UK Passport Renewal - Info/Ques
Posted: Sun 24 May 2026 8:37 am
Morning each, as this was the first time in ten years that I/we have had to renew our passports from the TRNC and as a kind of follow up to another thread about Passports, I just thought our experiances may help those who are going to do the same thing.
First thing to remember is that if you have lived here for some time then you have learnt to be patient, that is also important when dealing with any Government office in the UK and the Passport Office is just one of them! The most recent system for applying on-line is effect and I presume it is also fast, dependent on the time of year you apply and how you go about the process. We both decided that this time we would bring our renewal dates in line with each other so regardless of how much time we had left on the old passports, we both applied for new ones on the same day!
The on-line process is simple and easy to use, you can pause your application at anytime whilst you gather the information you need, the evidence you are required to send and make sure your photo is a good one as well. As far as the photos are concerned there is a lot of advice on the web site to guide you - depending on how sure you want to be that your photo will be accepted is up to you! We took the long road and went to Yuksel in Girne to have our digital photos taken, we felt it would be safe that way plus as we will be renewing (hopefully) our residency later this year along with renewing our driving licences (Local) we would need another armful of photos anyway and we got those all done together.
So, on-line applications sent off within 30 minutes of each other, all documents parceled up into individual envelopes and then both envelopes parceled up into one jiffy envelope to be posted in the UK by a visitor who was returning the same week as our on-line application had been completed.
Now the time line - 27/4 - On-line apps completed. 28/4 - On-line apps received by UK. 28/4 - UK reminded us to send old passports and required docs. 29/4 - Old passports taken to UK. 30/4 - Old passports posted in UK. 6/5 - Old passports received by Passport office (This was a delay as there was a Bank Holiday in UK). 18/5 - Application approved!! 19/5 - New passports printed and sent via secure delivery. Here is where the system has a failing in my estimation - you can no longer track your passports until DHL send you a WhatsApp, ours came in Turkish! 21/5 - Reminder from UK to sign our new passports. 21/5 - WhatsApp message (in Turkish) tell us that our package was being put on an aircraft. At that point we wanted to make sure all was in order so we went down to the DHL office in Girne to talk to them - easy to find on the LHS after the traffic lights on the way to the new harbour - DHL could not have been more helpful and because we are retired and have time to do whatever we want, we arranged to wait until both of our passports arrive at their office before we would go there to collect them ourselves - well, it's a run out after all but warning, the parking is not good there at all! So now - because it is yet another Bank Holiday here we will wait till the 28/5 before we go to pick up both passports.
All in all it is a simple but time consuming exercise but please remember that if you don't take into account public holidays in both TRNC and UK then you will wait longer than normal - my fault because I totally forgot - lol. So my advice is to apply at least one month before you need your new Passport to make sure you get it in time. Also if two of you are applying at the same time do not expect that the applications will be dealt with in that order, my wifes was done first and mine followed between 2 hours and 4 days apart at times but both will get here in the same week in the end.
Now a question: Once we have our new shiny passports in our sticky hands we can go South again but do we have to visit TRNC immigration first to update our details with them and then print out a new Stay Permit with the new details on it?
First thing to remember is that if you have lived here for some time then you have learnt to be patient, that is also important when dealing with any Government office in the UK and the Passport Office is just one of them! The most recent system for applying on-line is effect and I presume it is also fast, dependent on the time of year you apply and how you go about the process. We both decided that this time we would bring our renewal dates in line with each other so regardless of how much time we had left on the old passports, we both applied for new ones on the same day!
The on-line process is simple and easy to use, you can pause your application at anytime whilst you gather the information you need, the evidence you are required to send and make sure your photo is a good one as well. As far as the photos are concerned there is a lot of advice on the web site to guide you - depending on how sure you want to be that your photo will be accepted is up to you! We took the long road and went to Yuksel in Girne to have our digital photos taken, we felt it would be safe that way plus as we will be renewing (hopefully) our residency later this year along with renewing our driving licences (Local) we would need another armful of photos anyway and we got those all done together.
So, on-line applications sent off within 30 minutes of each other, all documents parceled up into individual envelopes and then both envelopes parceled up into one jiffy envelope to be posted in the UK by a visitor who was returning the same week as our on-line application had been completed.
Now the time line - 27/4 - On-line apps completed. 28/4 - On-line apps received by UK. 28/4 - UK reminded us to send old passports and required docs. 29/4 - Old passports taken to UK. 30/4 - Old passports posted in UK. 6/5 - Old passports received by Passport office (This was a delay as there was a Bank Holiday in UK). 18/5 - Application approved!! 19/5 - New passports printed and sent via secure delivery. Here is where the system has a failing in my estimation - you can no longer track your passports until DHL send you a WhatsApp, ours came in Turkish! 21/5 - Reminder from UK to sign our new passports. 21/5 - WhatsApp message (in Turkish) tell us that our package was being put on an aircraft. At that point we wanted to make sure all was in order so we went down to the DHL office in Girne to talk to them - easy to find on the LHS after the traffic lights on the way to the new harbour - DHL could not have been more helpful and because we are retired and have time to do whatever we want, we arranged to wait until both of our passports arrive at their office before we would go there to collect them ourselves - well, it's a run out after all but warning, the parking is not good there at all! So now - because it is yet another Bank Holiday here we will wait till the 28/5 before we go to pick up both passports.
All in all it is a simple but time consuming exercise but please remember that if you don't take into account public holidays in both TRNC and UK then you will wait longer than normal - my fault because I totally forgot - lol. So my advice is to apply at least one month before you need your new Passport to make sure you get it in time. Also if two of you are applying at the same time do not expect that the applications will be dealt with in that order, my wifes was done first and mine followed between 2 hours and 4 days apart at times but both will get here in the same week in the end.
Now a question: Once we have our new shiny passports in our sticky hands we can go South again but do we have to visit TRNC immigration first to update our details with them and then print out a new Stay Permit with the new details on it?
!
, think Julia Robert’s
