When should you renew — when the expiry date arrives, or months before it? The honest answer is months before, and the reason is not impatience. Many countries require your passport to be valid for several months beyond your trip, and airlines can refuse boarding if it falls short. A passport renewed early loses nothing in fees and removes a whole category of holiday stress, because time is no longer carried over: years ago, up to nine unused months from your old passport were added to the new one, but that stopped some time back, so a passport renewed early simply runs for ten years from the issue date. Check the expiry date when you book anything, not the week before you fly, and the rest of the process follows in a fixed order: apply, photograph, send, wait, travel.
First: decide when, and which route
Your passport does not have to have expired before you can renew it — in fact, waiting until it has is one of the most common travel mistakes. Apply in a quiet month if you can — renewing in autumn or winter for a summer trip is one of the easiest travel wins there is — because at peak times, spring and early summer, when half the country remembers the school holidays are coming, processing can take considerably longer.
Most people now renew online through the official government website, and it is generally the cheapest and quickest route. You fill in your details, pay by card, upload a digital photo, and then post your old passport to the address you are given. The online service tells you clearly what to send and where, and you can track the application as it moves through the system.
The paper route still exists for those who prefer it. Forms are available from larger Post Office branches, and the Check and Send service — for a small additional fee — has a member of staff look over your form and photo before it goes off, which can catch the sort of small error that causes delays. Paper applications typically cost a little more than online ones and can take slightly longer, so if you are comfortable online, that is usually the better option.
One firm warning at this stage: always use the official government site. Plenty of lookalike websites charge extra fees for "checking" services you do not need, and they appear prominently in search results. If the price looks higher than expected, you are probably on the wrong site. Fees change from time to time and online applications cost less than paper ones, so check the current price on the official site before you apply rather than relying on what a friend paid last year.
Next: getting the photo right
The photograph is where applications most often stumble. The rules are strict because the photo is used for facial recognition at airport gates. You need a plain, light-coloured background with no shadows, a neutral expression, nothing covering your face or head unless worn for religious or medical reasons, and no glasses in most cases. Red-eye, glare and even a shadow behind your head can get a photo rejected.
Online applicants can take the photo at home with a phone, and the application process gives you an indication of whether it is likely to pass — ask someone else to take it rather than attempting a selfie, and stand against a plain wall in good, even light. Alternatively, photo booths and high street photo shops can supply a code that links your picture straight into the online application. Parents renewing for children should note the rules are a little more relaxed for babies and very young children, but the background and lighting requirements still apply. Sort the photo first, since that is the stage most likely to slow you down.
Then: sending your old passport
For a standard renewal you must send your old passport in the post. Until the new one arrives, you are without a passport, so do not book non-refundable travel in the gap if you can avoid it. Send it to the exact address given during your application, and consider a tracked or signed-for service for peace of mind — passports do occasionally go astray, and a tracking number makes any problem far easier to resolve.
Your old passport will come back to you separately, with the corner cut off to show it is cancelled, and it may arrive on a different day from the new one. That is normal, not a mistake. Delivery of the new passport itself is usually by courier or tracked post, and someone may need to be in to receive it.
While you wait: how long it takes, and what it costs
In quiet periods, a straightforward online renewal commonly comes back within a few weeks. At peak times it can take considerably longer, and the official advice is not to book travel until your new passport is in your hand — airlines can refuse boarding if the passport falls short of a destination's validity rules, and a booked trip cannot be salvaged by a passport still in processing.
If you need a passport urgently, there are fast-track and premium services at a higher cost, involving an appointment at a passport office — these are aimed at genuine urgency and book up quickly in busy months, so they are a backstop, not a plan. Keep the tracking details somewhere safe until the new passport is back in the drawer, and work through the form carefully rather than rushing it.
Before you travel: the Europe rule travellers keep missing
For trips to most of Europe, two separate checks apply to British passports, and both catch people out. Your passport must have been issued less than ten years before the date you enter — and expiry dates can be misleading here, because passports issued a while ago sometimes show an expiry more than ten years after issue. If your passport was issued over ten years ago, it may not be accepted for travel to the EU even if the expiry date printed in it looks fine.
Second, it must still be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave. Different rules apply for Ireland, and countries outside Europe set their own requirements — six months' validity is common — so check the entry rules for your specific destination on the government foreign travel advice pages before you book.
The one thing to do before you start
Find your current passport tonight and check the issue date as well as the expiry date, especially if you are heading to Europe. That one check — issued less than ten years before entry, valid for at least three months after you leave — decides whether you need to renew at all, and how urgently. Everything after it, the online form, the photo against a plain wall, the tracked envelope for the old passport, is just following the order through. Renew early, in a quiet month, and the passport is back in the drawer long before the trip it is needed for.