tennislvr1

By the way, I applied for a renewal on our passports...didn't pay for expedited return, although I did send it overnight.

Got it back in 3 1/2 weeks...so I think the expedited service fee is a big joke. The passport office claims they got flooded in the hurricane, so it could take longer.

And when I checked on the web site they said its estimated time of arrival was two weeks AFTER I received it.

Just thought I would pass this along to everyone. I know its risky since you definitely need one to travel across the border...but I thought I would just share my story.

cfntmpn

I don't understand. You said that you didn't pay for the expedited service.

Anonymous

I think they're saying that there's often no need to pay for expedited service because regular service was much faster than the web site claims.

Budman

This is the "slow" season. I would expect it to take much longer if you tried to renew during the heavily traveled summer months.

tennislvr1

right, I didn't pay for the expedited service fee to the government, however, I did mail my expired passport via overnite mail to them. They suggest paying the expedited service fee and also you should pay for overnite mail to return it to you, which in my case, would have been a waste of money since I got it back in 3 1/2 weeks. But you are right, it was during a slow season.

suze

Well if you paid for Expedited I assume it would then be ever faster than that.

You lucked out but it is a gamble. Just because yours came in 3-1/2 weeks I would never advise anyone else to count on that. Passports are too important to take chances with.

offlady

When we had to renew our passports in December 2001, we paid for the expedited fees. It arrived fairly quickly. It took less than 2 weeks as I recall, but I don't remember the exact number of days it took.