Online passport renewal - quick question

Ant555

Hi,  my mum and dad need to renew their passports and although I told them about the price uplift deadline, its still not been done.

Its ages since I renewed mine online and I cant remember the exact process.
If I travel to their house this evening then can I do it all online and take a photo on mobile etc and get the applications sent off.  Im assuming online isnt bound by business hours and we have up to midnight to complete.

Thanks in advance.

Westin

You have up to 23:59 tonight to apply on line. to get the old fees.

To speed things up and ensure no issues with the digital images, you could ask your parents to today visit a Timpson/Tesco/Asda type passport photo place.  For around £12-£13 they will take the photo, immediately check online that it is acceptable by the PO, give you a code to download it, email copies and give you hard copies in store.  You could then just use those for the application tonight.

Ant555

Many Thanks,

They are currently on the tram to Central Manchester so I have messaged them about this and I am sure they can find somewhere that offers that photo service.

diystarter7

Westin said:

You have up to 23:59 tonight to apply on line. to get the old fees.

To speed things up and ensure no issues with the digital images, you could ask your parents to today visit a Timpson/Tesco/Asda type passport photo place.  For around £12-£13 they will take the photo, immediately check online that it is acceptable by the PO, give you a code to download it, email copies and give you hard copies in store.  You could then just use those for the application tonight.

Hi

Great idea

We took our own pics and I'm not good at that and pics got rejected several times - they came back quickly but in the OP's position, I'm with you

Thank you

poppystar

Also it’s a good idea to go to somewhere that takes and checks rather than a booth. When doing my application the photo failed the auto check and I phoned the shop who’d taken it and they said to go ahead and in the explanation box (it pops up if you say to go ahead even after the auto check fail) put that it had passed ICAO checks on their system. They said it should then be ok on human checking. I did this and other than it seeming to take a couple of days longer than others have experienced it was fine. So if they get one from somewhere that does this check you can continue with the application even if on auto check there is a problem - which might mean you can get in before the deadline.

jimi_man

Taking your own photos using a smart phone is quite simple, there are various apps to assist you. As long as you have a white wall/background and you do it in daylight then you'll have no problems. But if you try and take the photos in the evening then you'll have problems as even if you do it on a white background, artificial light tends to come out yellowish on the photos, which will get rejected.

If you have to go somewhere and pay for the photos then it pretty much negates the passport fees increase anyway, so personally I wouldn't rush and just accept the extra £7 each for the applications and do it all properly in the comfort of my own home.