Been waiting 22 weeks for my son's passport renewal. The passport office just said to wait :/
Travelling in December but really don't want to wait until last week before rushing into their office.
Anyone in the same boat?
Passport Waiting Time (Oct 22) - How Long Have You Been Waiting?
John on 06/10/2022 - 10:54
Comments
Renewed on July 13th
Arrived August 5thDidn't pay the priority fee. Was told up to 6 weeks.
For my kids passport renewal, which took over 4 months, I called them up pretty much everyday asking for an update.
maybe that's why it got delayed even more?
Nah, this was back a few months ago when there was massive shortages of staff (this was after the initial 6 weeks i was told it would take that i started calling up)
Yeah, few months back, mine took only 4 weeks, I think that was just before the last school holidays without any phone calls.
They only increase the priority if you pay more for priority line and given them a expected travel date, otherwise call center staff cant do much.
Did you have to tell them you're travelling? Or you just asking them for update?
they did ask when i was travelling, i said i needed it by September (lie) but they said they'll add priority to it. When that happened, i got it within a couple of weeks
Ah ok. Thanks. Will try the trick. I'd prefer to have the 1 month assurance..
@John: That trick didn't work for me. Still waiting despite the guy on the phone "adding an escalation note" three (or four) weeks back. When I called last week, there is no such thing as an "escalation".
It is an absolute shambles. The only guaranteed win seems to be to pony up the priority fee and then magically they find the resources to get it done in 2 days. Some colleagues and friends went down that route.
Edit: Applied mid-June. Still waiting.
@randombrick: Oh gosh. People shouldn't pay additional fee for something that is not their fault to begin with
@John: Its part government fault and part our fault.
We were lazy to update it during the covid and government didn't anticipate the rush plus lack of staff, new software, new printing system etc.
When I apply, austpost notified me that if you are planning to travel, no choice but pony up the priority fee.
Brown paper bag with cash and a selfie.
Processed overnight.
Might better do that at the Embassy of Banana Republic so you get priority escort on the plane waiting on the tarmac. No need to line up with luggage.
Might worth a try to ask your local MP for help.
https://www.escape.com.au/travel-advice/how-aussies-are-avoi…
This is to discourage you going down that route. I can assure you that escalating via your local MP does work. Source - personal experience.
Mine was a renewal lodged in May prior to all the publicity about delays. Took about 14 weeks with multiple calls and an email to my local Federal MP.
I suggest you call and tell that you are travelling in 3 weeks.
Good luck.
I am in the same boat, this is week 15. My child's passport is a renewal after expiry. Not sure if that adds to the delay. We too are travelling in December. Couple of weeks back, we were told to wait.
Yeah sucks. I am still yet to hear from anyone waiting longer than I have, which makes me a bit more anxious with the waiting time. I hope yours isn't as bad.
Any child passport is a new application regardless. I did one in August and it took exactly 1 month.
That's fast. Did you put travel date?
No. My guess is there were certain period that government department got inundated with application that far exceed their capacity and any applications made during that period will fall into the blackhole, once they ramped up and get extra resources in to help with the backlog, any new application will be treated more favourably as it will be processed on regular protocol. Those unfortunate would be assigned to a dedicated team of sort to solve and they will start doing the game of the loudest voice get treated first. Same story with Auspost saga last year and the year before where some parcel took months and travel half of the country to get to your door but the one lodge the week after just arrived at usual schedule.
If you looked around most people having issues are those lodging their passport at least 4 months ago, but if your flight date is within 3 days Passport office will get yours sorted within a day or so.
16 weeks for my child’s renewal with both parents signing the forms.
Have emailed to add on our travel dates to the request as I hadn’t included these originally as we were not traveling in the next 3 months like the form stated. Now approx 7 weeks until we fly out. Got a quick response from the email to say they have updated the form but couldn’t proved any assurance that it would be issues before we travel - “we will endeavor to have your passport ready so you can travel”. Seriously- I allowed 5 months for the passport to be issued! If there is a backlog why are the passports not being processed in the order they were received?
