -  or it isn't.

 

 

[OJAS]

23 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

There is no risk........it is obvious  -  or it isn't.

 

 

In any event, in the case of applications submitted in person, the VFS clerk with whom you interract on a 1-to-1 basis would presumably do rather more than raise an eyebrow by less than a millimetre if the individual sat in front of them bore little resemblance facially to any uncountersigned mug shots provided!

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by OJAS

[hotandsticky]

11 minutes ago, OJAS said:

In any event, in the case of applications submitted in person, the VFS clerk with whom you interract on a 1-to-1 basis would presumably do rather more than raise an eyebrow by less than a millimetre if the individual sat in front of them bore little resemblance facially to any uncountersigned mug shots provided!

 

I think that you overrate the role/abilities of a VfS clerk.

[OJAS]

On 11/14/2022 at 3:17 PM, CharlieH said:

Just an update on passport process times.

I submitted Sept 1st Notice for collection Nov.14

So a couple of days less than the 11 weeks being officially advised then. That said, though, front-line civil servants have now voted to strike, which looks like having an adverse impact on processing times, so I'm not holding my breath that my new passport, applied for on 18 Oct, will be available for collection this side of 1 Jan 2023.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/10/uk-civil-servants-whitehall-frontline-services-vote-strike

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by OJAS

[OJAS]

2 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

I think that you overrate the role/abilities of a VfS clerk.

Quite likely I do!

 

[oxo1947]

Do you have to have an appointment for renewal of UK passport--can you not just go into trendy

[stratocaster]

If anyone is interested on Thursday I watched a UK government select committee meeting into the performance of the home office. Obviously most was about the immigrant situation. The last question was regarding the passport delays. It appears that one company that was given the contract to either print or manufacture the passports is the delay. As they are in breach of contract Braverman was asked by an MP what if any penalties had been awarded against the company. Braverman had no idea. She then waffled on that the waiting time had been reduced to three weeks. Her flunky then had to step in and say that the MP was correct and it was still 10 weeks. Sorry missed the name of the company involved. No wonder company's want government contracts as it seems there is no accountability.

[hotandsticky]

4 minutes ago, stratocaster said:

If anyone is interested on Thursday I watched a UK government select committee meeting into the performance of the home office. Obviously most was about the immigrant situation. The last question was regarding the passport delays. It appears that one company that was given the contract to either print or manufacture the passports is the delay. As they are in breach of contract Braverman was asked by an MP what if any penalties had been awarded against the company. Braverman had no idea. She then waffled on that the waiting time had been reduced to three weeks. Her flunky then had to step in and say that the MP was correct and it was still 10 weeks. Sorry missed the name of the company involved. No wonder company's want government contracts as it seems there is no accountability.

 

A friend just got his back after 9 weeks and was more concerned that the new black passport still had the words "Property of HER majesty's government...

[Mike Teavee]

12 minutes ago, stratocaster said:

Sorry missed the name of the company involved

Gemalto  is the name of the company that prints the passports & apparently they're printed in Tczew, Poland... 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_passport#:~:text=The result of the tender,it being more cost efficient.

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Mike Teavee

[brianthainess]

7 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

 

A friend just got his back after 9 weeks and was more concerned that the new black passport still had the words "Property of HER majesty's government...

The new Australian PP also says HER majesty. 

[hotandsticky]

Just now, brianthainess said:

The new Australian PP also says HER majesty. 

Old stock !! ????

 

Just how long did the manufacturers expect Her Majesty to live ???

[brianthainess]

2 minutes ago, hotandsticky said:

Old stock !! ????

 

Just how long did the manufacturers expect Her Majesty to live ???

Well Charles is 74 so even new stock may expire before the PP does 

[RayC]

5 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

A friend just got his back after 9 weeks and was more concerned that the new black passport still had the words "Property of HER majesty's government...

Maybe there's something that Charles wants to tell us?

[OJAS]

On 11/18/2022 at 11:08 AM, oxo1947 said:

Do you have to have an appointment for renewal of UK passport--can you not just go into trendy

Yep, you definitely need to have an appointment, I'm afraid.

 

[OJAS]

On 11/27/2022 at 8:59 AM, Mike Teavee said:

Gemalto  is the name of the company that prints the passports & apparently they're printed in Tczew, Poland... 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_passport#:~:text=The result of the tender,it being more cost efficient.

 

 

The contract was apparently awarded to them controversially under EU procurement rules in 2018. The $64,000 question is when is this contract due to expire - sooner rather than later, hopefully, as the UK is, of course, now in a position to tell the EU where they can stick their procurement rules in tendering for a successor contract!