Passport office... absolute shower of *****

[sundial]

Great headline!

My local ASDA is "working" 24hrs a day, 7 days a week..................................

But there is no suggestion that any workers are doing more than their shift (unless getting lucrative overtime)............ it is "OPEN"

PPT Office staff work overtime ... inc. unsocial hours overtime

[thenikjones]

If the application is correctly submitted, how long does it take to process it?

[sundial]

If the application is correctly submitted, how long does it take to process it?

Three stage process ... achieved in batches ... times vary ... Unless fast tracked . I'm an ex-employee and not permitted to divulge actual processing procedures / times.

[Jubal]

If the application is correctly submitted, how long does it take to process it?

As well as above it varies depending which office, based upon my small sample. Liverpool renewal received back in 13 days. Durham renewal, sent same day, wasn’t even acknowledged as received for 15 days but apparently is now being printed. It’ll be well within target though. I hope. I wonder how much of the press is hype and semi-isolated cases? No fun for the individuals but us sheep need managing.

Now, if only the dvla could get a grip on my licence renewal I’d be happy. That’s a massive fail thus far.

[learningtofly]

Agree. Seems to me that some people react with outrage when you suggest WFH has drawbacks. And I appreciate that these might be the people well established in their role that do work well from home and see commuting into an office pointless. The problem is I also know of people that are much less productive when working from home. I guess the proof of the pudding will be the outcome of this over time. Managers will know whether their teams are struggling to be productive and, if so, there will be coercion to get back in the office eventually from top down. In my experience, everything is very touchy-feely right now and colleagues are gently being encouraged to 'reacquaint' and 're-familiarise' themselves with the office. My personal experience as someone who started a new job during the pandemic is that my development has been greatly held back. I know 90% of my colleagues as voices on a telephone (most do not even want to turn cameras on!) and I must have missed out on hundreds of little 2-minute chats to get advice and direction. Organising these moments into meetings or specific days just isn't the same.

For the public funded departments, I suspect optics will play a big role...if enough bad-press about services gets out there (I've seen a trend recently in the DM...Rees-Moggs photo, stories about councils ballsing up planning decisions etc), then whether WFH is to blame or not, people will be recalled to offices. I suspect if a 'critical mass' is back in the office, even those that want to continue WFH wont really be able to.

I think that's likely true to a certain extent, but there are a lot of corporates - mine included - that are radically reducing (or planning to reduce) their real estate footprint. For those organisations, there's already a commitment to the ongoing facilitation of hybrid/agile working for the long term.

[bomberman]

Sorry to continue to read about the issues you are having OP.

Just received my Daughters Passport Renewal today. Applied on the evening of 20/4 and was delivered 3/5.

What amazes me is that they reported when I applied it can take 10 weeks but managed to turn this around in less than 2, all great news for me.

As others have mentioned I wonder if it’s based on the office that deals with the actual application or the type of application as mine was a simple renewal.

Good Luck OP

B

[village]

Three stage process ... achieved in batches ... times vary ... Unless fast tracked . I'm an ex-employee and not permitted to divulge actual processing procedures / times.

Out of interest what possible issue is there for an ex-employee to talk about processing times?

[Passenger]

He could tell you but then he'd have to kill you.

[jaytip]

My kids passport applications are going off tomorrow. One to Peterborough and one to Bootle. They are renewals so I’ll be sending the old ones back next day signed for. I think Peterborough is open Saturdays but I’m not sure Bootle is.
Let’s see if there is much difference in how long they take to come back.
I’m hoping, and I know I’m being optimistic, that they will arrive back within five weeks so that we can get away while the wife is away.

[Franky Four Fingers]

The wife sent ours off 2 weeks ago this Saturday and we've had the text messages that they’ve been printed and waiting dispatch, ours went to different places (Bootle and Glasgow) and we had the messages and updates at the same time. Im guessing its just luck of the draw.

[33JS]

Applied for daughter last night. Entered e-mail for ID confirmation from colleague. Had to change the e-mail/person 3 times until someone actually received a message from HMRC. They are now trying to confirm the ID but the system says 'details not recognised'! It's just a 9 dig code and a DOB... WTF?! Trying to get through to a human right now, but my goodness it's frustrating!

[Franky Four Fingers]

Both ours back in a little under 2 weeks

[Vanguard]

My recent experience, applied online on the 29th April, received new passport 21st May

[JasonM]

Kev, did you get this sorted in the end?

[Pitfitter]

A friend went to the local office to renew his, he handed in two* passports and in the space of 4 hours they lost one!, after much moaning they did find and he was able to leave with two new passports, it was news to me that you could have more than one passport but he tells me it's possible to have 3 current passports, he does fly on a regular basis, several times a week as a roadie with a band.

[Saint-Just]

A friend went to the local office to renew his, he handed in two* passports and in the space of 4 hours they lost one!, after much moaning they did find and he was able to leave with two new passports, it was news to me that you could have more than one passport but he tells me it's possible to have 3 current passports, he does fly on a regular basis, several times a week as a roadie with a band.

Those who need to travel to Israel and Arab countries, or to North Korea (!) and the US for example, need to have two passports (and avoid making a mistake when they leave home).