My passport expired and need a new one. Looked online and filled in all the info, but no mention of photograph? Next step is to make payment…

Surely they will want an updated photo of obligatory miserable person?

I don’t want to pay and then find out I should have had to use a different service and have to pay all over again.

You do it all online, then they post a printed form out to you, you check all the details over, then return it with the photo’s.

Did mine a couple of months back, all went fine, quite fast to be fair.

If you have a recent photo driving licence they can use that photo.

I used the service to renew my 7 year old’s passport. You fill in the form and pay. The form’s then sent to you. You check and make any corrections, add a witnessed photo (probably not required for an adult who’s not had a face transplant) then send it back in the post.

Not a truely online process, but better than it used to be.

Renewed my driving license online, they used the passport photo, which was less than 5 years old, so I guess it is the same principle in reverse?
All went ok, quite quick turnround.
HTH

I guess the sending the form out to you part is for security reasons.

Renewed mine just the other week. Got a form from the Post Office, sent it off with the old passport + new mugshot + £70 and got a spangly new passport within a week. Text updates when the old one arrived and the new one had been despatched.

No need to have the picture countersigned providing it vaguely resembles the picture on the old passport

Just make sure you use the gov.uk website (free application process then send the renewal fee with the signed docs/photos) and not one of these cheeky bstad sites where they take money for doing the bit thats free.

I’ve renewed ‘online’ and it was no hassle and (at the time) very quick turnaround. It’s easier that negotiating the application process using a pen and re-reading the guidance notes fifteen times before going back to the post office for another application form.

For mine I filled in the form, they sent it out to me, signed and sent back with payment/photos/signature and my new passport was back with me within about a fortnight.

I did get my photo countersigned just in case – it’s so easy for me to find someone who’s able to sign that it was worth doing it to avoid them sending it back and asking for it.

Presumably payment was by cheque?

Very last century. What if you don’t have a cheque book?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-work-for-the-passport-office
Yes, online update system doesn’t work, mine finally turned to dispatched today which is nice as it was finally delivered. Skipped a few steps on the updates. Took 8 weeks from them receiving the stuff to it getting here despite a target of 4 weeks. It wasn’t looked at until a week ago.
Apart from that great system nice and easy you fill form out and send them stuff.

Did you pay by cheque?

For payment you complete a form with your card details on. You probably can send them a cheque if you haven’t used them all paying plumbers who see no benefit in the faster payments mechanism.

Nope credit card, and about twice what you guys pay for an express service

I thought this had changed?
I was also expecting the forms to be sent out after I filled them in online (as I knew that was what used to happen). But instead for a new adult (my 16 year old son) I had to print out the countersignature forms after I had filled in the online bit and paid, get them countersigned, return with photo. Only thing I’m expecting in the post is a passport.

Edit: to OP, yes I was also confused by the apparent premature request for payment, you used to pay on submission of the completed form.

Ours turned up today as well, same thing went from processed to a courier at the door ! new application though, forms sent in mid March !

Makes sense the courier probably just carried on over to you. So long as I get the visa swapped over before I leave NZ it’s fine…

None of the accompanying documentation came back though, just the passport !

yep same here, was expecting my old one back corner cut as usual but it’s not. I was getting a good collection of stamps in it too. As nothing had changed on the update page I was booking an appointment to fly over to Melbourne to get emergency travel docs when they looked up and managed to tell me it had been printed. There were a lot of knowing acknowledgements about how the system is currently running. I think most are missing the local office that used to do them quite efficiently.

I think supporting docs are sent separate and not necessarily by courier (at least in the UK)…so may take a while?

I got my old passport back the day before the new onr., definitely sent separately.

Did mine recently, took ages for the form to come back and then the recorded delivery. If I was doing it again,I would use the check and send service from post office