Passports Office Avis 

Excellent service. I completed my application on Tuesday. Posted my old passport on Wednesday and received my new one on Saturday.
All done and dusted within a week. Well done

An utter shambles where no one knows what they're doing and everyone issues different information. I have been trying to get my dementia-suffering mother a new passport. There is no way to fast-track a passport for someone with dementia, but I thought allowing a month for the application would be plenty of time. Nope.

First, the UI isn't geared toward someone applying for another adult; eg, it asks for a mailing address for the passport, and I entered my brother's address instead of my mother's care home. However, they are constantly asking for my mother's address (which I never gave them) as a security question.

I have Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), but they have consistently said they can't accept the codes the government issues to attorneys to prove they have LPA: so the government won't accept the codes the government itself hands out after someone has been granted LPA. Jesus. Christ.

Twice I've had live chats closed on me while trying to find out something basic. I've had a few useful live chats, but others don't seem to know what they're doing and tell you to ring instead.

When you do ring, it asks you to enter your reference ID but gives no info on what form it should take. Since the reference begins with three letters, and you can't enter letters on a phone's numeric keypad, I tried using the remaining 10 digits instead. Several times. No luck. So I couldn't speak to anyone.

I then got a call claiming a document they had requested did not detail the position of the writer. When I said I'm sure it did and started looking for my copy, the caller (an "examiner") admitted it did detail the position. However, they now wanted a signed letter from me stating why I am acting on my mother's behalf, even though I told them she has dementia in the initial application. She promised to send an email I could respond to with the letter. But no email ever arrived, so I had no choice but to type, print, sign, and send the letter by special delivery.

That cost >£10.

It gets worse. The next weekday, I got a no-reply email asking for someone to confirm my identity online (I had already asked someone to confirm my mother's identity). But how? They have at no point asked me for any photos or photographic ID? I then got an email saying they had nothing to compare my signature with, so need me to send in my passport. I kid you not. They ask for a signed letter, then admit it's useless since they have no comparator.

Again, all this could be avoided by adding a box to the application UI where I can paste an LPA code.

I thought it worth talking to the examiner again to ascertain what they definitely needed, and check they aren't going to request yet another document if I send them my passport. Now it got insane...

I managed to get through by asking the chat how to bypass the reference ID request, and gave the call handler the reference number, my mother's name, and my name, as requested. She didn't ask the usual security questions. I then had to ask her to repeat what she was saying at least five times because she had a very strong Indian accent, kept saying the bit I couldn't understand quickly, and was pronouncing "deny" as "deenay". I finally grasped she was saying she could "neither confirm nor deny" to me that such an application existed. Even though I'd made the application.

Yep. Let that sink in. They can't discuss the application with the person who made it.

I explained that she had not asked me for any security questions to confirm I made the application. I also tried to explain that, since I have LPA, she is legally obliged to discuss it with me. All she did is repeat (perhaps 10 times) "based on the information provided I can neither confirm nor deny that an application exists". I asked to speak to someone who knew what they were talking about, but she said she could not transfer the call.

I swore and hung up.

I later tried the chat service and chatted with someone (Abdul-Naser) on the ball. I asked if the examiner could call me to discuss the application. He said he would leave a note on the application.

I finally received a call. But not from the examiner. This time a new, more authoritative jobsworth said she could not discuss the application with me because I had not provided the LPA. I told her no one had asked me for the LPA, that I had offered an LPA code several times, that many of her colleagues had discussed it with me, and that I wanted to speak to the examiner (who had also discussed it with me). She refused to leave a note for the examiner and said I'd have to send in the LPA.

I swore, hung up, and spent >£10 on mailing my passport and the original LPA document.

It gets worse. But I have run out of space.

From receiving my old passport at HMPOto me receiving my new passport 12 days top marks .

Compliments to the Passport Office
Impeccable repeat service for a disabled entrepreneur who was unable to sign a passport.

Prompt, professional and fast, with clear communication and updates throughout, and
timely texts and emails.

Thank you for making the process straightforward, hassle-free and accessible.

