My next trip is in December and I thought I had more than enough time until I read about all the passport renewal nightmares of last year when people had to wait 4+ months for their new passports

With all my airfares and most hotel bookings being restricted and nonrefundable, I better not miss this damn trip!!

My sister just sent hers in to renew and they told her four weeks.

When we got ours renewed in January thr turnaround-time was less than a week.

I have been issued a passport twice this year: One because my passport was to expire two weeks before my honeymoon, the second to reflect my new married name. In both instances, it took about three weeks. Very easy. DO NOT PAY for the "faster" service, which says you'll get your passport in about three-four weeks!

Oh congratulations Back2Sabi! No I didn't pay the extra expediting fee but apparently things have improved since last year's passport rush!

*finally breathing a sigh of relief*

It's really very easy to renew your passport on-line.

Well, I don't know about renewals, but I assume those are faster than getting a passport for the first time? I just received my first passport, and it only took a week and 5 days from the day that I applied for it until it showed up at my door. Thank God that I didn't pay for expedited service!

Renewing a passport online? How do you get them the requisite photos?

It took less than 2 weeks to renew mine in July.

You can print the form you can download online but you cannot renew online for a passport, at least not in the US. YOu have to mail it in as it does require your photos as well as your current passport.

Sorry! It wasn't clear from the original post that the reference was to a US passport.
(From Australia.gov.au, "The Passport website from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade allows you to apply for a new passport, or renew an existing one.&quot
I have recently found the renewal process quite quick and simple.

Further to my confusion: Why was a question about the renewal of a US passport posted on the European Branch?

adeben,

Why say 'sorry'? It wasn't your fault the OP didn't ask a clear question, although you were guilty of making asumptions yourself! As always the quality of the answer depends on the quality of the question.

I really appreciate everyone's comments, thanks a lot.

adeben, don't worry about it. My question may have been unclear to you, but 90% of fodorites are American, and the most frequented forum by Americans who travel overseas and thus need passports are here on the European forum.

We just renewed ours. It was exactly two weeks from the time we mailed them till the time we received them back -- 11 working days. We didn't expedite and just sent them standard mail.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed, thanks NeoPatrick.

I probably shouldn't have stated my December travel date on the application form, as I'm afraid they might put off processing my application till December

Well, I put ours as June, as we have no plans to travel out of the country. But that didn't seem to make any difference!

By the way, I posted here that I was upset we didn't get our old passports back, but as someone here told us, we did get them back a day or two later in a separate mailing.

That's great news! I'll just stop worrying for now. But should November come without a trace of my new passport, I sure will be calling my congressman's office!

Should you find yourself in a real pickle, you may live near one of the u.s. passport agencies and you can go through them. They won't even talk about seeing you unless you're less than 2 weeks away from traveling...

http://travel.state.gov/passport/abo...ncies_913.html

I renewed in March 2008 and received mine back in less than ten days. My adult neice's renewal took a bit longer as she had a name change. I have yet to understand why I was required to send in two photos as the second photo was returned to me, stapled to my old passport.

not that you should need to do it in person. You'll get your passport by the end of the week I bet!