Speedy Passport

Graywisdom

My partner's passport had run out so on Wednesday 13th July she went on-line to obtain a new one. She paid the normal fee and within 24 hours 
she received an SMS message stating the application had been received and the new passport was being printed. Two days later she received another 
message to say the passport had been printed and was on its way to DHL. Yesterday, Thursday 21 July, DHL duly delivered the new document..
Whether it was it because it was a renewal and not an initial application,  it shows that system must be working (sometimes!)

Sandtree

Graywisdom said:

My partner's passport had run out so on Wednesday 13th July she went on-line to obtain a new one. She paid the normal fee and within 24 hours 
she received an SMS message stating the application had been received and the new passport was being printed. Two days later she received another 
message to say the passport had been printed and was on its way to DHL. Yesterday, Thursday 21 July, DHL duly delivered the new document..
Whether it was it because it was a renewal and not an initial application,  it shows that system must be working (sometimes!)

Somethings amiss because they wont issue the new passport until the expired one has been received

Graywisdom

Ah, forgot to say, my partner sent back the old passport as soon as she had ordered the new one. It must have got delivered pretty quickly! Nevertheless, still good service.

400ixl

Works well for some, abysmally for others unfortunately. It is a bit of a lottery although some clue can be got from where it asks you to send you old passport to as some processing centres seem to be more reliable than others.

Personally I would be starting it at a minimum of six months before its expiry date, or six months before if you will need it within the last 6 months.

smudge56

If its a straightforward renewal and it stays on the digital system they are done quickly.  There is no backlog for those applications.  The problem starts when they are a bit more complicated and have to be transferred on to the manual system which means they have to locate the documents and ship them off to one of the offices who deal with the physical applications.  They then go to the back of the back of the queue.

400ixl

That doesn't seem to be the case, I know of several straightforward renewals that are taking 3 months to be processed, but others only days. There would appear to be no obvious difference which would make those go through a different route.