The staff at this office are THICK, INEPT and INCOMPETENT with poor attention to detail and UNFIT to handle or process any document!

Rubbish lost my id I would like to no who is going to reimburse me as Royal Mail have not received my id yet we are on the 23September from 16th until 23 I have no id and I payed

I was expecting to be disappointed but the service was outstanding. Application, appointment and ease of reaching location.

I swear they don't understand how to read.
Sent multiple emails explaining in simple terms what I requested. Comes back to me with a completely different topic, nothing to do with the situation.
Weeks of this!

The British Passport Office, Corby. "Staff".Have been wonderful. They are very understanding, patient, polite, kind thoughts, and very helpful. Blessings and wellbeing throughout 🙏🏽

I did the online application on a Thursday which was a breeze bar getting a photo that would be accepted only to find all the efforts were wasted as once it was accepted it shrunk to just one's face anyhow (It took me 7 attempts with my phone) ... anyhow this needs looking into as this really frustrates your customers for sure.
But hey I paid the money and it went in with my old passport in the mail "signed for" that same day.
That was received next day !! Wow and one just has to wait for text updates ... I got it back today, 1 day less than 2 weeks with a note to remind me to sign it with a BLACK ball point pen - duly done. The old passport will come back in the next days for posterity. I know they get a lot of complaints but if you do it during a time period when you do not need to travel, then they are great. My problem was we were wanting to travel long haul next year and my passport would not have made the six month valid period after the return so it had to be done.

Six or seven weeks into my on line application I am no nearer seeing the end insight and actually getting the document

Just when you thought the civil service couldn’t get any worse, the incompetence and ineptitude of this bloated entity extends its reach yet further - this time to HM Passport Office....I paid nearly £120 for a passport renewal (including postage costs), only to be told four weeks later that HM Passport Office have lost my old passport, and zero progress has been made on my passport renewal.

After submitting my application online and hearing nothing for nearly four weeks, I rang the customer helpline. My experience trying to obtain an update on my application was, frankly, extraordinary.

On my first attempt, the HMPO staff member asked me to repeat the first line of my address five times. This was a very straightforward address, yet I had to repeatedly spell it out in full.

Having gone through this several times, I was then told that she was unable to assist me “due to the details I had provided”.

Naturally, I asked what that actually meant. Had one of my details been entered incorrectly? Was there some discrepancy in the information they held? Surely, if there was an issue with my personal information, I should at least be told what it was so that I could clarify or correct it.

Apparently not.

I was told: “I can’t tell you due to data protection rules.”

I’m sorry, what?

I was attempting to access information about my own passport application, having already provided multiple pieces of personal information to verify my identity, and yet I was being told that the very information I had provided prevented them from helping me; while simultaneously being prohibited from being told what the problem actually was.

If this is what passes for customer service and data protection at HM Passport Office, it is difficult to know whether to laugh or despair.

The combination of incompetence, bureaucracy and an apparent inability to explain even the most basic problem is quite something.

Cue another three painful attempts at attempting to call the passport office and speak to a human, one of whom's phone reception was so dreadful that she couldn't even hear me. Plus a good 5-10 minutes each time, having to sit through the extensive menu of options, including a Welsh transcript and someone asking me to press '9' to be told what the definition of a British citizen was, in case I didn't know if I was one (yes, really!). After a good 20 minutes of this charade, I finally got through to a real, live human being.

This staff member confirmed that my passport had been lost by HM Passport Office, despite me paying £10 for tracked delivery, and another staff member assuring me the previous week that my old passport had been received, and would be scanned through within two working days. This is beyond dodgy. No apology offered either, and now I have to wait around like a lemon for another 48 hours, to receive an email officially confirming the fact the HM Passport Office have lost my passport.

Thanks HM Passport Office for your complete ineptitudenon every level, plus your complete apathy towards the stress and panic you have caused.

