Renewing a passport on-line
Discussion
Hi, am I imagining things or is there a new way to renew you passport where you have a digital photo of yourself and can upload it to the .gov site?
I'm sure I came across it the other week and now I have managed to get someone to take a serious picture of me without loads of piss taking I cant find the portal.
It even says this on the first page
PHOTOS
If you use the new online passport renewal service you’ll need someone to take a photo of you using a digital camera or smartphone.
If you use the old ‘existing’ online service, send your application by post, or use the Passport Check and Send service, you’ll need 2 identical new photos of yourself.
Your application can be delayed if you don’t follow the rules about passport photos.
https://www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport/renew
But I'm buggered if I can find it.
Edit : this is about as close as I can find to it.
https://www.gov.uk/track-passport-application
I'm sure I came across it the other week and now I have managed to get someone to take a serious picture of me without loads of piss taking I cant find the portal.
It even says this on the first page
PHOTOS
If you use the new online passport renewal service you’ll need someone to take a photo of you using a digital camera or smartphone.
If you use the old ‘existing’ online service, send your application by post, or use the Passport Check and Send service, you’ll need 2 identical new photos of yourself.
Your application can be delayed if you don’t follow the rules about passport photos.
https://www.gov.uk/renew-adult-passport/renew
But I'm buggered if I can find it.
Edit : this is about as close as I can find to it.
https://www.gov.uk/track-passport-application
Edited by mickmcpaddy on Tuesday 10th January 23:04
Did it just before Xmas for SWMBO. Worked brilliant and got the new one in four days. Just follow the website rules. We initially had a problem with updating her photo but they gave an option to ignore their own comments and proceed anyway and risk a rejection but all went fine.
See, government isn't always bad.
See, government isn't always bad.
Managed to do it this morning, last night it just kept going to the old portal where it wants you to print off the documents but today the interface was totally different, maybe its only active in office hours or something.
It did reject the photo, but like you I just ploughed on regardless, says I had my eyes shut when quite clearly they are open. It was so hard not to write something sarcastic in the box regarding the "computer says no", something along the lines of "open your eyes d
heads" I thought would be appropriate.
It did reject the photo, but like you I just ploughed on regardless, says I had my eyes shut when quite clearly they are open. It was so hard not to write something sarcastic in the box regarding the "computer says no", something along the lines of "open your eyes d
heads" I thought would be appropriate.Having seen the above I finally got round to renewing mine online. Everything worked fine and I'm awaiting a new passport, but I did leave them some (hopefully contructive) feedback about their new procedure.
You have to start the application process before you get to the part about using your own digital photo. Once you get to that step it has a link to the photo specification - and it is quite different to ALL the information you might find elsewhere on .gov pages. I was all geared up to do a simple passport-style mugshot against an off-white wall. Nope, for this application it requires a sort of waist-up image. Having wandered around the house I couldn't actually find somewhere with an uncluttered background at first. Eventually I moved a cabinet, stood near the wall, and managed a self-timer shot that met their coverage guidelines. When you upload this it crops it automatically to create something suspiciously like the 'normal' mugshot I would have taken in the first place. It did accept it first time.
The new help page: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/help/photo-rul...
The examples on the help page start off with the waist-up shot, but soon revert to the examples on the old pages when they illustrate all the things to avoid, like shadows, eyes closed etc. Confusing.
Apart from that it was easy and there was no need to use (and pay for) the machine in the local supermarket.
You still have to send off the old passport, there's an email reminder for that. It just fitted through the 5mm first class letter slot so only a single stamp required. A thicker envelope might not - mine are cheap.
The whole online application thing is still in beta test but did actually work well once I'd mastered the new photo arrangements.
You have to start the application process before you get to the part about using your own digital photo. Once you get to that step it has a link to the photo specification - and it is quite different to ALL the information you might find elsewhere on .gov pages. I was all geared up to do a simple passport-style mugshot against an off-white wall. Nope, for this application it requires a sort of waist-up image. Having wandered around the house I couldn't actually find somewhere with an uncluttered background at first. Eventually I moved a cabinet, stood near the wall, and managed a self-timer shot that met their coverage guidelines. When you upload this it crops it automatically to create something suspiciously like the 'normal' mugshot I would have taken in the first place. It did accept it first time.
