We have applied for our 3-month old baby's first UK passport from Pakistan a few weeks ago. My wife and I are both UK passport holders (naturalised in 2021). At the Gerry's application centre, we were told that it is usually taking around 8-9months for the first passport application to be processed. I was quite surprised by this since I thought it should be a straightforward application (since both parents are naturalised British Citizens). So, I wanted to ask:
- What is other people's experience and how long has it taken for them.
- Is it due to the covid backlog that the applications are taking so long or is the application process complicated like the citizenship application where the caseworker needs to make inquiries etc
- Is there a portal where we can track our application. We have not had any email from the caseworker (though the application fee was deducted from the bank account about a week back).
- Is there a forum where people share their timelines for UK passport applications from abroad
- We are planning to go back to the UK in a few months-time. So can we apply for the baby's UK visit visa in case the passport application still hasn't been processed by then. Or we can only do one application at a time
Many thanks for your help.
Best regards.