Received confirmation this morning that my passport (lodged on 6 July or 13.5 weeks ago) has now been issued. hoping that I hear about my child’s in the next few weeks.
Do renewals take the same amount of time as new applications? Was told paying priority would cut 16 week wait down to about 2.
My renewal in July was 14 weeks to process, my parents in late may was 6 weeks exactly
in August I had to replace my daughters passport. paid for express. got it in less than 10 days,.
and I only see the delays being extended with the recent Optus data breach and people needing fresh passports.
True….. :(
Took two months for mine. So ordered in July, received in September. Standard adult renewal.
So far 3 mths.
Completed last Friday 14/10/2022
Two of my kids passports have expired, we have printed the forms but have not yet taken them in. Better get moving I guess, at least no overseas travel booked yet.
If I were you I would put a travel date in the form anyway even if its unconfirmed. It seems like they won't do anything unless you are travelling
Do they not ask for proof of travel?
From what I heard, no. Scroll up a bit more and people have made up this dates as well to get a bit of prioritization. I don't blame them, because otherwise you might be waiting unreasonably long.
Heaps of real world examples in this Whirlpool thread - https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/984w5jn9
Thanks. Handy thread for someone like me! Will be reading & following. Saw someone waiting for 20 weeks, longest I've seen though still faster than mine :/
We put in renewals for both children 16 weeks ago - travelling in December.
We received a message yesterday that one of the applications is complete and being sent out, so at least one child is coming with us!My wife called and provided travel dates at 6 weeks and again at 10 weeks. She said the helpdesk staff were lovely and really reassuring, confirming that all the required info is there and it's just waiting for processing.
But its still a black box process where nothing you can do can change the outcome. If we don't have them both 4 weeks before we travel I'm not sure if we shouldn't put them in again with the hurry-up payment…
I applied to renew both mine and my son's passport in April. My renewal was very quick - a couple of weeks. My son's took 18 weeks. I had called numerous times and each time the automated phone system would end up saying they are too busy or something and then hanging up. I sent them an email at 12 weeks asking them to confirm they had the application. The replied a week later and the passport arrived another 5 weeks after that. My colleague applied for her daughter (same age as my son) later than I applied for my son's, and her one arrived after 8 weeks. I asked the local Post Office about the variance in processing time/delays and he said there are a number of processing centres so timing might depend on which one the application ended up being sent to.
We needed to organise new passports for our daughters for a 1 Jan departure. We paid the outrageous priority fee and it took 1 week. Well worth it if it saves you the stress.
Tbh I thought applying from May was early enough. Didn’t expect it was gonna drag on this long
I've heard from others with children that you need to provide proof of travel if you call to escalate it. If you lie then can't provide proof of travel it might be fruitless and you may be stuck waiting the same time in the end? Definitely let them know of your travel if you haven't already as I'm sure with all government agencies they will prioritise where they can. My applications took about 10 weeks, and the staff were lovely and did as much as they could.
13 weeks here, travel in a week and a half
as per everyone else's comments, wife's adult renewal took 3.5 weeks.
Kids still "being processed", yet their website still says "Allow 6 weeks", as does their IVR.You would think someone could talk to them about expectation management……
I am glad your wife is an adult.
she probably is also :)
Update, after calling at the 9 week mark, and then again at the 13 week mark for the kids passports, and demanding an escalation as we were travelling in 10 days, i got the emails for both of them 6 days later saying "all done, come and get them".
Then, expecting to line up for days, i went into the Sydney passport office, and was pleasantly surprised - 3 minute wait to get served, wrote down both their names, 5 minutes later had passports in hand and was leaving.
The actual collection from the office was the easiest part of the entire process.
My Adult passport, no express fee paid, took 1 week in April.
My boy's passport dropped off Sat 21st May (Voting Day) so 20 weeks!
