U.S. government officials have indicated lengthy passport delays may get worse before they get better.
They weren’t kidding.
Related: The Best Passports in the World
Rising demand for travel in 2023 has led to long delays in passport processing with the U.S. State Department, which issues passports, advising travel consumers to expect delays of six months or longer before they’re cleared for foreign travel.
There is some upside as the State Department said weekly passport processing applications have fallen from 500,000 in March to 400,000 in July.
“(We) anticipate that processing times will gradually decrease as we work toward our goal of returning to pre-pandemic processing by the conclusion of 2023,” a State Department recently noted. Overall, government officials expect to process more than 22 million passport applications by the end of the fiscal year, (September 30) which would be an all-time high.
Currently, the U.S. passport application process takes, on average, up to 13 weeks, not counting the amount of time to mail the completed document. Prior to the pandemic and related government lockdowns, passport processing times took only 2-to-3 weeks, the State Department reported.
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Post office-relate storage issues are a big part of the problem, as well.
Maryland House Representative Kweisi Mfume stated his office has reported a significant backlog for passport renewals, which are shipped to a Philadelphia P.O. Box. The passport applications are physically picked up by a government employee and taken to a central processing center for assignment.
“The issue we are seeing is that some applications being retrieved from this facility are being untouched for months,” said Ryan Lawrence, Mfume’s press secretary Ryan Lawrence.
Now that the State Department is advising travelers passport wait times are soaring to six months, officials are advising Americans to file their passports as early as possible.
It’s also a good idea to pay an extra $60 fee for expedited passport filing, which could cut wait times between 7 and 9 weeks. The standard passport processing fee is $130 for renewals and $165 for first-time applicants.
To cut wait times even further, try buying expedited passport mail delivery for an additional cost of $19.53. Choosing Priority Mail Express can also help speed up passport mail deliveries.
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