passport angst
 

How many of you are nervous about receiving your passport in a timely fashion? I sent my husband's and my passports to the office in Philadelphia to have Visa pages added & at the time I didn't know about the backlog. I need them back soon in order to get Visas for our trip to Russia. We are scheduled to leave June 9th.

Most of my friends that needed a Russian visa for work have said that it takes between 4-6 weeks in their hands before you see your passport again.If you don't see your passports by the third week of April-I would start looking for them. Good luck!

For comparison - I sent my renewal in (regular mail) on March 6th. I paid for "expedited" service. Using the passport services' web status checking page, I didn't even see that it had been received until March 29th. But then it suddenly showed as being in progess, and in two business days it arrived in on 4/2 in a priority mail package.

Last July, I had to apply for a passport for my four week old daughter - I paid for expedited service and received passport in less than a week and a half. No problems at all - there is a telephone number on the passport website that you can call with your social security number and they will tell you exactly where in the process you are.

Somewhat off topic, BUT,

In the future, for anybody that needs extra pages in their passport and happens to be in a major foreign city where US Embassy/Consulate is located - then take few hours off from your vacation and have it done there.

First advantage - it's free

Second advantage - it's usually done within an hour or two or at the very worst, it's ready for pick up next day.

Third advantage - it's never handled by third party. You and US consular official(s) are the only people handling it.

Finally, even if you still have few pages left but many more years to go on the expiration date and you travel a great deal, then the above recommandation is the way to go as soon as you get to a foreign location. After all, it's free....:-D

Happy travels!

I took my five-year-old to the post office here on 20March to have her passport renewed. Paid a small fortune for expedited service, as we leave in May, and I was afraid that we wouldn't have it in hand, but still warned that it would be the middle of April before we got it. It came this past Saturday (31March) in a Priority Overnight envelope :)

Interesting. Mine expires in November, but I have no immediate plans ... still, Argentina is a possibility within the next 12 months.

You have me forewarned, and I'll watching for developments.

Yep, while there is a backlog, it appears that currently, they are handling the expedited requests very quickly. We renewed my BFs and it was less than a week from the time we sent it in and the time we received it back.

On another note, back in 2002 I had to renew my passport with about 6 weeks notice. I paid to expedite it. It was NOT expdited. It arrive the day before my trip. Scary.

Marsh-I'm not sure when you sent yours in, but as a point of reference, I mailed my passport for new visa pages a little over four weeks ago and have not received it back yet. I'm not traveling until mid-June, and I was able to obtain my visa electronically (Australia), so I'm not worried at the moment.

Also, I used an agency to obtain my Russian visa a couple of years ago. I let them know that I needed the passport back promptly for another trip--it took about 2.5 weeks from the time I mailed it to California until I had it back in my hands. Nevertheless, I probably wouldn't wait too long before calling to check on the passport. Good luck!

Hi M,

IIRC, you can call the passport office and have your paperwork expeditied if you are within 2 weeks of the date that you will need it.

Also ask your Member of Congress to help.

((I))

Yahoo is my default page when I log on...news report this morning (Wednesday) issued by the State Department that they are just about caught up and prepared to do the expidited requirements again...

If there is any question about getting your passport back in time for your trip, you can go into the nearest MAJOR passpost office and pay the expedited fee to have it walked through the same day. We have done this with various friends at Miami, DC, New York and San Francisco. Once I had packed our own passports by mistake and not remembering which bag they were in we stopped on the way to the airport and walked our new ones through in 4 hours.

I also read the article on Yahoo. They are supposedly about caught up with the expedited applications and should be able to complete processing within a 2-week timeframe again, but regular applications are still taking 10 weeks. Hopefully, they'll start focusing on getting the regular applications caught up. I submitted my application on March 3rd at the post office and it's still not showing up on the website (4.5 weeks later) despite the website's statement that regular applications should now be showing up within 3 weeks. My trip isn't until May 28th, so I'm not in a panic yet, but will be soon if that website doesn't change. I really don't want to make a trip to Houston at the last minute.

Oh, and I tried calling the 800 number to ask about the delay in having it show up on the website and whatever set of options I chose resulted in a greeting that went something like "Thanks for calling. We are too busy to help you. Your options are to check the website or call back later. Goodbye." Gotta love that. I wish I could put something like that on my voicemail at work..."Hi. You've reached my voicemail. I'm too busy to take your call at this time. Your options are to hang up and call back later to get this same message or just don't call back at all. Love ya...Bye."

