jbee36

Hi FT,

I'm now in a window where I won't be travelling for 9 weeks and based on the rules for the EU / expiry of my passport means I need to renew this year.

With the delays in the standard service I wanted to opt for either the same-day or 1-week services available. The gov.uk website suggests there's no appointments for the same day service due to covid (?) but that the 1-week service is operating. Problem is every time I go to get an appointment there's no availability anywhere, not just my local office which is London.

Does anyone have any suggestions of best times to check for appointment or tips on how they got theirs?

Any help appreciated, thanks FT

Silver Fox

Daughter just kept checking every 30 mins or so. Eventually something turned up. She couldn't see any particular pattern to timings, if such a thing does exist.

jerry a. laska

Some ideas in this very recent thread, including following the UK appointments bot on twitter:
BA Holidays and delayed passport

navylad

I would suggest you don’t. I tried for 3 weeks without success (I was abroad at the time), as I understand it they add the appointment for 3 weeks time at or around midnight, outside of that you are reliant on a cancellation. So if you take 3 weeks to find an appointment, it’s in 3 weeks time and the passport takes a week that’s 7 weeks. According to U.K. passport waiting, current average time for a renewal is 26.21 days so quicker to send by the standard route.

Schiehallion

I have been checking frequently for an appointment to replace a lost passport. Last Saturday I got an appointment for 8:30am on the Tuesday (Glasgow, handy enough for me) and it arrived yesterday.

Keep checking and rechecking is all I can advise from my experience.

LucyK1806

In January I had to renew for a trip in April and it came back within 5 days of application.

I got married in April and renewed again, this time it was 8 days (applied early July)

Both times it was Bootle office, they seem very efficient.

Hubby did his in Feb and it was 4 weeks - was Durham office.

Not sure which office you are dealing with but not all bad!

MADPhil

I think Durham is where all overseas renewals go so they have a rather wider client base. That's where mine from the US went but they were quite fast. The US postal service was another matter!

scottishpoet

Deleted

corporate-wage-slave

Straightforward renewals, using the online service, are normally taking a lot less than 10 weeks. Unless you can secure a slot very soon, perhaps using the Twitter bot mentioned in the other thread, I would use the normal online service. You are more likely to get a quick renewal if the outgoing passport is only just expired / near expiry, and if you haven't changed appearance greatly. If you are at the same address, or at an address with plenty of cross references such as being on the Electoral Roll, will also help. The problem cases are first ever passports - so children typically - and cases that need investigation (e.g. counter-signatories, which doesn't apply for most renewals). Belfast is the office under the least pressure, and it's easy to get to.

1P

According to South Today the other day, passports are taking 13+ weeks in some cases. There are apparently plenty of folk who submitted their renewals in April and May and have received nothing as yet. That 26.21-day average period seems a trifle optimistic.

It seems that if you can manage to persuade your MP to intervene with the Passport Office on your behalf, passports are then received back almost by return..... But of course that only applies to those who have been waiting for three months and more.

jms_uk

I sent mine off for renewal, end of February, to Bootle and it took ~25 days.

Scots_Al

More anecdotal positive evidence - we got our child's first passport in under 4 weeks in April/May.

Raffles

Each office has different processing times so quoting personal examples won't help.

There is a Twitter account you can follow which automatically notifies you when slots open up - not sure what the account is but should be easy to find.

Charentedame

I desperately need another passport because although mine doesn’t expire until next year, I would not meet EU criteria for entry and have lots of travel planned. I have been trying to get an appointment for weeks but could only find appointments for Belfast and Glasgow for one week fast track. Appointments usually appear just before 9 am BST and late afternoon.

On a different thread someone also suggested following Passport Office on Twitter., which I signed up to on Friday. Got notified this morning at about 9am. Lots of appointments but none for London. Got another notification late this afternoon for London appointments. There were at least 15 per day for week around 5 August. .

PlaneSpeaking

I was in the identical position, having to renew to be EU compliant. I was almost bored checking appointments for London Victoria all day every day for about a month and then a whole load popped up for Fast Track. I went for a very quick and easy interview on Jul 6. I was astonished when the passport arrived on July 9! Keep trying and good luck!