Can I still use my current passport whilst applying for a new one, if it is still valid?

smudge56

Once you submit your application you have 90 days to send in your old passport. Your old passport does not get cancelled until the process is complete.  The examination won’t  even start until your passport is received.  Straightforward renewals are being processed quickly just now if you use the digital service.
I suggest you submit your application soon to receive your passport in time for Octobers travel.  No need for the fast track service.

eDicky

[Deleted User] said:

Having spoken with the  passport office, I cannot go to Germany for my October trip

The Passport Office are concerned with issuing British passports, not with their use. Consult the FCO or the relevant countries' authorities for reliable advice on the latter.

tightauldgit

[Deleted User] said:

tightauldgit said:

[Deleted User] said:

My passport start date was 13 January 2014 therefore I assume it is usable until 13th January 2024?

It will be valid until the end of the 12th January 2024 but you also need to check the validity that the country you are visiting requires. For example, for the EU you need 3 months from the date of exiting the EU so you would have to be leaving the EU by 12th October 2023 for your passport to be valid for the trip.

Where are you going? It could well be that your passport won't work for your October trip and needs to be renewed before then. 

Yep this is the case. I have booked a Fast track appointment. Better to spend a little more on an appointment than to lose my holiday!

No, it's not the case. As I said in my next post what I said here was completely wrong (and I knew better at the time when I posted it just completely fluffed it!). Pretty bad that the passport office is telling you the wrong info. 

[Deleted User]

I think now I have had so many different versions of what to do with my passport, it proves the case that it is very unclear. I am in Austria in September, then Germany in October. I have booked and paid for a fast track appointment next week which (hopefully) means that I will have a shiny new blue passport ready for my Austrian trip. Whilst I may have paid extra for this appointment, and possibly lost months from my old passport, the relief of knowing that I can enter a country successfully in September, without worrying about whether or not I would be turned away by Ryanair or at passport control, is much more important to me. Of course I looked at the FCO and the relevant countries' authorities, but the information is very ambiguous. We were told (and I remember the programme when Martin Lewis) stated that the expiry date was now 10 years after the start date, and to ignore any months after that). I also remember Simon Caulder saying the same. If that has now changed, I have not found anything online to state that. The whole thing has left my stomach churning so I have done the one thing that has made me feel as though I am in control and booked the Fast Track appointment. I travel at least once monthly, so cannot risk the normal procedure of sending it off online and hoping that it will arrive before ten weeks. Thank you to everyone who has provided advice. 

tightauldgit

[Deleted User] said:

I think now I have had so many different versions of what to do with my passport, it proves the case that it is very unclear. I am in Austria in September, then Germany in October. I have booked and paid for a fast track appointment next week which (hopefully) means that I will have a shiny new blue passport ready for my Austrian trip. Whilst I may have paid extra for this appointment, and possibly lost months from my old passport, the relief of knowing that I can enter a country successfully in September, without worrying about whether or not I would be turned away by Ryanair or at passport control, is much more important to me. Of course I looked at the FCO and the relevant countries' authorities, but the information is very ambiguous. We were told (and I remember the programme when Martin Lewis) stated that the expiry date was now 10 years after the start date, and to ignore any months after that). I also remember Simon Caulder saying the same. If that has now changed, I have not found anything online to state that. The whole thing has left my stomach churning so I have done the one thing that has made me feel as though I am in control and booked the Fast Track appointment. I travel at least once monthly, so cannot risk the normal procedure of sending it off online and hoping that it will arrive before ten weeks. Thank you to everyone who has provided advice. 

Despite me mis-posting I think the rules actually are clear if you look them up. 

For the EU, you should enter within 10 years of your passport START DATE and exit no later than 3 months from your passport EXPIRY DATE. 

So any extra months tagged on past the 10 years don't apply on entry, but do count on exit. 

I appreciate it can be a bit confusing, and it doesn't help that people give the wrong advice, and occasionally the odd airline person will make a !!!!!!-up, but the actual rules themselves are clear. 

eskbanker

bexoxo60 said:

Of course I looked at the FCO and the relevant countries' authorities, but the information is very ambiguous.

Where's the ambiguity in the official guidance?

bexoxo60 said:

I think now I have had so many different versions of what to do with my passport, it proves the case that it is very unclear.

[...]

We were told (and I remember the programme when Martin Lewis) stated that the expiry date was now 10 years after the start date, and to ignore any months after that). I also remember Simon Caulder saying the same. If that has now changed, I have not found anything online to state that.

With all due respect, you're probably either misremembering or misinterpreting, but either way round, what journalists may or may not have said in the past is irrelevant when the clear guidance on official definitive sources contradicts what you believe you heard!

eDicky

[Deleted User] said:

We were told (and I remember the programme when Martin Lewis) stated that the expiry date was now 10 years after the start date, and to ignore any months after that). I also remember Simon Caulder saying the same.

The expiry date of a UK passport is that which is printed in the passport, and always has been. It is only for travel to EU countries that validity in excess of ten years is no longer accepted. Advice needs to be listened to or read carefully to avoid misinterpretation or ambiguity.

Annemos

Watch out for this with your timing, bex. If you use Courier. 

My new passport was printed on August 2nd and scanned in the same day by TNT.  

Now it has gone missing. No scan done since. They are trying to locate where on earth it is.

(And in fact on the tracking, there was somebody else's delivery details, of a package that was sent back on July 27th. And a photo of their door which is NOT mine!)  

Westin

hildasmuriel said:

Just FYI, my passport came back in less than one week on renewal (in June). I applied Saturday and got it back Wednesday. My husband's came back on Thursday. 
A colleague renewed hers last month and got it back in 4 days.

Seems a new system is making standard renewals very quick.

The Daily Mail won't like that positive and upbeat story.   How dare HMPO be so efficient. 

Annemos

HMPO is not the problem in my case. TNT is.