Have any of the members of this forum had any experience with the UK online passport renewal, is it straight forward, complicated, how do you send photos etc etc any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

We renewed our children's UK passports recently, the online system was very easy to use - fill out the form, print it out, get your photos taken (we had ours done at London Drugs, they have the right photo specifications stored in their system) and we DHL'd it to Durham, I think it was. We wouldn't trust Canada Post to get the envelope over there.
New passports returned within 4-6 weeks, certainly no longer than that.

Thanks for your quick reply. I was under the impression from the Govt UK website that the whole process including the sending of "digital passport photos" is all done online and the only mailing involved is them returning the new passport via Courier which is all included in the price. Oh and i have to send the old passport to them. Is this not correct?

You can now upload a digital photo instead of sending a passport photo in the post, yes. As for the rest of it it’s no more difficult than renewing your passport in the UK by post.

Do the application forms have to be sent in the post or can they be sent online as well?

https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

Thx i had already found that site and continued into it a bit but i wanted to confirm a few things before i got to the point of no return.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheltonian

Do the application forms have to be sent in the post or can they be sent online as well?

How to apply

• 1Get a digital passport photo
  
  We’ll show you how to get a digital photo that meets the rules.
• 2Apply and pay online
  
  A standard passport costs £86 plus a £19.86 courier fee.
• 3Send us your old passport
  
  You need to pay the postage to return your old passport.

Sent mine by Canada Post. Registered. Cheap and quick.

Here's a recent thread on it.

My husband didn't get the option to submit a digital photo when he applied recently. As I recall there was something about it possibly being possible (in some cases?). Perhaps we missed a check box. Still it was very quick.

Siouxie & others, thanks for the shared information & details in this thread, especially the digital photo which is another $20 saving as well as ​​​​​​'B ristol' approach of the low cost Canada post shipping method

mine expired 6 mths ago, I was going to wait till the 'Blue' passport came out, but you know what - does it make any difference?

and besides, 'what if' Brexit is put on hold

Just to emphasise the Canada Post method (registered) is one way, to the UK. The courier fee is for the return and has to be included regardless.

If Registered Canada Post is $11 and courier to the UK is $88 (as I saw on the FEDEX site) I prefer to think of it as common sense rather than low cost

I did mine recently. Digital photo uploaded. Digital form submission. Online payment of fees. Old passport sent via Canada Post registered mail.

Received new passport (and return of cancelled old passport) via DHL in about 10 days start to finish.

I was v impressed with the speed and efficiency of the service. And it's much cheaper than it used to be when it was all processed in Washington DC - that was an absolute ripoff.

Only thing I'd add is your old passport and new ones are couriered back separately.... within days of each other.

So I'd suggest not rushing to the DHL office when the first envelope arrives... give it 3-4 days then go pick up both.