Guidance

Passport printing and dispatch

Updated 16 January 2026

Version 9.0

This guidance is for His Majesty’s Passport Office staff and explains how to print a passport, the difference between central and local print and how customers receive printed passports.

About: Passport printing and dispatch

This guidance is for His Majesty’s Passport Office staff and explains how to print a passport, the difference between central and local print and how customers receive printed passports.

Contacts

If you have any questions about the guidance and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the guidance has factual errors then email the Guidance team.

If you notice any formatting errors in this guidance (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the guidance then you can email Guidance team.

Publication

Below is information on when this version of the guidance was published:

• version 9.0
• published for Home Office staff on 16 December 2025

Changes from last version of this guidance

This guidance has been updated:

• to show HM Passport does not always offer an upgrade service
• to change the name of this guidance from Passport print to Passport printing and dispatch
• to merge the guidance documents ‘Passport printing’ and ‘How to choose a passport print location’ (which has been archived)
• in the section How to decide what passport printing service to use to amend what examiners must consider, when they are deciding which print service to use
• in the section Customer collection of printed passports to tell examiners they can only offer the customer the upgrade service when HM Passport Office makes a business decision to make it available
• to add new sections with contact details for Local Print Services (LPS) and counter managers:
  • LPS email addresses and telephone numbers
  • Counter manager contact details
• in the section, When the print location has been updated,  to tell examiners they must contact the counter manager to agree the time and date a customer will collect their passport before they send a Local Print Room (LPR) digital referral form

Related content

Local Print services

Counter collections

Premium service: processing the application

Digital Fast Track: processing the application

Tiered Application Service - the service levels we provide

Royal Mail returns

Passport print locations

This section tells His Majesty’s Passport Office staff where passports are printed, the differences between central print and local print and how to decide what print location to use.

HM Passport Office prints passports using central and local print. Central print is more cost effective and is used to print most passport types.

DAP (Digital Application Processing) automatically selects whether an application will be printed using local or central print depending on:

• the type of passport
• the service type the customer has applied for (for example, Premium service applications are automatically sent to local print)
• if the customer has asked for a braille sticker when applying

You can also send urgent government business and compassionate applications to local print, by changing the print location.

Central print

Central print is an automated passport printing service owned and managed by our business partner Thales. Central print allows HM Passport Office to print passports at a central location in a cost efficient and time effective way.

HM Passport Office use central print to print most passports for customers in the United Kingdom and overseas. Central print personalises 34-page or 54-page passport books by adding customer details, including their nationality and photo.

Central print also prints other passport types, such as British overseas territory and Diplomatic or Official passports.

Local print

Local print is a passport printing service that allows staff at one of HM Passport Office’s 7 regional customer service centres to print 34-page or 54-page passports. Local print teams cannot print other types of British passports (for example, Diplomatic passports).

HM Passport Office use local print to provide passports for customers who have paid for a quicker service (for example, Premium or Digital Fast Track collect)  and if we issue a passport for urgent government business or compassionate reasons or we are correcting an error.

You, the examiner, can change the location of the customer service centre the passport is printed at, if the customer asks for a different one. You must change the print location before the application is cleared for issue.

How to decide what passport printing service to use

When deciding if a passport needs to be printed using central or local print, you must consider:

• the service type the customer has paid for (for example, Premium or Standard)
• the type of passport the customer has applied for (for example, Diplomatic and Official passports must be sent to central print)
• if the customer has requested a braille sticker
• if the customer has contacted us to ask for an upgrade and HM Passport Office are currently offering an upgrade service
• if there is a customer service reason to use local print instead of central print (for example, a passport error or an unnecessary delay, see Replacement passports for passports we have issued with an error)

When deciding to use central or local print, you must use the information the customer has given you and refer to the appropriate guidance.

When a passport print location can be changed

You can change the passport print location on an application, if any of the following reasons apply:

• unsafe or remote address and the customer needs to collect
• change of local print location (for example, if we need the passport printing at another application processing centre for the customer to collect it)
• official error and the customer has urgent travel in less than 2 weeks
• urgent processing required, due to a HM Passport Office delay or if the customer is travelling for diplomatic or official reasons and cannot wait for a Diplomatic or Official passport
• the customer meets a photo exception due to a disability, in line with the Photo standards guidance
• the customer wants to add or remove a braille sticker on a live application
• there are safeguarding or vulnerability concerns

If you need to change the print location, you must follow How to decide what passport printing service to use.

You must follow How to decide what passport printing service to use, to make a decision on when to use central print and when to use local print.

How to return a passport from central or local print

You can request a passport be returned to examination from central and local print if the application timeline shows an application has been approved. If you need to return a passport to examination you must follow Returning a passport to examination guidance.

If the passport has already been printed, you must arrange for the secure delivery provider to return the passport to HM Passport Office. To do this you must follow the guidance and complete the form for either:

• a UK redirection pull request form; or,
• an international return request form

How customers receive their new passport

This section tells HM Passport Office staff how customers receive their passport after it has been printed

HM Passport Office make sure valid passports are kept secure until they are received by the customer. Once a passport has been printed, we will deliver it using secure delivery or allow the customer to collect the passport from our public counter (if they meet the criteria for collection).

Secure delivery of printed passports

Our business partners collect printed passports directly from central or local print and deliver them to customers in the UK and overseas. Customers will have their passports delivered by:

• Royal Mail if they are in the UK
• DHL if they live overseas

Royal Mail collect printed passports from both central and local print and deliver them to customers in the UK.

For more information about secure delivery, see Posting passports and documents guidance and for information on delivery addresses see, Delivery and correspondence addresses for letters, passports and documents.

Customer collection of printed passports

Customers who meet the criteria can collect their passport, when this has been printed using local print, from the public counter.

Customers can collect their passport from the public counter at any application processing centre (APC):

• in person
• by authorising a third party (for example, a family member or a courier)

If a passport is printed using central print, there is no collection option. Interventions (for example, re-directing a passport) can only happen when the passport is with the secure delivery supplier.

Customers who need their passport urgently can apply for an upgrade and arrange to collect their passport from the public counter only if HM Passport Office are currently offering an upgrade service. See, Upgrades: how to deal with passport service upgrades.

If a customer does not collect their passport, Counter teams must deal with these following the Uncollected passports from the counter guidance.