Immigrationboards.com

Hi,

I'll put my question at the top.

My question is - for anyone who has used the post offices check and send service for a first passport (not the same thing as if you went there and asked to post it in your own envelope) - did they give you a tracking number for the supporting documents sent to the passport office as part of the process - or is it everyones experience that this is not provided?

My experience so far:

I sent off my first passport application after getting citizenship last week.
I was attracted to the post office check and send offering as their fee didn't seem to be too much more than what it was going to cost me to take a professional passport photo elsewhere and I was going to have to go to the post office anyway to post it so might as well do it in one go I thought.

I'm already quite miffed that they insisted on folding my naturalisation certificate in half despite me offering a cardboard backed letter of the right size - shoving it into a small clear plastic slip along with my foreign passport insisting that that was their process - I found an old thread on here that suggests that's been their policy for a while (despite the passport offices reminder email saying 'send your documents in 'a strong envelope'') - seems very disrespectful to new citizens who worked for years for it to treat a document that costs several hundred to replace like that.

It's now been a week and there is no message from the passport office they've received it (or when I check it manually in their tracker). When I got my receipt from the post office I didn't realise that my receipt didn't actually have any tracking number with Royal Mail or whoever they use, despite it being advertised as 'special delivery'. When I went into the post office today to ask about this they said there was no tracking number for me as this service goes through a 'special' internal process of theirs and I should call the passport office first to check in. Might have been true, but honestly felt like I was being fobbed off. As in the question above - is this true? I feel like I have little recourse or idea of where my documents are.

That's my experience so far - I accept in some cases it takes longer for some - though paying for special delivery and seeing the passport timeline thread with most posters with expected receipt times at the passport office does make me increasingly nervous - I don't mind if passport office takes a while to get to my one in the pile of posted documents, but I'd like to at least know its reached them!

Not familiar with PO submission, even years ago I used online for my passport.

That's the thing, Post Office submission slows the process. HPMO receives x number of mail bags every day which have to be opened, sorted and then documents taken out of envelopes, etc. So it will take a while before they register receipt on their tracking system. Per the timelines most applicants use online, which still requires some documents to be sent by mail, but currently a turn round of 10 or 15 work days is not rare. Waiting is the only thing I can suggest.

Thanks for responding alterhase58. It does seem to be a rather archaic service! As you say it's about patience at this stage.

After alot of digging through various threads (most with similar complaints about the folding experience) I managed to find one very old thread (by internet standards) with two people (post 1 and 3) confirming that they didn't get a tracking number either.

british-citizenship/post-office-check-a ... 04888.html

Combined with the near guaranteed folding (even if at the other end people still risk HMPO or the courier folding the certificate on the return) and the lack of a tracking number despite paying enough as part of their service for what you think would give you a tracking number, I can't see the value in using the check and send service and I hope this thread helps others think twice before going down this path for their first passport.

Sure, if they mess up taking your photo you have some guaranteed recourse for them to take it again free of charge, but I can't see much value add and quite abit of value subtraction for something many new citizens are understandably sensitive about in the here and now (I'm sure I'll forget about it years down the line).
If I could redo it again with the knowledge I have now, I would have stuck with my original intention (before I discovered the check and send service) to get my photo taken at a passport photo taking shop for the digital code, submit my application online and then addressed and posted the documents myself in the hard backed envelope.

When I was applying for my passport I went to ask at the post office about the check and send service - I received contrasting information, claims not backed by evidence, and so I decided not to use it. I'm sorry that the experience you are having is subpar. With me, they claimed their service is supposed to be faster (!!!) which I wasn't convinced for a second, so I applied online and posted everything with special delivery and a tracking number.