Hi, I know there are long waits for passports now, and they are quoting 6-8 weeks but I applied for renewal of my kids passports in mid March and it is now almost 4 months
Has anyone else experienced this long a delay??
Should I be joining the 8 hour queue at the passport office??
Lodged applications over the counter at Australia Post Sydney CBD mid May for myself and my wife (renewals) and my 6 year old (new passport).
Both adults were received 2 weeks to the day. My son’s took 4 weeks in all.
Have tried to call a few times - "we are currently experiencing high demand and unable to take your call. Please try again later"
TBH, I wouldn't be booking overseas travel in the short term unless I had my passport already.
So many great deals at the moment, but don't be tempted —Get your new passport first!
Yeah that's the issue I'm seeing, people are just impulse booking travel but then don't have their passports sorted out, then they start complaining that the passport isn't ready as they get dangerously close to travel dates.
Here's one lifehack for anyone trying to reach the phone line - pick the option to "report lost or stolen passport", the wait was 1.5 hours but I was able to escalate my case.
Anyone know the difference between the process of applying or renewing?
Mine runs out end of this month but I have an overseas trip likely sometime mid next year. The trip isn't confirmed yet, but is it better to organise it now?
It also sounds like from the https://www.passports.gov.au/getting-passport-how-it-works/p… website that you can renew an expired passport - can anyone confirm?
Adults (18 years and over)
For a renewal, you will need a passport that:>
was issued when you were aged 16 or older
was issued on or after 1 January 2006
had, when it was issued, at least two years’ validity.
has your current name, date of birth, place of birth and gender, and
has not been reported lost, stolen, or cancelled.If you can answer yes to all the above, you can renew your passport using our online portal.
You'll be fine - Mine expired in Jan 2021 and it was done as a renewal 2 weeks ago
Lodged two new passport applications at Brisbane post office for a child and an adult beginning of May and mid-May. Both naturalised citizens. Took 6 weeks for the adult and 7 weeks 2 days for child passport. Adult was shipped via Auspost and child one was picked up at Brisbane post office. There is no queue at the Brisbane office.
If I were you, I’d line up. Worked for many people including myself to get the passport escalated. In my case, I’d only been waiting for 4 weeks and had to travel in another 4 weeks so paid the priority fee and passport was ready 3 days later. If it’s been more than 6 weeks, they usually escalate to priority for free. Otherwise if you really want a fast resolution, book an international flight for the next day or two, line up and your child’s passport will be ready in time for that trip (as you have to provide evidence (read: a ticket) of the flight). Hope this helps.
How do I know this? I was in the line for 3 hours
Another reason for the delay is the global microchip shortage. Unfortunately with the increasing demand, the situation won’t improve any soon.
We applied for our daughter’s passport in March and paid extra for priority processing. Got it in 3 business days. But it was around the times when the border just opened and not many people were travelling around.
Another reason for the delay is the global microchip shortage.
What makes you think this is impacting passports?
Australian passports also have microchips in them and I think the global shortage is contributing the delay.
https://www.biometricupdate.com/202107/shortage-of-chips-thr…
If that was the case you'll also have issues buying transport cards and credit/debit cards too as chips are pretty much the same. Not the case.
Is your kid a member of Al-Qaeda by any chance?
Yeah I have a mate who is a dual citizen. He applied for his first passport 3 months before travelling and is still waiting for it. It would be close to 4 months now. Lucky for him he travelled on his foreign passport without issue.
I thought you can't get back in on a foreign passport?
I thought so too. They tell you that you "should" travel on your Australian passport but he had no issues. I did warn him prior to departure and he said he was going to carry proof in case there was any issues when returning. He talked to the airline prior to returning to make sure they didn't refuse to let him travel without a visa.
I'm in Darwin. Ordered a child passport on the 2nd June. I paid extra for priority $225 and got it back 14th June. Less than two weeks.
For my kid. I submitted at post office 31 May and received the text and email last Wednesday 29 June that it was on its way. Got it Monday.
