Child/adult passport age 16?

iwilldoitthistime

I’ve searched for an answer on this, and the gov.uk website isn’t clear so I hope someone can help?
my son is 16 and his child passport has expired. We are going on holiday in July so I need to renew his passport.  Can anyone confirm if I renew his passport, or if I need to apply for a first adult passport?  It’s not clear, and the waiting times and requirements are vastly different!  I’ve rung the passport office twice and got conflicting information from the two operators 🙄

thanks 

TELLIT01

Reading the gov.uk site I would say that an adult passport must be applied for.  A passport issued to a child can be used up to its expiry date, but a new passport requested later than 3 weeks prior to 16th birthday would be an adult one.

olgadapolga

It's an adult renewal because your son has previously held a passport, even though it was a child's passport.

You don't need to apply for an adult first passport, just an adult renewal. 

It is confusing, the gov website isn't exactly clear. I've just renewed my sons' passports that expired some eight years when they were children, they are aged 17 and 18 now.

The passports were issued really quickly once the old ones had been sent back, in under a week (about two weeks in total from online application to receipt of new passports).

eDicky

As long as he's previously held a passport, it's a renewal.

Msjf

Hi, have just come across this thread.

It's definitely the adult renewal application process that you follow for a 16 year old as I've just been through the process with mine.

I let DS do the application himself but sat with him in case he had queries as he is new to official forms and I didn't want to risk an error/delay just before our first family holiday in nearly 3 years! It was surprisingly easy to do with no counter-signatory required and no applicant signature to upload. 

You can upload a digital passport photo as part of the online process and there is now a checking tool which analyses the photo and tells you whether it is likely to be accepted when the application is reviewed. 

The whole process from application to receipt of the new passport took 3 weeks, including sending in the old passport for cancellation and another document separately that the Passport Office needed to verify.  Given all the difficulties with so many services since Covid began, it was a remarkably prompt turnaround.

It's great that a 16 year-old can have a passport valid for 10 years instead of five with a child passport.