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Hi,

Has anyone applied for British Passport online (https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport)? Just wanted to check if its a better service than Post Office Check & Send service. OR is it worth paying an extra and go ahead with Post Office service?

Standard 32-page passport fee
Normal service (online or by post): £72.50
Post Office Passport Check & Send: £81.25

Thanks

I would do the PO Check and send.

If you apply online, once you submit the application, the passport office at some point send the completed printed form back to you for signature and documents to be sent back to them. You can't at this point decide to use check and send if you applied online and to send your app and docs back special delivery will cost almost £7 anyway, bringing the fee almost to the Check and send cost.

CR001, I believe your information is out dated, https://passportapplication.service.gov.uk/ips-olc/

I used this service yesterday - fill in all the questions asked in the process, then I got directed to a page where I can download a PDF form which contains 9 pages -
page 1-2 information about what to do next
page 3 a form to post back
page 4 blank
page 5-7 information about what the counter-signatory need to do (including some of my details)
page 8-9 photo requirement

Sign and dated page 3, get the counter-signatory to fill in page 3 and sign according to instruction on page 5-7, and sign the photo.

Posted the form + foreign passport + certificate of naturalisation + photos today, will see how it goes...

@ken218 - my apologies, I wasn't aware with the new .gov.uk website that the process has changed, it has been a while since anyone I know has applied for a passport.

It is still a beta service, so it is really hard to tell if it is better or worse. When I first looked at it about a month ago, for country of birth, it didn't have options such as Taiwan or Hong Kong, and at that time, the procedure was like how CR001 described - You fill in the form online, they send it to you, then you post it back.

Few other things I noticed, you can only submit applications as individuals, so we had to file two applications between me and my wife. My wife's application goes to Peterborough (the usual place), but mine goes to Newport, to a post code so new that even royalmail's website doesn't have information about such post code.

I have just tried the process up to the payment page and very surprised at how little information is captured compared to the paper form.

Question is : where to complete countersignatory details and where do they sign? I am guessing this comes after the payment page.

Also, where do you put in your parents details??

It is on page 3 of the customised PDF document I downloaded after the payment. There is nowhere to put the parents information, which I noticed on a different thread of this forum. I guess it customises the part of form one needs to fill in based on earlier pages?

Thank you guys for the reply. I too noticed it was in beta and hence posted my question.

ken218, please let me know how it goes in terms of any delay or home office requesting additional docs etc..From what I have seen in the forum, it usually takes a ~month to get british passport if one choose post office service. I still got time to apply for passport

it is really odd, they didn't request any details about parents.

Also there is no SMS acknowledgment etc... I posted mine on Mar 21st, no news since. Today called the passport support line number and they said that someone is looking at my application at the moment.

Really very poor service so far-but yes it is a beta version

Let us share the updates if we get any!

malafat wrote:it is really odd, they didn't request any details about parents.

Also there is no SMS acknowledgment etc... I posted mine on Mar 21st, no news since. Today called the passport support line number and they said that someone is looking at my application at the moment.

Really very poor service so far-but yes it is a beta version

Let us share the updates if we get any!

Hi malafat,

Did they at least update the status on the website? My application arrived on the 27th of April, and yet the website still says awaiting information from applicant.

From what I am experiencing so far, post office seems like a better option...

Ken

I didn't notice & write down the password and username which is given only once and no way to retrieve .

so I dont know the status on my account. such a poor system they developed.

I have submitted my feedback about these points, no one has came back.

Just give them a call and try to speak to one of the operators. They can confirm if someone is assigned on your case.

@Ken - even though I tried the online system as mentioned, I felt too uncomfortable using it for my application as it is so new and opted for the PO check and send instead, sent my application off yesterday and feel much more confident and comfortable with my choice.

I am regretting my decision

I have just called the passport office to enquire the status of my application. The staff said the document was received on the 25th of March (it is the day I submitted the application online, the documents should only have arrived 2 days later) at the liverpool office (I was instructed to send the documents to the Newport office). I was told to call back in 2-3 weeks if I haven't receive anything by then.

