It is well worth your money to go to one of those agencies that will make copies certify them and send your application to Home Office.  I applied on First March and still did not receive my passport back.  I don't have any plans to travel but if you are planning to travel use agency near you and they will return your passport when you apply.  Home office only gets certified copies of your passport.  they only charge aropund 30 pounds.

Dear Waheed,

Thank you very much for that information - valuable advice indeed. I will most probably try and find a checking agency and get my passport checked without actually sending it off. Thank you once again for that and good luck with your application!

Kind regards,

Anna

Hello,

I have a question I hope someone can help me with. Can anyone tell me how long it usually takes for an applicant?s original passport to be sent back, as I understand (and hope I am right) that the Home Office does not hold on to it until they fully process the application. I have heard it can take from 2-3 weeks up to 2-3 months for the passport to be returned. Is this correct? I would really appreciate it if someone could give me this information as I intend to send my application within the next couple of weeks and I would need to travel towards the end of August. Am I right in thinking I should get my passport back by then?

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

Anna