Applying for new passport but old passport lost in transit.

Goldiegirl

@Wyndham

Hi. Yes, his passport did turn up. The Royal Mail tracking showed it was received on 28th January, two days after mine was received.

My application has gone really well. Royal Mail tracking says it was received on 26th January. The passport tracking confirmed documents received on the evening of the 26th. By the time I had got up on 27th they confirmed that the application had been approved and had been sent for printing by 6pm that evening. It was posted on 28th, and I received it on the 29th. My old passport was returned in the same delivery.

But my husband's application is still lagging behind. The passport tracking was updated on the evening of 29th January to confirm documents received, but nothing has happened since then.

If we hadn't applied at the same time we wouldn't have been too concerned. But it is difficult not to compare the two experiences. My application flowed through all the stages really quickly, yet my husband's application seems a bit stuck. We'll just have to see what happens next week.

How is your application going?

Wyndham

@Goldiegirl

I have a new passport - arrived the day after my husbands, but we now both have them. He has also had his old passport back, but mine is still somewhere in the system.

I'm sure your husband's passport will turn up soon!

To be honest, the process for both of us was much faster than we expected, so I think it's a reasonably quiet time of year. Applied on 21st January, so both less than 2 weeks.

Goldiegirl

@Wyndham

I'm glad you have your passport.

There's still nothing to report on my husband's application.

My application went from documents received to application approved in 10 hours. My husband's application has been stuck at documents received for 4 days.

I think the thing I'm most worried about is the potential inconvenience and aggravation that may be required to contact them and speak to someone that can actually help to get the application moving.

I will have to give it a few more days, but it already seems like we have been waiting forever!

Goldiegirl

Just a footnote, as these sort of posts never usually include the end of the story.

My husband received his new passport today. So my application took 6 days, his application took 13 days.

In retrospect, we would probably have been quite happy with a 13 day turnaround, and wouldn't have thought much about it. But we knew that my application went through quickly, so we were constantly comparing with my experience

smudge56

If there is more than one application - best thing to do is put the documents for each application into separate envelopes with the PEX number on the outside and put ALL the envelopes into one strong envelope. That way they will be received to the document handling unit at the same time and scanned on to the system together

Gooner101

I have a similar sorry. I applied to renew my passport on 30/03/26 and posted my old passport back the same day. The Passport Office emailed me saying that they have not received my old passport, when I called them I was told that my passport was missing and they had signed for an empty envelope, so my passport had been stolen while with the Royal Mail.

When I tried to complain to Royal Mail, I found that the only way to complain was by phone. I waited 40 minutes to speak to someone and when I did, my call was terminated before I could explain the full problem, so it looks like it is impossible to report a problem of this type with Royal Mail.

The lady that I spoke to in the Passport Office was very helpful and she told me that my experience with returning my old passport was not unusual. It looks like there is a major scam going on at Royal Mail and something needs to be done. I would advise everyone not to use the 'Signed For' service, it's useless. I don't know what the answer is apart from returning it in person.

The good news is that my new passport is due to arrive tomorrow, just 3 working days after I found out about my old passport, so Thank You Passport Office for your superb service.

eskbanker

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81970882#Comment_81970882

You've jumped to quite a few conclusions there!

The delivery of an empty envelope doesn't in itself mean the contents were stolen.

Being cut off one phone call doesn't mean that it's impossible to succeed as a generalisation.

If multiple passports are going missing (out of vast quantities) that doesn't mean there's "a major scam going on at Royal Mail".

An issue with a signed for delivery doesn't mean that everyone should avoid it as it's useless.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81858160#Comment_81858160

Large corporates and governmental agencies get post by the sacks full every day, the biggest will have multiple deliveries and collections every day. They may have been tossed into the bag at the local postoffice together but the chances of them staying together as they go from post office to local office to regional sorting office to the delivery locations sorting office to their delivery office to the recipient. Post will be debagged and sorted at at least 2 of those steps and potentially all four.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81857092#Comment_81857092

Agree its a waste of time paying for it but for us at least it was signed for when the sacks were delivered to our office, not at the sorting centre however its 1 signature on a cover page with a stack of pages behind listing all the signed for/special delivery etc items that are allegedly in the sacks delivered.

When our guys get it then check if it's to a named individual or not. Anything not then it just goes in with the regular mail, or anything named to someone in the call centre in letter form, but parcels or letters named to not call centre agents do get delivered to the person/their team rather than being put in the pigeon holes. It was always a sign of having "made it" when you had gone up in Claims enough that the post room start delivering your special delivery post to you.

9 times out of 10 the most urgent post just comes via regular mail as the courts dont use enhanced delivery options for papers etc

martindow

I think it is much more likely that the envelope was damaged in transit, possibly in sorting machines than it being theft or a scam I would assume that a passport found loose in the system would be forwarded by RM to a Passport Office somewhere, but it could take time to link it to your application.

What do the Passport Office say will happen if it has been lost in the post and not recovered? This must happen from time to time. I agree that signed for is not a good service, but at least you have evidence that it was posted and entered the system.

MyRealNameToo

You can get a certificate of posting for free without the fee of paying for signed for service