You do your own judgement, but to me, another bad experience. I should never use any beta system again!

On the other hand, if the online system works as it should, it should make the passport application much faster - you only need to fill in the part of the form that is related to you, payments are taken the moment you submitted the application, passport office save the cost of getting someone to key the form into their system, they should be able to accept digital photos which can be checked by the system, etc.

ken218 wrote: On the other hand, if the online system works as it should, it should make the passport application much faster - you only need to fill in the part of the form that is related to you, payments are taken the moment you submitted the application, passport office save the cost of getting someone to key the form into their system, they should be able to accept digital photos which can be checked by the system, etc.

That was my thinking when I applied.

Obviously they do not need to type in your details from the form and etc...

but it is at a very early stages probably needs lot of improvement

let's hope we won't be the victims of the new system!

malafat wrote:

ken218 wrote: On the other hand, if the online system works as it should, it should make the passport application much faster - you only need to fill in the part of the form that is related to you, payments are taken the moment you submitted the application, passport office save the cost of getting someone to key the form into their system, they should be able to accept digital photos which can be checked by the system, etc.

That was my thinking when I applied.
Obviously they do not need to type in your details from the form and etc...
but it is at a very early stages probably needs lot of improvement
let's hope we won't be the victims of the new system!

We are doing the society some good by helping the passport office improve their system

Thanks guys for your feedback. I am going to use Post Office Check & Send service.

Hi I applied yesterday 03/04/14 online and sent out the countersignature paper same day Royal mail special delivery next day 1pm. I did check today with rm tracking number Liverpool office received the paper.
now hope for the best,
cr001
ken218
malafat
please kindly update if you have any news regarding your passport application.
Regards
Dial2all

ken218 wrote:

malafat wrote:

ken218 wrote: On the other hand, if the online system works as it should, it should make the passport application much faster - you only need to fill in the part of the form that is related to you, payments are taken the moment you submitted the application, passport office save the cost of getting someone to key the form into their system, they should be able to accept digital photos which can be checked by the system, etc.

That was my thinking when I applied.
Obviously they do not need to type in your details from the form and etc...
but it is at a very early stages probably needs lot of improvement
let's hope we won't be the victims of the new system!

We are doing the society some good by helping the passport office improve their system

Hi do you any update guys?
wish you all a very good luck.

I submitted two applications:

Applied: 2014-03-25
Documents arrived at PO: 2014-03-27
Status: Awaiting information from the applicant (2014-03-25)

Applied: 2014-03-25
Documents arrived at PO: 2014-03-27
Status: Declaration form received, being processed (2014-04-07)

Guys I have a little update here
Applied Online: 03/04/2014
Documents arrived at HMPO: 04/04/2014 countersignature and other papers sent out through Royal Mail special delivery by next day 1pm
Status: Declaration form received, being processed (08/04/2014)

Now my other application also have the status updated to "Being processed".

In my case, it took nearly two weeks for them to update the status, I think it might be because PO weren't familiar with the system, so my case weren't dealt with until this week.

But from dial2all's case, I think things must have improved quite a bit!

I have been following this thread since I applied online too.

My status:

Applied on: 2-04-2014
Documents received by PO: 7-04-2014
Status changed to "Declaration form received, being processed": 09-04-2014

Just gave a call to PO

They said my application is being processed by the Peterborough Office (I originally sent to Glasgow) since Mar 26th.

I cannot track my application online as I didn't write the username/password down and there is no way to retrieve them.

Any updates on your case Ken?

malafat wrote:Just gave a call to PO
They said my application has been processed by the Peterborough Office (I originally sent to Glasgow) since Mar 26th.
I cannot track my application online as I didn't write the username/password down and there is no way to retrieve them.
Any updates on your case Ken?

Hey malafat, both my applications now show "being processed". Will update the forum when I get any updates from them.