Renewals
Adult and child renewals, including the ones complicated by a name change or a damaged current passport.
Passports & travel documents
Passport Services
Renewals, first passports, replacements for lost or stolen documents, and urgent travel-document support when a trip cannot move.
Overview
What this actually involves.
Most passport problems are not complicated, they are badly timed. A renewal left too late, a countersignature from someone who does not qualify, a photograph rejected for a shadow across the face — each is small on its own, and each will hold up a trip just as effectively as something serious.
We check the application and everything going with it before it is submitted, so what comes back is the passport rather than a request for something you could have sent the first time.
What we handle
What this covers.
First passports
First applications, where the identity evidence and countersignature rules are at their strictest.
Lost, stolen or damaged
Reporting the old document properly and applying for its replacement in the right order.
Urgent travel
Where a trip is close, working to the fastest route genuinely available for your circumstances.
How we help
- Checking which application type your situation actually needs
- Reviewing photographs against the current specification
- Confirming your countersignatory qualifies before they sign anything
- Checking supporting documents and certified copies
- Completing the form and preparing the submission
- Tracking it until the passport is back in your hands
What you will need
- Your current or most recent passport, where you still have it
- Photographs meeting the current specification
- A countersignatory who meets the published criteria, for first passports and some replacements
- Birth or naturalisation documents where identity has to be established
- Evidence of any name change — marriage, civil partnership or deed poll
- A police reference number where a passport was lost or stolen
Indicative — we confirm the exact list for your case
Questions
The ones we are asked most.
Can you guarantee it arrives before my trip?
No. The issuing authority decides both the outcome and the timing, and anyone promising you a date is promising something that isn't theirs to give. What we can do is make sure nothing in the application is the reason it takes longer.
Who can countersign my application?
The criteria are published and stricter than most people expect — they cover the countersignatory's profession, how long they have known you, and their relationship to you. We check your intended countersignatory qualifies before they sign, because a signature from someone ineligible restarts the process.
My passport was lost or stolen abroad. What now?
Contact the nearest British embassy, high commission or consulate straight away — getting home is a separate process from replacing the passport properly. We can prepare the replacement application once you are back.
Do I have to send my old passport away?
For a renewal, normally yes. We confirm exactly what has to go with the application and what you can keep before anything leaves you.
Tell us what you are trying to do.
Describe the situation and we will confirm the route, the documents and the cost — in writing — before any work begins.