How long does it take to get the first time passport application?

[Kazim07]

Online First time passport
applied online : 11 March
Docs received : 13 March
Status changed to Processing : 5 April
Estimated Issue date: 15 April
Approved and Printed: 18 April
Passport received : 19 April


Thanks God it is finally over. Almost 2 years from start to end.
Good luck to all who are still waiting…

[SeanM]

Like many here, moving from the FBR board to this. We received my daughters certificate on the 12th April and applied on line that night.

So far:
On line application 12th April 2024
Forms all signed and witnessed 13th April 2024
Posted 14th April (couple of post offices open locally on a Sunday)
Still not received by An Post so sitting around somewhere between the UK and Ireland. Pretty annoyed at it cost nearly £10 to send and each time it has taken an age for things to arrive. Little or no tracking info from Royal Mail.

[timfountain]

Here's my tale of woe. For those of you in the US, I'm afraid the shit show that is the USPS is going to be your main source of concern. I applied for my PP on Nov 4th, docs were received Nov 9th. I got my first "we can't contact your witness" around mid January, due to my dentist not being available when they called.

My next witness was a MSC EE who is an 'engineer' and an PE. $85 to FEDEX for another witness form. But that was rejected as there is a discrepancy between what the form says - just "Engineer" and what the website says - "Chartered Engineer". PE is equivalent to a chartered engineer but again, no-go and another $85 to FEDEX and third time was a charm - with a public notary, who was called for verification.

My passport and passport card were finally mailed on Feb 24th and I thought ok, I'll get them in a few weeks. Oh no. both docs (PP and PP card) were mailed separately. Both arrived at the USPS ISC in NY on Feb 26th. And sat there for 5.5 weeks with no updates to tracking. I finally got my passport book on April 13th. But 11 days later (April 24th) and no sign of the passport card, no updates to tracking, no nothing. And on Saturday 26th it will be exactly 2 months since they were mailed, which is the amount of time I was advised to wait before I could file a lost item report with the passport office. Just a stressful end to a very long and arduous journey....

The stupid thing is there is no option to use any other delivery service. I would have very willingly paid $100 to get these FEDEX'd....

[J_W]

Passport and passport card has arrived, so i thought I'd post my timeline here:


19/03/2024 Passport application submitted
26/03/2024 Documents received
23/04/2024 ETA listed on site has passed
24/04/2024 Went on webchat - Moving house so passport now marked urgent
26/04/2024 Passport book&card approved and dispatched
30/04/2024 Passport card recieved
31/04/2024 Passport book recieved


Still pending the return of my documents!

[Dooogie]

My timeline so far:
17/3/24: Application received
22/3/24: Documents received and processing application
23/4/24: Estimated issue date for passport
14/5/24: Still processing

Is anyone else experiencing this? I have spoken on their webchat every week now for the last 3 weeks but am getting nowhere. To make matters worse I am going on holiday on 23/5/24!

[meself2]

My timeline so far:
17/3/24: Application received
22/3/24: Documents received and processing application
23/4/24: Estimated issue date for passport
14/5/24: Still processing

Is anyone else experiencing this? I have spoken on their webchat every week now for the last 3 weeks but am getting nowhere. To make matters worse I am going on holiday on 23/5/24!

Naturalization certificates were sent out recently, increasing the load for passport office.
Can you use your passport to travel abroad? If you sent it as supporting documents, you can ask them to return your documents to you, so you're sorted for travel.
Also, did you send original documents like FBR cert and such? DFA had a hard time verifying naturalization certificates at least, which might've spread to FBR.
Unfortunately, estimated time is an estimate indeed.

[Dooogie]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

[Randomname898]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

[MarkAd]

Has anyone applied from outside the EU?

[MarkAd]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

How did you contact them

[Randomname898]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

How did you contact them

Webchat (online). To answer your other question, yes I applied from outside the EU/UK.

[MarkAd]

The WeChat Dosent show for me, can someone send me the link for it

[Dooogie]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

So finally got my passport on 23/5/24 a full month after their estimate, in line with what you have said above. Good luck to you, I hope you get yours soon.

[Randomname898]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

So finally got my passport on 23/5/24 a full month after their estimate, in line with what you have said above. Good luck to you, I hope you get yours soon.

Congratulations! Sounds like you got it the day of your holiday?! Mine also went to printing yesterday so fingers crossed it arrives fine.

If helpful to anyone reading my full timeline was

08 January - received application.
08 February - received documents, verifying.
22 February - processing application (estimate given 07 March).
19 March - request for additional documents.
18 April - received additional documents, verifying.
21 April - processing application (estimate given 10 May).
5 June - printing.

Delays between request for documents and receipt of such down to my delays obtaining them (took 4-5 days for the tracker to acknowledge receipt of submitted documents, after I posted via my local Irish embassy for onwards transmission to Dublin).

[MarkAd]

When I spoke to the adviser on the Webchat on Monday, they said no one had started looking at my application yet. Witness hasn’t been contacted.

I'm not sure how they managed to tell you that. I've been talking to them for 3 weeks and they aren't able to give me any detail as to why there is a delay.

23/4/24 estimate
14/5/24 still processing

I spoke to them yesterday as I’m overdue from the new estimate (being 10 May). They were a lot more helpful two months ago when I spoke to them (took details, security questions, etc.). Yesterday they just responded that they can’t check anything and provided no help…

I presume it’s because they have far more delays now than back then when this forum seemed to show they were on time and could actually spend the time figuring it out. From posts on Reddit it seems it is taking them twice the estimated 20 business days to process.

How did you contact them

Webchat (online). To answer your other question, yes I applied from outside the EU/UK.

