Passport Office lead times

A question about : Passport Office lead times

Sent a passport renewal to Durham last Wednesday morning, signed for First Class. Assuming that landed in their PO Box sometime Thursday.

Signed for Friday morning in Durham, text message confirming receipt (i.e. envelope opened) receieved today (Tuesday).

That seems relatively quick. As up to 9 months can be added on to an existing passport which is expiring it may be worth sending yours now too in this quiet period (hopefully there wont be a repeat of Summer 2014 but who knows).

Best answers:

• It's definitely the right time to do it. I've just renewed mine and it only took a week to get a shiny new one back
• I also heard of someone getting theirs back in a week, Guess they are going to get busy now lol.......
• The Government could encourage the public to spread the load by some variable pricing bands according to the time of year e.g. Ј67.50, Ј72.50, Ј77.50.
  Passport expiry is probably one of those things that a lot of people only notice at the last minute.
• Got a text message saying it is being printed today as well (Wednesday).
  At least it means I've filled the form in correctly as well!