Passport office delays

I was reading an article this week advising travellers that for those wanting to appointments there was a 3 week delay in some areas.

As cruise lines insist on having at least 6 months validity left on their passports from the last day of the cruise then it is extremely important that you do not leave this until the last minute. It is easy
when you are booking a cruise a long time in advance to forget to check your expiry dates or just presume you have plenty of time left on it as time flies by so quickly.

The summer is always a busy time for the passport offices anyway and it is always better to renew in the winter when they are quieter and you have more chance of getting your passport back quicker.

Apparently for renewals if you are posting it is taking approximately 3 weeks and up to six weeks for first time applications.

But for those wanting emergency appointments then 2-3 weeks is what you can expect to be told at the moment for any offices in the UK.

For information on how to get your passports and information of the relevant forms then visit
the governments website:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/index.htm

Also remember for a small extra charge you can hand your passport in at the post office where
they will check your application and send them off for you, this can be worth the extra few pounds as delays with your application due to missing information would delay the process even longer.