Passport renewal time scale?

Doctor Smith

We were all set to book our holiday to Turkey on Tuesday for the beginning of July. However, when we checked the Gov website for travel to Turkey. It says passport needs to have at least 6 months validity but my wife only has 4 months. She will be posting passport renewal forms to today with check and send.

My question is shall I book the holiday in the hope the new passport will arrive on time?

Thanks

Astaroth

Why use check and send? They just read the form, charge you a premium and no assurances that they know any better than you how to fill it in (as evidenced by the fact if its wrong they just refund their fee not give you a free fast track, compensation or such)

Average time is supposedly 3 weeks, my experience is that its typically quicker but there is obv no guarantee. There is the expedited 1 week or 1 day service if you really do want to be sure its going to be there on time but the caveat is the clock starts ticking from the time of your appointment and so if there aren't any slots you can make for a month then it may be slower than the normal service. That said, the one time I had to use the 1 day service I was able to get an appointment the next day and the passport was ready that evening and as it was a business trip the extra cost was charged to the company.

bowenjones

Renewed both mine and my wife's passports a few weeks back by using the online service. Very easy to do and all you need is your old passport details and a recent digital photo taken against a plain off white/cream or light grey background. You don't need to crop the photo as it will automatically be cropped once you get to the upload section of the application. Try to make sure that you don't cast much of a shadow on the background though.
Once the application has been done, you'll get confirmation  if the photo is acceptable and also an address with your application code so that you can send the old passport back to them. As soon as they receive your old passport, you'll get an email stating that the new passport is being processed. They will then email you again when they post it. You'll also get the old passport back separately, which will be clipped so that it can't be used again.
Timescale will depend on how quickly you send your old passport back. Ours took just 5 days from the time we posted our old passports to them. Really was that easy and it was great how they kept in touch the whole time.

kilvil

my passport arrived yesterday exactly 2 weeks from date of posting the renewal forms off.

MSW

We posted a passport renewal last Saturday, got a text message in the Monday saying we would get it in 3 weeks, it arrived the following Friday, som5 days wait in total

Delvey

My last passport took 4 days from posting the old to receiving the new for a renewal.

domtheone

Did mine a few months back.  Took one week (max) start to finish.

bobflunkit

Same here, done our daughters and back within the week.

Enjoy your holiday.

Doctor Smith

Passport arrived yesterday. Thanks all.