If you're British and applying to renew your passport, I would honestly urge you to report it as lost instead. That way won't have to deal with this absolute shower of dodginess with your tracked passport magically disappearing into the ether. You will get a new passport much quicker that way. My case isn't unique - it seems HMPO has form for "losing" tracked passports.
Staff can easily find your old passport details on their system, therefore negating the need to send your the physical copy - and paying £15 for the pleasure for it to get lost/stolen.

Ok so after trying to get a passport and them refusing me it’s clear I should of just said I was a small boat arrival rather the a British born person which I am to get a passport or they just don’t want ppl leaving the country it’s as simple as that 🤷‍♂️

Peterborough passport office should be closed. They provide extremely poor service. Useless service, useless security, useless and unhelpful and rude staff. Don’t use the child fast track service. Over £156.00 and you don’t even get it within 4 days. Rip of Britain. Everybody trying to scam you

Applied online thinking it would be faster and cheaper. I use a shortened nickname in every day life, I now want my full name on my new passport. There are 2 additional letters in my full name. These people cannot understand that it’s not a documented name change. I’ve since paid twice to send more documents, then get accused of sending the same utility bill twice when I haven’t. The level of incompetence is appalling. It’s not hard, it’s like they can’t engage common sense and can only work from a script!
It’s 2026, this should all be automated, not post us this, post us that, something called secure send is actually in existence.

I advise people to use the post office service not the carbon dated online one if they don’t want to be bombarded with one sentence requests or pay £9.95 every time they request another document through the post.

What a poor service they offer, they must surely be humiliated by the service they provide

PASSPORT APPLICATION- It was a shambles from beginning to end. I paid for a check and send service. 2 weeks later they contacted us saying that they needed the person who had filled in the form to provide proof of identity ( a different name to my son) They had taken one of his middle names and used it as his first name n the application. We had sent original birth certificates ( with his full name )at the time and it was checked by check and send, for an additional fee, so it was correct then. We found out that they had put the wrong name in to the system so the person that was to provide proof did not exist. Many phone calls later stating they had made a mistake with no solution or correction ( 9 rude and unpleasant phonecalls) We were asked to then send in a signed letter stating that they had made the mistake. This letter was not good enough and they sent a letter stating that his application would not be continued until they had received proof of id documents from the incorrectly named person. Our fee would not be refunded. They then asked for an online interview. This interview was extremely personal, difficult, even humiliating at times due to my sons learning difficulties. We got asked if we were recording the interview? Can someone explain why my son needs to describe what computer system he has and where exactly in the house it is, for a passport application?. Also his favourite teachers name and directions to the nearest train station, what both his mother and father does all day, to go a typical day, if his dog is registered to a vets and what vet it is??? I am his carer and was with him for support. he is only 16 with Autism. My son did not know what the interviewer meant by- 'Where is his computer?' He replied to him that it was in his room, and then he asked another 3 times and then to help my son I said, ' Upstairs ' and was told to be quiet or they would reschedule. This was humiliating to both of us. Then I was told if I was in the room I was to be on camera but not allowed to talk. My son has difficulties with directions and processing due to his Autism, several of the questions were asking directions to and from areas??. This meant my son struggled answering and started stuttering. I had to sit in silence watching him struggle all due to their mistake. Shocking stressful experience from beginning to end. I will be putting my complaint to my MP as the passport office have ignored all of my complaints so far. My son is a vulnerable adult still a teen. Your staff should be properly trained to encompass this. This will not be the last you hear from me!

Called hm passport office today, yes they were speedy on answering the call, but the FOREIGN lady who I spoke to was extremely rude and abrupt to me when asking a question regarding my sons passport, didnt give me any answers just got told to wait and she put the phone down! How is this acceptable they work for the home office? Absolutely disgusting

I tried to get a priority renewal by visiting office in dockland. They wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t manage to complete the on line application.

Credit where credit’s due. I applied online to renew my passport. I used a photo shop to provide the photo and got a code to use during the application process. I submitted my application last Friday and I sent my old passport by signed for delivery on the same date. On Monday, I received notification that my old passport had been received and later that day that the application had been approved. The new passport was received Wednesday so 4 working days start to finish.