BRITS have been warned that they need to allow 10 weeks for passport applications to be processed ahead of summer holidays.
Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said that "volatile" demand could once again create a backlog of applicants this year.
The 10-week deadline was introduced following the Covid-19 pandemic, but it remains in place due to the rise in people needing to get new passports.
Last year, more than 400,000 applicants were made to wait 10 weeks or more for their passports, with several people missing holidays because of the delays.
More than a million applications were received in May alone in 2022.
It is hoped that this year won't see as many people waiting quite so long, with more than 1,200 staff members being added since last April.
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Those appointments were made after Mrs Braverman said she would make it her priority to fix the problems when she was appointed Home Secretary.
However, she has still urged people to get their applications in sooner rather than later if they are hoping to get away this summer.
She told MPs: “We expect elevated demand for passports throughout the year – and demand can be volatile – so customers should continue to allow 10 weeks.
"I urge people to apply in good time and not at the last minute."
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The Home Secretary's warning isn't the first to be issued around possible passport backlogs this year.
A million more applications than normal are expected to be made in the first half of 2023 and Brits have frequently been told not to wait.
Speaking to MPs in December, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office Matthew Rycroft, said they would "need to be ready for next year to be even busier than this year” when it came to passport renewals.
Rycroft added: “Now would be a very good time for anybody listening [to renew their passports]".
Thomas Greig, director of passports at HMPO told i: “The shape of passport demand used to be very, very predictable.
"But what we’ve seen over the pandemic is that people that would normally renew their passport will only now renew them when there’s reason to do so, and that’s right before the summer.
“So if you look at our demand profile for next year it’s much more… front-loaded towards the first couple of months.”
The backlog in the summer resulted in some people having to get creative to try and improve their chances of getting their passport in time.
While there are both premium and fast-track options available to speed up the process, for a fee, both have a limited capacity and require an appointment at a passport centre.
Anyone trying to book one of those appointments online in the summer was regularly told there were none "due to high demand".
Data scientist Dr Michael Hodge came up with a smart way to help beat the queues and get passports sooner than others.
He has created a bot that refreshes the passport appointment website every 60 seconds before sending an alert out on Twitter when new appointments have been made available.
With new appointments released daily, at a random time, booking a slot used to mean a long day refreshing the website.
However, Dr Hodge's bot, which can be found @ukpassportcheck, means that, as soon as new appointments are available, you can find out.
Meanwhile, the cost to renew a passport went up last week, the first time in five years.
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