Outstanding Public Service

Lazarus

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Bearing in mind the kerfuffle (nay, brouhaha) of a few months ago regarding delays in processing UK (inc. Scotland) Passport Applications and the fact we have a foreign holiday booked for the end of April, SWMBO posted her Passport Renewal last Saturday (27 Dec).

I was awoken from my siesta about an hour ago by a Courier delivering the new Passport.

Howzat!
 
It's good news, we also could not understand all the problems that were being reported about passport office delays / backlogs in October, when ours were posted on the Wednesday 15th Oct and were returned to us on the Saturday 18th Oct.
So ours was not a blip, but great service like yours, well done to the Passport Office.

regards
 
I suspect it was the usual Press generated mountain out of a molehill, probably due to a handful of disorganised and feckless citizens who left it all too late.

The Courier said they were asked to work Saturdays over Summer, but despite that he had delivered everything by Friday lunchtime each week and only heard one complaint ("Phew, I'm flying out tomorrow"!)
 
£72.50, Martin.
 
Good to hear that they're responding so quickly as we will need to renew our passports next April.

As a matter of interest how did both of you send them in? Did you use the (fee required) Post Office service or did you fill in and send off the forms yourselves?
 
As the Renewal Form is now very much simplified and even the photos don't need to be certified, SWMBO took the Yorkshire residents approach and did it all herself. She asked me to look over it, but frankly it's now an elementary exercise.
 
Good to know. Is the application form downloadable on-line, Post Office available or what? (I know I could Google but, heck, I'm lazy and prefer to use others' experience).
 
A.

1. Google! :rolleyes::D Passport Office

2. Fill in quick name & address field

3. Select number required

4. Wait for Postperson


And, as it's NYE, I've completed Step 1 for thee:

https://www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport

And, in doing so, I've just noticed you can fill in the Forms Online (But then print them out and add money/pics before posting by surface mail - I suppose the only advantage is neatness)

Or


B. Collect forms from Post Orifice. (Sorry, already on my second glass of Cava :oops:)
 
Had a good chuckle with the link provided :-rofl2

There is a section for brit. nationals born before 2 sept 1929 to apply for a free passport.

Think that option should be universal not age dependent.

Free passports for British nationals born before 2 September 1929

https://www.gov.uk/free-passport

:D

 
Tivù said:
£72.50
Click to expand...

Interesting, last renewal I did was through the British consulate in Paris, though I understand they no longer issue passports. According to HM.GOV a passport application from France (which gets posted off to the UK) will take "at least 6 weeks" and costs £102 (one assumes the extra is for courier charges, though doesn't include the cost of posting it recorded from France)...
 
sonnetpete said:
Interesting, last renewal I did was through the British consulate in Paris, though I understand they no longer issue passports. According to HM.GOV a passport application from France (which gets posted off to the UK) will take "at least 6 weeks" and costs £102 (one assumes the extra is for courier charges, though doesn't include the cost of posting it recorded from France)...
Click to expand...
My daughter renewed her passport last year from Galicia. Our local passport office is no longer Madrid but Belfast! Happy New Year/ Feliz Año to everyone.
 
Buon Capo d'Anno, innit.
 
An update on our experience.

My wife nipped up to our local main Post Office for two application forms last weekend. This was quicker than ordering the forms online and there was no option of a downloadable form. We also decided not to apply online as this involved printing out a document at the end and then posting it in which would have ended up slower.

So, we filled the forms in on Saturday and had new photos taken. On Sunday we nipped over to Liverpool to the Passport Office. There was no letter box (of course!) but I managed to slide the envelope under the door. Yesterday (Saturday) we came home from shopping to find two packets containing our two new passports.

Five working days to process and send out replacements. Not too shabby at all.
 
So, all that remains is to check they work: We're off to Murcia for a couple of weeks straddling the end of April/beginning of May.

And your good self?
 
Two weeks at Easter for us. Because our school now uses the standardised school terms, Easter** falls at the beginning of the two weeks holiday which means that we break up on Maundy Thursday and that we'll arrive down at our place on (Good) Friday evening. It does mean one extra day down there to work!

**Next year Easter is the weekend before the Spring Holiday so we'll have a long weekend off (Good Friday plus Easter Monday), back for four days and then off for two weeks. Barking!
 
I renewed mine on-line about four weeks ago and it was returned along with the old one within 10 days, it unfortunately all seemed a little bit too easy .:(
 
Ah, interesting that you had your old one returned as neither of ours were. We did wonder whether that was a new policy.
 
Paul, they are sent separately. SWMBO got her old one back quite a few days after the new one arrived.

Edit: Although Topper's post implies they came together, which doesn't conform to the system as I understood it.
 
Back
Top