I feel sorry for you Brits. In Sweden ... when we do the final examiner checkride ... he/she issues a temporary license on the spot, which you can fly on for a limited time until the real license arrives
That is also how things work in Canada (and the USA). It's also how we obtain new ratings (i.e., by way of handwritten endorsements on the reverse side of your existing license, pending the issuance of a new one).
Why the CAA would prevent a pilot from exercising the privileges of a license pending the completion of bureaucratic paper-pushing is beyond me. I also don't understand why a passport would be required for issuance of a license (I don't recall what form of identification is required here, but certainly there is no insistance upon a passport, a driver's license would be fine). And the very idea of sending my precious logbook off to Government Land ...
No thank you!!!