Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for first-time UK child passport applications submitted via the British High Commission in New Delhi, India.

All passport applications from persons resident in India are submitted via one of the visa application centres in India. The .gov.uk website sets out the expected turnaround times for applications from individual countries. These are provided as a guide so that the applicant is aware of the minimum period they may expect their application to take once it has been received by HM Passport Office in the UK. Applications from India are expected to take a minimum of 16 weeks. The time taken to process an individual case varies depending on the circumstances of the case, whether HM Passport Office needs to ask for further information or documents, or whether the photographs which accompany the application are rejected.