![\"Stock](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_GettyImages-2193710067.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Passport Office is advising people to ensure their passport is in date and valid for the duration of your travel<\/p>\n
Irish passport(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
There are some recent changes to Irish passport applications that Northern Ireland travellers should be aware of ahead of booking their summer holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n As of December 2025, the Passport Office in Dublin <\/a>has changed the process of applying for a new passport via the “paper” method, with this no longer the standard application process.<\/p>\n Those hoping to apply for an Irish passport are being encouraged to do so online for shorter processing times. It comes as many of us will be thinking about booking our summer holiday, with the first Saturday of January typically being the most popular day<\/a> of the year for travel bookings.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Northern Ireland travel firm gears up for\u00a0\u2018Sunshine Saturday\u2019 booking boom<\/a>READ MORE: Irish Ferries issues warning to passengers over delayed journeys after port incident<\/a><\/p>\n In planning your holidays, making sure your passport is fully up-to-date is essential in advance. To apply for an Irish passport, people are being encouraged to apply online through this link.<\/a><\/p>\n If you are in Northern Ireland<\/a> or the Republic of Ireland<\/a>, you can also use the Passport Assist Service. As part of this service, the Passport Office team will generate a bespoke paper application form with your details pre-filled and post it to you for signing and witnessing (if necessary).<\/p>\n When you receive this form, check the details are correct, gather your supporting documents and passport photos, and bring these to your local post office.<\/p>\n Your post office will then take the payment and submit your application using the passport postal service.<\/p>\n To avail of this service, you can call +353 1 613 1795. This assisted service may be helpful for those who cannot access or use online services. To find out more about the Passport Assist Service, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n The Passport Office is advising people to ensure their passport is in date and valid for the duration of your travel. Some countries also require your passport to be valid for several months after you are due to depart.<\/p>\n Currently, the turnaround time for a simple adult passport renewal is ten working days, a child renewal is 15 working days, and a first time online application is 20 working days.<\/p>\n For a post (paper) application, the average turnaround time is currently eight weeks.<\/p>\n All turnaround times are the same regardless of the country of residence of the applicant. However, the turnaround times do not include postage delivery times, which may be longer for applications submitted from overseas.<\/p>\n The latest information on Irish passport turnaround times is available by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a> <\/strong>and <\/strong>sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> <\/strong>here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Passport Office is advising people to ensure their passport is in date and valid for the duration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[80195,89729,80196,81144,1144,13136,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-690478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-co-derry","9":"tag-co-fermanagh","10":"tag-co-tyrone","11":"tag-in-the-know","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-republic-of-ireland","14":"tag-travel","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115880692723151087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}