Refused to pay $225 extra even though flight was 6 weeks away.
YMMV
Should have started 5 months ago.
My parents applied for their passports together. My dad got his after 4 weeks, however no sign of my mum's passport after 3 months so we went to the passport office.
They didn't tell us what happened but apparently my mum's application has been sitting at Sydney office for months. They asked the Sydney office to transfer my mum's application to them and posted my mum's passport on the following day.
OP, I think you should visit the passport office. Unfortunately I don't think anyone there would notice your application has been waiting for months.
They are recruiting new temporary staff to help deal with the backlog so hopefully in the near future we won't wait for months for a new passport.
Thank Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison for cutting back services. The public service is an easy punching bag for the LNP and you voted for them for the last decade so don't complain now you need something.
I applied for a passport for my son, paid the priority fee. Application went in Monday and it was posted Thursday, received on Monday. So 1 week turnaround.
I applied for my renewal during covid. Received the passport in a week and a half. I figure in 8.5 years time passports will be fast again, and in 9.5 years time it will be painfully slow again. I figure I will have saved myself priority fees at least twice.
Excellent point.
Did you renew 1 year before expiry? If expired during 2021 but you renewed in 2020, does it give you back one year more year if you renew one year earlier than expiry?
This prompted me to do some research on when to renew passport. I remembered reading somewhere many years ago that it needs to be renewed at least 3 months before expiry.
I googled about it, this result came up https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/renew-passport
It says it can be renewed if the passport is expired less than 3 year.
I applied for passport renewal through AusPost mid May and received it 4 weeks later.
I got mine within 48 hours, cost another 250 though
Applied passport for my 16 month old son and it arrived in 2 weeks. Weird how some passports are taking months and others are taking weeks. I didn't pay express either
4 months
Inflation, costs of living going up, poor struggling people but extremely long passport delays that are often used for travelling..hmmm..
you get an award for the most helpful comment!
Has anyone else experienced this long a delay??
Yes I did, wasn’t expecting that much of a delay and we had to talk to passport office and escalate it due to an upcoming flight. This was a new passport service though.
applied mine end of march and received it by mail in 3.5 weeks.
Mine took about 2 weeks to arrive in May, but I paid for the express thingy.
Yeah paid express for 2 kids. Received in 3wks
Moral of the story here is pay for priority processing.
As with most things in life, money talks.
Unless everybody does it, then what?
You raise the price for priority.
Capitalism, supply and demand baby! lol
If you do this, and it takes more than the quoted time (48 hrs I think?), you can ask for a refund of the fee.
EDIT/ checked the website and they've removed the timeframe, lol. No more refunds I guess!
https://www.passports.gov.au/refunds
"You may apply in writing to the issuing office for a refund of the PPF if the travel document is not issued within two business days after we receive all the information requested to satisfy us of your identity and entitlement to a passport. The time taken to return the passport to you, either by post or courier, is not included in this two business days service standard.
The PPF may also be refunded if you require the passport for compassionate travel due to the death or serious illness of an immediate family member, subject to certain conditions. If you are the primary carer of a person who needs to travel with you, that person may also be eligible for a refund."
It's still there but not on the main page. I think they are trying to hide it.
Pay 2 play, the Australian way.
Pfft… my guy gets them to me the next day.
Wow passports are a security risk if you don’t get it in good time? Who tf waits 4 months
Let me guess. I bet that’s Putin doing again.
Same situation as you - applied for kid renewal ( he has turned 16 so eligible for 10 year) no news till now. There is no email from pp office as well. I’m wondering where is it ?
Is it slow because they are all WFH? We only have ourselves to blame 😂
Had same issue recently after waiting in excess of 10 weeks for a kids passport, contacted local senators office, very helpful, they had direct contact to dfat and raised them by phone while they put me on hold, then gave me an immediate update. nek minute passport arrived. Shouldn’t be like this, but it worked for me, while frustrating to involve those high up in govt, at least they’ll get the message about appropriately resourcing the correct departments. Good luck.
nek minute passport arrived.
did they also have some magical cloaking device to deliver it to you in a minute?
