The fast track service is still available for those renewing a passport. Fast track passport applications take about a week, much less than the full application process.

The change has been introduced as an anti-fraud measure and will mean that new adult applicants will have to attend a face to face interview which will include simple questions about them and their families. According to the Home Office approximately 10% of annual passport applicants, approximately 609,000 people, have never had a passport before.

Who will be interviewed?
According to the guidance issued:

‘Only adults who have never previously held a British passport in their own name will need to have an interview. This will not apply to people who held their own passport as a child, but it will apply to those whose names were included in a parent’s passport.’

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) are advising that new applicants should allow six weeks for the application to be processed and that travel arrangements should not be finalised before all family have valid passports.

The interview requirement may in future be extended to other types of passport applications. IPS will in future need to see all applicants in person for fingerprinting when the UK, in line with international developments, adds fingerprints to passports from 2009.

Internet link: Home Office announcement