How long does it take to get a passport?#
Usually three weeks. HM Passport Office says you will usually get a passport within three weeks, counted from when it receives your documents, and that it tells you within three weeks if it needs more information or an interview, which adds time. The 1 week Fast Track service is quicker, with a courier delivering the passport a week after an appointment that can be as soon as the day after you apply. The 1 day Premium service is quicker still, but only for an adult renewing a passport with no change of details.
A change of name means a new passport, on the same timescale. Applying online costs £102 and by paper form £115.50. It is a new 10-year passport; time left on the old one is not carried over, and the new passport has a different number.
Your original deed poll goes with the application and is posted back separately once the passport has been printed, so allow for the deed being away for the whole period.
The passport timing tool puts a date on each step, from your deed poll to the passport, and checks it against a trip.
If you need it faster#
- 1 week Fast Track covers a change of name. The earliest appointment is the day after you apply, and the passport is delivered by courier a week after the appointment. £192 for an adult, £156.50 for a child.
- 1 day Premium does not cover a name change. GOV.UK says it is only for renewing an adult passport, and HM Passport Office's guidance to its staff adds that the customer must not have changed their personal details. The earliest appointment is two days after you apply, and the passport is ready to collect four hours after it. £239.50.
Both are booked online, with an appointment at a passport office. GOV.UK says not to pay for an urgent service if you have already applied and are waiting, because it will not arrive sooner and each additional application costs a £34.50 admin fee.
Your passport application
Apply direct: on GOV.UK or at a Post Office
We make deed polls. We do not fill in, check or send passport applications, and you do not need anyone to. Apply direct with HM Passport Office, or through the Post Office, and do not use any other website or company.
Online, on GOV.UK
Apply, pay and upload your documents with HM Passport Office: £102 for an adult, £66.50 for a child. The 1 week Fast Track is applied for, paid for and booked there too, with the appointment at a passport office.
Change the name on your passport, GOV.UKIn a branch, at the Post Office
Selected branches offer Check & Send, for an extra fee: staff check your application and send it to HM Passport Office for you. Digital Check & Send takes your photo and applies online; with Paper Check & Send you use the paper form, £115.50 for an adult.
Passport Check & Send, Post OfficeNot through any other website, company or agent. Services that offer to fill in your form, check it or find you a Fast Track appointment charge extra for what GOV.UK and the Post Office do themselves, and HM Passport Office has warned about copycat websites that look official and charge a premium. If a web address does not end in gov.uk or postoffice.co.uk, do not give it your passport details or pay it.
Before the passport: the document in the new name#
HM Passport Office asks for one document showing you already use the new name. That is usually a bank statement, a payslip or a letter from HMRC or your council, so the first fortnight after signing the deed goes on getting one of those. Who to tell, and in what order puts it first for that reason.
Booking travel#
GOV.UK is plain: the name on your passport must match the one you use when you book, and you should not book travel until you have a valid passport. If a trip is already booked in your old name, keep the old passport until you are back, and apply afterwards; if it is booked in the new name, the new passport has to arrive first.
Marriage and civil partnership#
A passport in a new married name can be issued up to three months before the ceremony, post-dated so it cannot be used until afterwards, on a form signed by the person conducting the ceremony. Some countries will not issue visas for a post-dated passport.