We ended up calling our Congressman last year after a long delay and we received the passport the next day overnight!! Our trip was 10 days away and the passport had been there 8 weeks. This was March of 2006 when it was only taking 4-6 weeks. We tried to expedite after we had initially sent it in (like the website says) but they wouldn't say if they could do that or not. I made numerous calls and e-mails. I highly recommend calling your Congressman if deadlines get tight. Good luck!

This is Marsh again! Thanks to everyone who replied. I was able to speak to a pleasant lady on the phone at the National Passport Center at 6:50 a.m. CDT yesterday. She said my info is not in their system yet. (The P.O. confirmation stated it was received March 16th.) She said there is nothing they can do until it "shows up" in the system. That makes me nervous. I plan to call my Congressman, but I wonder if they will be able to help if I am "not in the system". I live way too far from a passport agency to go to one. I do plan to use the Visa agency recommended by our tour company if & when I get the passports back!

Why do so many countries have inefficient passport agencies? Here in South Africa passports are a bit of a joke. I have one fortunately valid for eight more years but my son and his family have recently applied and can expect to wait 6 to 8 weeks. What is so complicated in putting a passport together or am I missing something? I cannot believe that thousands of passport applications are received every day!!

I was worried about the passport issue as well. My son decided last minute to go with us to France and had to rush to get his photo and passport application in. Paid for expedited service and he received his passport in 2 weeks to the day! What a relief! I checked on line daily at this link https://passportstatus.state.gov/opss/OPSS_Status_i.asp and was able to get confirmation that it was processed and in the mail after 1 1/2 weeks. I honestly don't know whether the Visa issue would delay the processing though.

Marsh: Do keep us posted on how this works out. Maybe I am too commited to this site but I can't tell you how many times someone will ask a question like this and then just leave us hanging, never really knowing how it all turned out. It's like one of those old serial shows with the cliffhanger but nobody comes back to finish the story. I may find myself asking, "I wonder what ever happend to Marsh's passport and did her husband ever get it back in time for their trip to Russia?" on some sleepless night two years from now. Gee, maybe I need to get a life, huh?

Rd, I don't know what's up in most countries, but in the US our travel regulations were changed last year requiring a passport for travel to places previously accessible without: certain Caribbean countries, for instance. Suddenly everybody and his brother and sister rushed off to get a passport, and the backlog was begun.

Maybe it also has something to do with more and more college students taking off to more distant places for school breaks - when I was in school a trip to ski in Colorado or the beach in Florida was the optimum. Now it's Belize, Paris, Rio - you name it.

But it does seem the bureaucracy should be able to gear up to the need.

When I checked the website today, it finally showed that I am in the system! It has been 4 weeks since they received our passports.

Marsh, I mailed my passport in for new visa pages with regular processing, and I also noticed that mine was in the system today (was not there yesterday). It's been just over five weeks since they received it.

ttt

I called the number on the website and they tagged mine for a three day service. It cost about $49 more, but I didn't want to wait. Then it was sent by FedEx, which for some reason, I didn't have to pay for. I think it was worth it.

The saddest guy walked into my restaurant Sunday morning. He had just left DTW where he was turned away from taking a trip with his girlfriend to St. Martin. Seems his passport never got to the mailbox in time, He had paid for the rush delivery, called when he still hadn't received it, and was promised a letter via overnight to state his passport # and the fact he had one it just hadn't arrived yet, that didn't show up either. He took the chance of going to the airport, after much jerking around by the airline (like saying we'll let you go, but we'll have to call S. Carolina to see if they'll let you through, they said no) so after waiting around the airport for 3 hours he left. Broken hearted and His girlfriend gone on without him (I told him I would have left my man standing at the gate too)he came to my place to wallow in his coffee and eggs. Oh, BTW he called his travel agent for advise the night before and she led him to believe they'd let him on the plane (another reason in my book why NOT use a TA, then you have only yourself to blame)

He booked a flight for tues. to St. Martin and is hoping and praying it comes in on time. Also another Customer called Me and asked if I could find a cheap ticket to Cancun for her daughter who was going on spring break and had not got her passport yet (applied Jan 15, and paid extra for rush)and no way was she missing out on the trip. Even if she had to drive to chicago and pick up the passport. It came in the night before she was supposed to leave.

