With international travel finally rebounding from COVID-era lows, Americans are renewing their passports in huge numbers. But thanks to delays at the State Department, many are finding that their documents won't be ready in time for summer vacations. As of March 24, routine processing was taking 10 to 13 weeks, while expedited processing was taking seven to nine weeks.
Pandemic-era problems have helped cause previous and current backlogs. Once COVID-19 and government restrictions hit, most State Department employees began teleworking and couldn't process passport applications at home for security reasons. "Almost 1.8 million applications that were in the pipeline just sat there for three months," reported The Washington Post. Many State Department employees were let go or reassigned to other duties after pandemic travel restrictions caused passport demand to crater.
