![]() ![]() He said the department is hiring agents as quickly as possible, opening more appointments and trying to address the crisis in other ways. When demand for travel all but disappeared during the pandemic, he said, the government let contractors go and reassigned staff that had been dedicated to handling passports.Īround the same time, the government also halted an online renewal system "to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it," Blinken said. “With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,” Antony Blinken told a House subcommittee March 23. secretary of state had an answer, of a sort. “I can’t afford four more plane tickets anywhere in the United States to get a passport when I applied in plenty of time,” she said.īy March, concerned travelers began asking for answers and then demanding help, including from their representatives in the House and Senate, who widely reported at hearings this year that they were receiving more complaints from constituents on passport delays than any other issue. She calls the toll-free number every day, holds for as much as 90 minutes to be told – at best – that she might be able to get a required appointment at passport offices in other states. ![]() “My nerves are shot, because I may not be able to get to him,” she said. “We'll still be OK,” she thought.Īt two weeks to travel, this was Collier's assessment: “I can’t sleep." Failure to obtain the family’s passports would mean losing $4,000, she said, as well as the chance to meet one of her sons in Italy after a study-abroad semester. Then the State Department upped the wait time for a regular passport to as much as 13 weeks. "Plenty of time," Collier recalled thinking. They'd have their passports a month before they needed them. The clerk, she said, estimated wait times at eight to 11 weeks. It was early March when Dallas-area florist Ginger Collier applied for four passports ahead of a family vacation at the end of June. How long does it realistically take to get a passport? The deluge is on-track to top last year’s 22 million passports issued, the State Department says. That’s left the passport agency flooded with a record-busting 500,000 applications a week. They're blaming the epic wait times on lingering pandemic-related staffing shortages and a pause of online processing this year. officials aren't even denying the problem or predicting when it will ease. Some applicants are buying additional plane tickets to snag in-process passports where they sit – in other cities – in time to make the flights they booked in the first place. With family dreams and big money on the line, passport seekers describe a slow-motion agony of waiting, worrying, holding the line, refreshing the screen, complaining to Congress, paying extra fees and following incorrect directions. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. ![]() passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport.Ī much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels – with too few humans to handle the load. Department of State." The acceptance facility will also charge a separate $35 fee that can be paid by money order or (at select locations) by check, cash or card.Watch Video: Wait for US passports snarls summer plans ![]() Form of payment: When submitting your application at a passport acceptance facility (such as designated libraries, post offices or local government offices), you'll need to pay for the application fee with either a check or money order payable to "U.S.Passport photo: See the FAQ section below for U.S.Just as with the citizenship proof, you have to make a photocopy of your photo ID too. Identification document: Your government-issued photo ID can be a driver's license, a government employee or military ID, a valid foreign passport, a Certificate of Naturalization, a Certificate of Citizenship, or another form of ID deemed acceptable by the State Department.Aside from the physical proof, you must also bring a photocopy for the State Department to keep. birth certificate, a Certificate of Naturalization, a Certificate of Citizenship or a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, among certain other options. citizenship: This evidence can take the form of an original or certified copy of a U.S. Form DS-11: You can fill out the DS-11 passport application online or by hand, but don't sign the form until an authorized agent instructs you to do so. ![]()
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