My renewal took a couple weeks arrived last week. (no express just normal)
I renewed mine on Thursday Last week,
Not going anywhere till December but have to use it for documentation so decided to do express,
Got the email on Friday saying it had been processed and received on Wednesday.
I guess I choose correctly as a 4month delay is not great
Hopefully yours arrives soon!
I drove by last week near the Passport Office in Sydney and the queues extend past Lee st and almost to Regent st.
Cray cray!
I hope you get your passport asap!
I paid over $1000 for 2 "express" passport renewals which were submitted at 4.30pm on Friday and are arriving today. So while the $500 express processing fee is ridiculous, at least they got it done in under a week
My wife got hers in 3 weeks last week :)
Passports are the new PS5!
PasSport5.
Haha. Could even make it PaS5port
Mine expired last June but didn't bother renewing it. I lodged mine on 4th June (at a local AusPost and waited for 5 mins) this year and received it 3 weeks later.
Welcome to the world of regional immigrant. Average waiting time for getting permanent residency has been increase to 2 years. In the peak of Covid, department process the visa application much faster (within 3 months). And, now it delayed like anything. For last one and half year, they are still processing application submitted before September 2020.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-li…
This is ridiculous when we have such shortages.
I agree, but can't do anything, except waiting.
If i am not wrong mine took 10-11 weeks. I Applied back in April and just got it.
We lodged our daughter's passport app on 30 April. I rang the passport office line about 6 weeks later and got through on my 22nd attempt, but had to be on hold for 2h still. They confirmed they received it on 3 May so still within time frame and to call back if I haven't received confirmation in a few days.
I called back a week later and got through on my 12th attempt, on hold for another 2h and confirmed that it was in the queue to be printed. Got my email confirmation with tracking a couple of days later. Sent from Melb to Syd so took abt 5 days to arrive.
I always got through on a Friday towards midday or about 1pm, I guess everyone's calling in the morning.
Mine took 13 weeks to come through. It required me emailing and speaking to someone within Penny Wong's office to escalate to get the Passport Office to issue it. I had it prepared 1 day out before I flew offshore.
I hear that people who queue up at the passport office are more likely to get a faster turnaround time.
Not sure where you are based but my wife went to the Melbourne office after waiting for our son passport for over 10 weeks and not being able to get though on the phone. When she arrived at 11:30am there was only a 1.5hr wait, once she actually got to speak to someone they expedited it and she went back 2 days later to collect it. If you are going to go in person I would recommend going after noon and avoiding the morning rush.
My kids took 3 weeks and didn't pay for the priority processing.
Blame the war in Ukraine
Wife has waited 12weeks so far for kids renewal. Tried for weeks to ring and has never got through. She will give it 2 weeks more then go line up. Getting too close to travel date.
same boat for new passport, been waiting since march, i raised a complaint and received the passport 1 week later. (after waiting 4 months)
Paid for express and didn't get any email after 10 working days. Called Passport office, they couldn't find application … they checked receipt number more and I was told it hadn't been "scanned"…. Was told it was now put into the Escalation queue, asked for my travel dates and was told I should get an email to collect within 7-10 working days …
Unacceptable. I’d ask for a refund of the express fee.
Thanks to this post, I renewed mine, but it sucks cause my name changed and I had to go in Australia post and provide documents and go through a new passport process instead of new. I assumed as much.
The rep said in-store that it should take average 6 weeks and they got word passports taken less time to process but I still don't believe him lol
Applied for my renewal in late May from the LPO and got it in 3 weeks.
I renewed my passport at brisbane gpo using priority service and got it in less than 24 hours and collected at brisbane passport office. Very fast.
If its been long enough time then engaging your federal MP may also help. It helped in our case.
I applied in December and it was very quick. Didn't need a passport until June but it was obvious this would happen once borders reopened.
Applied on 21st April, got it on 17th June. Almost 2 months.
Update….