Already rang once. That was painful enough.My passport renewal took 6 weeks and I used standard fee. Got it about fortnight ago. A friend lost hers and wants replacement. Was told would only take 4 days…rang again and was advised to pay extra for fast service as she leaves on 22nd October.
29 June 22, child's renewal…….STILL Waiting!!
Only saving grace is we have nothing planned for overseas travel but even still.
We finally received one of our childrens passports on Friday, after almost 4 months (still waiting on the other). Only to find they have spelt our surname WRONG.
They have invented a name that doesn't exist anywhere in the world - with four 'i's in the middle!! didn't anyone go back to the forms, or birth certificate to confirm this 'unusual' spelling? What the actual f…Passport office Helpline solution - no apologies, you now have to take a day off work and travel to the passport office in Melbourne and they will sort it out, or you can fill in a form at the post office and trust in god!
We travel in 2 months so I'm going up this week. When/if my other childs passport turns up it better be correct…
That is unbelievable must be all the new staff they have employed. Hope they had attention to detail in the selection criteria. but maybe not. They should have checked the spelling even without the four 'i's in the middle. Please try to determine what happened so it does not happen to anyone else.
So I put my renewal in (old passport expired in February this year) on September 30, just got a notification that the new passport has been dispatched today (October 12). 12 days! I'm amazed.
Nor surprised with your username!
I lodged a child's passport and paid the priority fee on the 6th Oct (so a week ago) and I've just received an email that is been finalised and posted, should arrive within a week.
If you're desperate, I recommend you pay the priority fee.Posted earlier when we were waiting 16 weeks for our child passport. Notification yesterday that it’s in the mail - 17 weeks. I wonder if they are starting to catch up on the backlog?
If you haven’t included travel date I recommend emailing. My email was replied to the same day.
A bit of update on mine. Finally get the email saying passport is on the way. So officially took me 24 weeks and 6 days.
Just couple days ago I called for an update and the officer (who is far more helpful than the others, and sounded more senior too) noticed that the wait time on my application has been very long and was surprised himself. So he did something to move the processing along to make sure I get ahead of the queue. I also said I'm travelling end of November, but I think regardless of that he was going to move my application up anyway.
He did confirm they are working based on travel time. So I think because I didn't put any travel date then (because I thought I lodged it early enough), it just sits at the back of the queue immediately and kept getting cut off by those with travel dates in.
Best wishes for those who are still waiting!
Finally got my boy's, took 22 weeks, that's with an 'escalation' whatever that is…
Just received notice that my new passport has been finalised and is being sent. Put in the application 7 October. So that's just over 3 weeks, cannot complain. Adult renewal did not pay extra lodged in Malvern Post Shop. No travel date was nominated.
Not travelling until August next year but wanted to sort it early - lodged my application on 3/10, just got an email this morning to say it's on its way via post. That makes it pretty much bang on 4 weeks, surprised at the speed given the rest of this thread.
I think it is mostly outliers who post their negative experiences as they are more motivated to do so, and DFAT has increased staffing in recent weeks. We had a similar experience to you.
It also depends if its for a child. Child application does take longer as indicated by the passport office.
I also heard certain passports get processed in different offices across the states. So some offices are faster than the others I would assume.
We got our new child passport in 4 weeks.
I've finally received notification that my 2nd child's passport is being posted, however its coming from NSW, not Melbourne so perhaps the escalation calls from my partner has forced action from another office. It's been 16 weeks since her application went in.
Nice. Hope its with the right surname ;)
you bet! I don't need another trip to the passport office.
8 weeks for one child and 8 weeks and 2 days for the other and both without priority. Travelling in 4 weeks. When I picked up the first passport in Brisbane city office no one was waiting and they looked up the progress of the other for me at the time, They were very helpful. I expected long queues.
friend did it 14 weeks ago
travelling sat
she phoned and went to the office a few times last week and on monday
got the message today to pick it up
start hounding them in late November, show them evidence of the ticket, they will process it
i did one for my son and wife in late august, wife just got it, nothing for son
kids ones take longer