Managed to talk to them on WebChat and was told that an officer still has not been assigned to my application

[SeanM]

Quick update:

Via an FBR Application

On line application 12th April 2024
Posted 14th April
Received 23rd April
Estimated Date on the tracker 22nd May
Processing Application 17th May
Printing Passport 7th June

In line with others about a 2 week delay, thankfully no additional documents required.

[User20123]

Just a quick one - my passport is due to expire in first week of July and I have heard you have to send the home country passport when you send docs to passport office here after getting the naturalisation cert so do you think they will be ok with expired passport or do i need to renew it? Wouldn't make sense as I won't be using that passport anymore after I get my irish one.

[SeanM]

Quick update:

Via an FBR Application

On line application 12th April 2024
Posted 14th April
Received 23rd April
Estimated Date on the tracker 22nd May
Processing Application 17th May
Printing Passport 7th June

In line with others about a 2 week delay, thankfully no additional documents required.

Dispatched Monday 10th June
Delivered 13th June

In total that is a little over 11 months from sending all the documents for the FBR application to the passport being received

[ArtifaX]

Will add some positivity here with my timeline:

10/05/2024 - Application created
13/05/2024 - Received docs - verifying (estimated completion date put as 11/06/2024)
30/05/2024 - Processing
12/06/2024 - Printing
13/06/2024 - Dispatched
14/06/2024 - Received passport, card and supporting docs as 3 parcels all at the same time.

Notes: We sent the docs 2h after receiving the naturalization certificate in hope of beating the queue of everyone from our ceremony batch going for passports.

[KyukChick]

Will add some positivity here with my timeline:

10/05/2024 - Application created
13/05/2024 - Received docs - verifying (estimated completion date put as 11/06/2024)
30/05/2024 - Processing
12/06/2024 - Printing
13/06/2024 - Dispatched
14/06/2024 - Received passport, card and supporting docs as 3 parcels all at the same time.


Please share the hardcopy documents you sent them. There has been some speculation as to whether DFA will process faster if we send them our original passports, birth & naturalisation certificates, as opposed to scan/certified copies

Notes: We sent the docs 2h after receiving the naturalization certificate in hope of beating the queue of everyone from our ceremony batch going for passports.

[ArtifaX]

Will add some positivity here with my timeline:

10/05/2024 - Application created
13/05/2024 - Received docs - verifying (estimated completion date put as 11/06/2024)
30/05/2024 - Processing
12/06/2024 - Printing
13/06/2024 - Dispatched
14/06/2024 - Received passport, card and supporting docs as 3 parcels all at the same time.


Please share the hardcopy documents you sent them. There has been some speculation as to whether DFA will process faster if we send them our original passports, birth & naturalisation certificates, as opposed to scan/certified copies

Notes: We sent the docs 2h after receiving the naturalization certificate in hope of beating the queue of everyone from our ceremony batch going for passports.

We did send originals: passport, naturalization cert, birth certificate.

[sairsint]

I have a similar timeline for mine and sent the package in the day I received my naturalisation certificate on May 9th. However, they requested my original passport this past week which I sent it in same day and is now being returned to me. They also sent back my other documents and naturalisation certificate, so I’m now just waiting for them to print my Irish passport.

I spoke with their agents a few times and they were also confused as to why my original passport was requested as it’s not a requirement when resident in Ireland with a valid PSC card. The speculation is that since the most recent naturalisation certificates didn’t have our pictures printed on them, the passport office requires two forms of photo identification.

I will say the passport office is night and day compared to the ISD. They actually respond to your emails, answer the phone and are very helpful!

TLDR: send in your original passport regardless of what the requirement is, especially if the Department of Justice issues your naturalisation certificate without a picture printed on it.

If you need your original documentation/passport returned for urgent travel while your Irish one is being processed, you can email travelemergency@dfat.ie and they will do this for you.

[lxk]

TLDR: send in your original passport regardless of what the requirement is, especially if the Department of Justice issues your naturalisation certificate without a picture printed on it.

If you need your original documentation/passport returned for urgent travel while your Irish one is being processed, you can email travelemergency@dfat.ie and they will do this for you.

Thanks, that is very helpful.

[KyukChick]

Will add some positivity here with my timeline:

10/05/2024 - Application created
13/05/2024 - Received docs - verifying (estimated completion date put as 11/06/2024)
30/05/2024 - Processing
12/06/2024 - Printing
13/06/2024 - Dispatched
14/06/2024 - Received passport, card and supporting docs as 3 parcels all at the same time.


Please share the hardcopy documents you sent them. There has been some speculation as to whether DFA will process faster if we send them our original passports, birth & naturalisation certificates, as opposed to scan/certified copies

Notes: We sent the docs 2h after receiving the naturalization certificate in hope of beating the queue of everyone from our ceremony batch going for passports.

We did send originals: passport, naturalization cert, birth certificate.

Thanks!

[J_W]

My dads passport has been delivered, unlike me he was able to wait it out and didn't need it expedited:

His first time passport, never had one in his life. Born overseas to Irish born parents. Now living in England.

His timeline:
03/04/2024 - Application submitted online
12/04/2024 - Documents received by Irish Passport Office (From UK)
30/05/2024 - Passport book printed & Dispatched
31/05/2024 - Passport card being printed
03/06/2024 - Passport book received
07/06/2024 - Passport card dispatched
10/06/2024 - Passport card received

We are awiting the return of his documents. He was born in a country which no longer exists, so we had to send off his original birth certificate which is really old and tatty (as no way to order a certified copy).
So a little anxious for all the documents to come home safely now.