How to apply for a UK passport

Apply at GOV.UK. The online service costs less than the paper form, guides you through the requirements and checks your photo as you upload it.

For a renewal you need your current passport, a digital photo and a payment card. The old passport is sent in and returned cancelled.

For a first adult passport you additionally need a countersignatory and original identity documents such as a full birth certificate, and possibly your parents' details or documents depending on when and where you were born.

The countersignatory must have known you for at least two years, hold a current British or Irish passport, be a person of good standing in the community or a professional, and not be a relative, partner or someone living at your address. They confirm your identity and countersign your photo where a paper photo is used.

Send original documents by a tracked service. They are returned separately from the passport, and can take longer to come back.

Track the application online. Do not book non-refundable travel until the new passport is in your hand — this is stated by the Passport Office and is regularly ignored at considerable cost.

For children, both people with parental responsibility must consent, and a child's passport is valid for five years.

Digital photo rejection is the most common single cause of delay, and the automated checks are strict.

The specification: taken within the last month, plain light background, facing forward with a neutral expression and mouth closed, eyes open and clearly visible, nothing covering the face, no shadows on the face or behind you, and in sharp focus with no red-eye or filters.

Glasses are best removed entirely. Where worn for medical reasons, frames must not cover the eyes and there must be no glare or reflection.

Head coverings are permitted for religious or medical reasons provided the face is fully visible from the bottom of the chin to the top of the forehead.

For babies and small children the rules are relaxed on expression and eye contact but not on background or coverage — no toys, no hands supporting the head visible, and nobody else in the frame.

Photo booths that offer a digital code for the online service remove most of the risk and are inexpensive. Where you take your own, use even lighting against a plain wall and check it against the specification before uploading.

The service checks the photo at upload, but a photo that passes the automated check can still be rejected on manual examination, which is why the specification matters rather than merely the checker's verdict.

Two urgent services exist. The one-week Fast Track service requires an appointment at a passport office and is for renewals and some other applications. The Premium service can deliver the same day at an appointment, is the most expensive, and is generally limited to straightforward adult renewals.

Both are appointment-based and availability fluctuates. In busy periods appointments can be scarcer than the standard service is slow, so an urgent appointment is not a guaranteed backstop.

The standard published turnaround is a target, not a commitment, and rises with demand — typically in spring and early summer.

Since 2018, extra months remaining on an old passport are no longer added to the new one. Renewing early therefore loses the unused time, which is a reason not to renew far in advance without cause.

But do not leave it late either, because destination validity rules can make a technically valid passport unusable, and because processing times move.

If you are abroad and your passport is lost, stolen or expired, contact the nearest British embassy or consulate. An emergency travel document can be issued for travel to a specified destination.

Report a lost or stolen passport immediately — it is cancelled on report, and using a cancelled passport causes problems at borders even if you find it afterwards.

For most EU and Schengen countries, a British passport must have been issued less than ten years before the date of entry, and must be valid for at least three months after the intended date of departure. Both conditions apply, and the first is the one people miss.

This matters because passports issued before September 2018 could carry up to nine extra months from a previous passport, meaning a passport can show a valid expiry date while being more than ten years old at the point of travel. That passport will be refused.

Many other countries require six months' validity beyond your travel dates, and some require blank pages. Airlines enforce these at check-in, and being refused boarding on validity grounds is not a matter for negotiation.

Check the destination's entry requirements on GOV.UK travel advice before booking, not before travelling.

From 2025, travel to the EU is additionally subject to the Entry/Exit System and, later, ETIAS authorisation for visa-exempt travellers — check the current position before each trip while these are being introduced.

The Republic of Ireland is different: British and Irish citizens travel freely under the Common Travel Area, though carriers may still require photo identification.

Keep a photograph or scan of your passport data page separately from the document. It makes replacement abroad considerably easier.