The new help page: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/help/photo-rul...
The examples on the help page start off with the waist-up shot, but soon revert to the examples on the old pages when they illustrate all the things to avoid, like shadows, eyes closed etc. Confusing.
Apart from that it was easy and there was no need to use (and pay for) the machine in the local supermarket.
You still have to send off the old passport, there's an email reminder for that. It just fitted through the 5mm first class letter slot so only a single stamp required. A thicker envelope might not - mine are cheap.
The whole online application thing is still in beta test but did actually work well once I'd mastered the new photo arrangements.
Another vote for this great service - took the photo on a smartphone (found it best to use daylight and no flash to prevent any shadows), emailed it to the laptop, filled in the online application and paid, all in about 15" last Sunday afternoon. Sent the old passport RM Special Delivery on Monday, had texts on Tuesday to say the passport had arrived and then that the photo had been accepted (by a person presumably) and further texts to say the passport sent. New passport was back on Friday and the old one on Saturday. No more photobooths, getting someone to sign the pictures, worrying about a signature outside the box....
ETA - yes, they want part of the chest, presumably to help prove you are real? We had an old slide projector screen which was a good backdrop as all walls where there was sufficient weedy winter light were coloured or there was something which would have distracted the computer which analyses the picture. A sheet would work if ironed
ETA - yes, they want part of the chest, presumably to help prove you are real? We had an old slide projector screen which was a good backdrop as all walls where there was sufficient weedy winter light were coloured or there was something which would have distracted the computer which analyses the picture. A sheet would work if ironed
Edited by Revisitph on Monday 16th January 14:33
Can confirm a great service,got mine back after 1 week ,but I'm unsure about the line where you sign your signature on.does it have to be on the line only or can letters like j or y go underneath it ? I've rang the passport office several times about it and know one seems to know .there isn't any proper guidance with the new passport. Just worried that travel may get rejected if the signature part isn't done correctly .
Don't think it matters (didn't read the leaflet which came with passport-oops) but think you just have to sign. The mania for it being in the box on the application forms was so it could be scanned but it is the least secure / reproducible bit of the whole thing (unlike the triangulation of eyes / nose etc so I doubt it is used for anything - it isn't read by the biometric machines - that page isn't against the screen so even if they have your scanned signature from the paper application (and which they used to print on the previous passports) the machine won't see it to compare... and peeps signatures change.
I did it, and received the passport 7 days later. However the photo bit was a bit crap as I have a beard & moustache and the process kept telling me I had my mouth open! (It did flag up that facial hair might cause it problems).
After two attempts, I just shaved it all off, and third time it worked fine.
The beard & moustache arrived back before the passport arrived
After two attempts, I just shaved it all off, and third time it worked fine.
The beard & moustache arrived back before the passport arrived
I tried this and somehow accidentally ended up using the old 'print out a photo service'.
God knows how, I suspect the website is temperamental.
Dutifully took a photo, deskewed, cropped it, and went to try and print it in local shops. Boots - nope, we can't print passport size. Local photo shop had a machine which could, but it wanted an uncropped photo and use its algorithms to crop. Ok, I tried that, oops, the morons who programmed the thing shrunk the size of the image BEFORE cropping it, not after, so it was pixellated and useless.
Ended up ordering a print online, slightly annoyed, tbh
God knows how, I suspect the website is temperamental.
Dutifully took a photo, deskewed, cropped it, and went to try and print it in local shops. Boots - nope, we can't print passport size. Local photo shop had a machine which could, but it wanted an uncropped photo and use its algorithms to crop. Ok, I tried that, oops, the morons who programmed the thing shrunk the size of the image BEFORE cropping it, not after, so it was pixellated and useless.
Ended up ordering a print online, slightly annoyed, tbh
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