Spontaneously called the passport office for the 10th times a few days ago hoping to at least get in the queue for a few hours and much to my surprise was answered by a very helpful human within 2 rings. My application was "still in the queue" after 4 months, but he "escalated" it. Someone then called me 2 days later to ask if I wanted to pick it up or get posted and have since had notification that it is ready.
Could he give you any explanation for why it was still in the queue after four months when many people are getting theirs in much less time even without paying priority? I think yours is the worst wait time I’ve heard - it worries me given I’m still waiting for my kids’ ones after seven weeks and we go overseas in 7.5 weeks … I thought at the time 14 weeks would be enough given they were then quoting “up to six weeks”!
No, wouldn't give any reason, just said there were no issues with the application and it was in the queue. I didn't push it as I was trying to be super nice and sweet to encourage him to help me and escalate it.
It took me almost 2 weeks of trying to get through on the phone
I submitted my passport on 23/06 and went yesterday to pick it up from the Melbourne office so, that's just over 4 weeks.
It’s so erratic. I submitted my teens’ applications seven weeks ago, 2/06, and nothing yet, including no response to an email. I guess I’ll start trying to ring them next.
For anyone checking in here for recent experiences, I got my kids’ passports Friday after waiting 10 weeks, including escalating at seven weeks. After 9.5 weeks after no progress and getting nervous after some of the terrible stories, I contacted my local MP and Penny Wong’s office. They were done within a couple of days - who knows whether what I did worked or they would have been ready then either way.
FYI for anyone who thinks they’ll pay the priority processing fee if they start to get desperate, it can actually only be paid within the first six weeks of applying for the passport/s. After that point they believe you shouldn’t have to pay more - which isn’t much help when you’re getting desperate and merely escalating via call centre after six weeks doesn’t seem to do a lot.
Submitted application for my daughter's passport and now at 13th week waiting. We are travelling next month and I have already told them our travel date. On the passport website it says they will proritise passport application that are travelling in the next 3 days. Has anyone experienced this and if it's true they stick to that timeline of issuing passports that have travel coming up? I've been calling every week and honestly I don't know if I should just rock up to the passport office to get an in person update and see if there's any chance of getting the passport any time sooner.
Damn; I am onto the 9th week and same story. I would need passport at least 2 weeks in advance so that we can apply for visa. I will wait this month and if no progress then will rock up at the passport office in October.
I submitted a passport application for my youngest in June and will be travelling on Thursday. I just received notification this evening that it's ready for pick-up so will be heading in early tomorrow morning to pick it up.
It's just a data point of one, but in my case it definitely fit within that time frame (and yes, I had been following up and had given my travel details to them too).
Did you go to passport office in person as well?
I didn't go to the passport office in person to enquire about the progress, only followed up by phone.
I did go to pick-up the passport this morning (fortunately there's two different queues for enquiries and pick-up's) - I got there around 7am and there were already a few people lined up. By about 7:30am the lines started growing and by the time doors opened at 8:30am there were lenghty queues for both options (100+ in the passport collection queue).
@gibspmuh: Wow thanks for the info, will keep this in mind when/if we get the notification to pick up the passport
@gibspmuh: do they print it sooner if someone is picking it up compared to those who asked for a postage?
@IMadeYouReadThis: The impression that I had from my conversations with them was the processing priority was the same for both options.
They strongly encouraged opting for picking up the passport rather than having it posted as they indicated passports being posted ran the risk of not being received in time (when I originally applied I opted to have it posted, but changed that to pick-up when it became clear that it would be tight time wise).
@gibspmuh: Yep I changed it to pick up option as well as the person from the call centre made the same point too.
@m0kka: thanks guys - I did speak to them last week and they asked if I want to change it to pickup. Might wait until the end of this month which is when I will become desperate and will change it to pickup.
Lodged in June (child passport) and still waiting. Called and they asked if we wanted to pay for priority… Otherwise wait.
They had someone on the radio last week who caught a 230am train and when they arrived at 6am , there were 70plus people there.