its on sky news now, what a shambles.!
feel sorry for people who are waiting weeks on end for passport and their holidays could be at risk!

I've sent off 3 applications ... 2 were renewals which I've got back within 3 weeks the other 1 is child's first passport and I am still waiting fingers crossed it's on its way

Funny how there is such a HUGE backlog on Wednesday when according to Theresa May the Home Secretary there wasn't any backlog on Tuesday

Half a million passports arrived overnight wow postie was busy

For those who have recently renewed your passport- how long did it take? Or perhaps you are still waiting?

Mine took 3 weeks for two of them and 4/5 weeks for a childs new passport

Our son renewed his passport (1st Adult passport) in early June ... arrived within 2 weeks.

So things are looking up it seems and I mightn't have to pay for the fast track after all to renew my passport between getting home from a cruise on 11th July and going to Cuba on 8th September.

SM

ours took 3 weeks and 3 days from durham..

that is good. Was that from the time you sent you them?

yes it was ..fiona

I read on holiday hypermarket about a way to fast track your application. Sorry i cant post a link as i have been on here enough

http://goo.gl/cgZC02

running fit wrote:

http://goo.gl/cgZC02

Nice picture of you in your kit, running fit

Whatever you do, do NOT use the on line passport application service. If you do you will almost certainly not go on holiday.
It took them over six weeks to do a renewal of my daughter's passport, with the result that she missed her holiday. It was two and a half weeks before they even looked at the application, after it had been first to Glasgow and then to Peterborough, and sent me a letter (by second class post) requesting an extra piece of information.
They even went so far as to assure me on a Thursday that they would courier it to me the next day, as she was due to fly on the following Monday, with the result that I didn't go to my local passport office on the Friday to take emergency measures.
It eventually arrived three days after she was supposed to go.
They are totally incompetent.

So sorry to hear this Colin your poor daughter. Did she eventually get away at all?

I was worried about renewing mine and hubbies passport because of all the horror stories that were on tv.We didn't return from our holiday in Crete till July 2nd, then we wanted to travel again on the 1st of Sept.As our passports didn't expire until November i thought we would wait until after our September holiday to renew.
Then when we checked in at Manchester for Crete the girl on check in worried me a bit(it doesn't take much)she said do you know your passport expires shortly, I said to her it was only June and it didn't expire till November. Then she said do you now how much time you need left on your passport to enter Greece, I said yes I do, I only need the amount of time that I am staying in Greece on my passport.
I thought I will renew them went we get back from Crete in case i get some official who says I don't have enough time left on my passport in when I travel in September.
So I filled in the passport application done it check and sent, that was a bit of a performance, first I had gone over the box by a millimetre, second attempt their was a shadow on the photo(funny how this wasn't picked up on the first visit). eventually it got sent of and was told it will take 3 weeks.
One day before the 3 weeks were up they both arrived so I am very happy and I can go on holiday in September(just got to find a holiday now.
tracey

Just to make matters worse Passport Office staff are taking part in a strike today to try and highlight the severe staff shortages they have which is in part the main issue for all the backlog of passport renewals, they claim that they have lost more than 300 members of staff in the last few years that would normally deal with passport renewals and they have reached staffing crisis levels.

As far as I can see there are still reports of people missing holidays. Anyone got recent feedback?

Could someone confirm how long before expiry can one apply for a new passport? Mine is due to expire next August and I want to return to Tunisia next April/May. I've read varying reports on how long the passport needs to be valid for entry into Tunisia, from 3 to 6 months, and I don't want to hit problems. Equally, I would rather wait if possible until the Passport Office have sorted out their troubles as i don't want them hanging on to my passport for an interminable time in case I want to go away earlier.