It has been well documented that following Brexit, we have to be more conscious of our passport issue and expiry dates. I knew that mine was running out next September, which although it’s within the six month maximum some countries stipulate, and the three months on the return when coming back from Europe, a busy schedule next year right around when I would absolutely need to renew it, meant I decided to renew it now.
You will have seen from my previous reports that I was in Germany the week before Christmas, a trip that I orchestrated so it was my last on the passport. Given I’m not flying over Christmas and New Year, and unlikely to travel anywhere until March. Until recently the guidance from the Passport Office was it took up to six months to get a renewal, which has now been reduced to less than a couple of weeks.
So, on Tuesday I got my new passport photo, and completed the online form. For anyone who hasn’t done it, it’s really easy – you can’t really go wrong (note, apart from doing it online, there was no special service). I then went to the post office to send my old passport off, at this point it was about 3pm.
Now, given it was Christmas, I wasn’t expecting the new one until the new year. However, that changed, when the very next day I received a notification that the passport had been printed, and a further notification on Thursday that it was then due out for delivery.
Yes, the passport arrived on Friday morning, counting the amount of time in hours from the passport application rather than days or weeks we had previously. In fact, less than 72 hours.
I can’t say this is the same for everyone though – however, it’s encouraging that it can be done so quickly even without a priority service. At least some things work!
