Emailed this to them a few days ago, no reply, probably too busy
Suggested passport procedural change
My wife and I recently applied to renew our passports. Even though we submitted our documents to the local Post Office together, I have received mine, she is still stressing waiting
As the old passports still had several months before expiry, they were still valid but she was keen to ensure we would have the full 6 months validity for possible travel at Christmas and foolishly hoped that if we submitted the forms at the PO at the same time, we would end up with the same expiry date.
In accordance with your current procedure however, when we went to the Post Office and submitted our documents, had new photos taken, etc. the counter officer chopped up the old passports leaving us with no valid passports.
My recommendation is:
For those folk who have access to, and can nominate their “preferred” local Post Office when completing the on-line form, when they go to that PO to submit the renewal request, etc. they must show their current passport BUT they get to still RETAIN that document intact if it has NOT YET EXPIRED. In this way the the old/current passport is retained as a valid form of identification until the new/replacement passport is issued and collected in person from that designated post office.
To collect the replacement passport from the Post Office they must again present the document being replace and ONLY THEN is the old passport cut up. The obvious advantage is that folk will still have the old, but valid, passport until they receive the replacement document. Thus they can still undertake travel and use the document as proof of identity, etc. and hopefully this change of practice would take some pressure off the passport office staff re duration of processing time.
Anyways, hoping you find this suggestion a worthwhile change to your procedures.
By the way, I would also encourage you to replace the plastic passport sleeve you supply with an RFID proof sleeve just to ensure the document cannot be cloned, etc. while in transit and also predisposing the owner to keep their passport secure in an RFID proof sleeve.
Bob Baker