How fast can you get a passport renewed?

(backdated post)

How fast can you get a passport renewal? Pretty fast if you’re prepared to pay.

With about a week until the holiday, the travel agent pointed out that I had just five months left on my passport.

I was already aware of this. I’d checked, and five was enough for the countries we’d be visiting – they all required three months of validity.

But we’d be transiting in Singapore. Singapore requires six months, and although you don’t need to clear immigration when transiting, there’s always a risk – a delay or disruption might mean you need to go landside. Or an airline official might misinterpret the rules and not allow (or simply delay) boarding.

These are hassles best avoided if possible, which is why the travel agent strongly advised to renew.

So on a Thursday night, I started the application process online.

You need to print off a form to sign, which is then submitted. Amazingly my aging and somewhat temperamental printer decided to work.

The quickest way to get the application in and the passport back:

• Take it to a “Rapid” passport submission point – basically a designated post office in each capital city – in Melbourne this is in Collins St, or in Docklands. A submission before midday gets to the Passport office on the same day.
• Pay a surcharge for priority processing: 2 days ($300) or 5 days ($104). This is on top of the $412 renewal fee, and any costs of new photos (which can also be done at the post office).
• Cut the delivery time by asking for collection from the Passport office in Docklands

So it was doable before the holiday, but the stress over it meant I didn’t sleep well that Thursday night.

Oh great. So I would be getting the worst passport photo ever. I already was in dire need of a haircut, and for the past year or so have had small lumpy bits under my eyes (it’s called Xanthelasma if you really want to know)… now I’d be looking overtired with giant bags also under my eyes. And I’d be stuck with this picture for ten years.

To at least solve the horrible hair issue, I decided to go to the barber first thing, be there at 9am Friday to avoid a queue, then proceed post haste to the designated “Rapid” post office in Collins St in the city for the new photo.

That morning Metro was warning about all their real-time info being out. But it’d be fine, right, as long as my train wasn’t cancelled.

My train was cancelled. As I waited for the next one, I pictured a long queue of blokes arriving at the barber shop, leaving me with no choice but to get a new passport photo with my long boofy fuzzy hair.

The next train arrived and got me there about 9:05. Nobody waiting. Phew.

Then back on the train to the city.

Miracle: the post office had a dedicated counter for ID services, and nobody else in the queue.

The bloke happily took my $712, plus more for photos. He reckoned I could expect it to be available for pickup on late on Monday or early Tuesday.

It was actually quicker: by late Friday they had confirmed it was all okay and the passport was being printed. The email to say it was ready came through on Monday morning.

Phew.

After picking it up, I had to re-apply for the UK Electronic Travel Authority (a very straightforward process when done with a mobile phone app using NFC to read the passport’s chip), which was (again) near-instant.

Now I was set for the trip.