Question regarding different passport waiting times

My wife and I both applied for our first passports after naturalisation. We applied to the same office (Glasgow) and the timelines, ie application, confirmation of identity, sending supporting documents, confirmation of receipt of documents, joining the processing queue, etc. were exactly the same.

However, my wife has already received her passport while my status is still 'in the processing queue waiting to be checked'.

Does anyone know why the processing times can be quite different for two essentially identical applications? They are already much slower than what is reported in the processing timelines in a separate thread.

The only other explanation I could have is that my wife is Swiss and I am German, I have applied for the jumbo passport and she for a regular passport, and our contacts for confirming our identities confirmed her identity first while mine was done less than 60 minutes later.

I am due to travel soon for work again so eager to get at least my supporting documents back. Would calling HMPO help?

Passport applications are individual, and are likely to be handled by different case workers (guessing). Unfortunately processing times are increasing, coming up to Easter and the summer holidays, plus "Brexit" related applications. By all means call them to see what they say.

Thank you! I just called. They are still checking things but already determined that I am a British National and that no interview is needed. Seems to be very variable based on the case worker you get and how complex his/her other cases are.