Passport renewal time

Ganga

Just decided to renew our passports as they expire in March and do not need them till next year.Posted the application/renewal form off on tuesday lunchtime,New passports arrived by courier this morning (Saturday )
5 days turnaround at xmas,would not believe it,well done the staff at HMPO Durham:j

Chapuys

Well done! You are lucky! They rejected my renewal application. Apparently I don't look 21 anymore

Ganga

Chapuys wrote: »

Well done! You are lucky! They rejected my renewal application. Apparently I don't look 21 anymore

Well neither do i but i am 66!:rotfl:
:rotfl::rotfl:

bottletop

Anybody tried this new On-line Renewal Option. It seems to me to be completely impossible to get it to accept any photo whatsoever.

You're in shade. You're not in colour. Your expressions not "neutral." You're not staring straight at the camera, etc , etc.

It's obvious that they are been judged by a computer (God knows how!) I'd be interested to know if ANYBODY has managed to get past it.

Ganga

bottletop wrote: »

Anybody tried this new On-line Renewal Option. It seems to me to be completely impossible to get it to accept any photo whatsoever.

You're in shade. You're not in colour. Your expressions not "neutral." You're not staring straight at the camera, etc , etc.

It's obvious that they are been judged by a computer (God knows how!) I'd be interested to know if ANYBODY has managed to get past it.

We had the same problem,we had the photos taken in our local shopping centre and rather than pay £5 each in one of those booths paid a bit more at the local photo shop,you know the type,they do school type pictures and baby pictures and masses of photo related extras.
Anyway tried to do the application on line using the usb stick supplied with the photos and the computor said no,the pictures did not meet the standards required!
Stuff that i said,filled in the forms,enclosed the photos,paid the minimum 1st class post (refused the Post Office check and send cost ) also PO said send registerd post for safety,no thanks,sent first class,result,passports back in no time so photos ok:j
Must be HMPO website.

AlanJD

Great service with the new On-line Renewal Option.

Took photos at home. Uploaded them to passport website - took 2 goes to get an acceptable one. Old passport received by passport office on 3 Jan and I got the new one on 6 Jan

Archergirl

Am I missing something, if you have to send your old one in before you get the new one, why not just fill in the form and send it all off inc photo together, I did mine in Oct and got it back in 3 days.........

Rolandtheroadie

Archergirl wrote: »

Am I missing something, if you have to send your old one in before you get the new one, why not just fill in the form and send it all off inc photo together, I did mine in Oct and got it back in 3 days.........

In case the photo gets rejected?

Archergirl

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

In case the photo gets rejected?

But it seems like they are online anyway, if you go to a proper place and get them taken, they are very unlikely to be rejected as they have the proper guidelines .

Ganga

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

In case the photo gets rejected?

In my case the HMPO computor rejected the photos but when posted in were ok.
I think that even if you apply on-line you still have to post the form in to them along with your old passports.

AlanJD

It's easier to use the on-line system. There's no paper form to fill in or print out and you can use photos you've taken on your phone. You still have to send the old passport in for it to be cancelled. I imagine the processing time is shorter because it doesn't need someone at the passport office to scan a printed photo.

I've had photos rejected previously because my glasses weren't quite right. At least this way the photos get vetted early in the process so they can be retaken if necessary.