Anyone got the stat's on what our government is raking in on all this passport crap. You need one to fly out of the country, but you don't need one to drive in or out of the country. And who knows what other rules they'll be changing. It's all about the money I believe.

It doesn't have anything to do with the money, it is "homeland" security. Actually, although I don't like that whole issue nor the admin, I agree that you should have a passport to go to/from a foreign country. I think it's silly of folks who don't think they should have to have one or never got one. I got one as soon as I was an adult, it's just common sense. St Martin is a foreign country, as is Mexico.

Obviously the requirement of a passport is to keep track of who gets in - as well as who is leaving. We used to be able to travel to much of the Caribbean without a passport, but it's been determined that the bad guys could use that as a port of entry to the US.

I recall that I was able to get my first passport fast, but then I live in NYC, where there is an office. (Most people here use the mail, however, I see them at the post office every time I go in.) I discovered on my first visit to the office here that by the time they open there would be a day-long line - literally, by 9:00 AM, 300 people in line. But arrive by 8:00 and you'd be in the first 50 in line. (Remind anyone of attending the Vatican museum?)

All that said, if a business suddenly had the increase in work that the passport office has, they'd hire some temps to take up the slack = why let backlogs get to the point of several months? Of course, they do not have budget flexibility to make those moves.

Deegirl,
How recently did you call & get 3 day service on your passport? I have been dealing with the office of my Congressman. On Friday she told me basically that my passports would be found & the pages added soon. Today, it was a different story! She said the passports are in a box in a building in Charleston & who knows when they will be located, even though I was given a "locator #" on the website of the state dept. I am going to be in panic mode until I get some good news! I need time to get that Russian Visa. If only I had know to expedite!

GOOD NEWS! Our passports arrived today by overnight priority FEDEX! I don't know exactly how it happened, but I can breathe again. This is exactly five weeks from the day I mailed them by priority mail. The first person I spoke with at the National Passport Agency told me that she would FAX my info to the proper dept. & state that I needed the passports for my Russian Visas. I didn't pay for anything! It is a miracle!

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad they arrived Marsh. Have a wonderful trip and I hope the worst of the problems are over now.

I thought I'd add another data point for anyone wondering how long this is taking now...

I mailed my passport in for additional visa pages (normal processing) on March 6 and received it back today--just under eight weeks. It took more than five weeks before it showed up in the tracking system. Once it did, though, it was processed fairly quickly, in a little less than two weeks.

I took my son to the post office to renew his passpost about 3 weeks ago and was told it should take about 10-12 weeks. that gives us 3 weeks leeway. Hmmm, should I start to worry now or wait till July? :(

To those of you stressing.... CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON!!!! They have people whose JOB it is to deal with issues like that for their citizens. Besides which they oversee this agency and should be aware that the VOTERS are not happy!

There's another thread on this and several persons have reported that the congressperson method is helping!

I sent in my renewal two weeks ago and they've already cashed the check and the website says it is being processed. Considering what I read prior to sending it in, I'm amazed that it is already being tracked. I didn't request expedited service either.

This has been a nightmare. :(

After I checked on here and saw all the nightmares I figured it would be best to get an appointment.
So I call,when I finally get someone she tells me they won't process my renewal until 14 days before I leave and to call back on the 20th. The automated service gives me an appointment the day before I fly out. ((n)) I leave on a Saturday. So I keep at it until I get someone. She makes me an appointment for May 3 and takes my e-mail address to send me the info. What do I get???? A cancellation saying they only allow appointments no sooner than 3 days before travel date. WTF?????/ Why didn't she say so on the phone?

I try the automated again,cause I can't get anyone on the phone. Now I'm getting an appointment 2 days after I leave. *filled with murderous rage*
So I take off work to get this all straightened out. I can't find my passport and apparently there's some kind of code that won't allow me to print my itinerary. I do some flipping around of subject and copy/paste some more stuff to get it to print.

Finally get down there (DC office) with the stench of desperation and no ticket. They let me file and I have to go back Tues. (tomorrow) I hope there are no issues. I leave for Prague this Sat. May 5th. :(

*totally screaming inside*

Thanks for telling me about the passport tracking site. Unfortunately, my son's application has not yet entered the system, but I'll just keep checking for a while. It does say that it takes 4 weeks to enter the system and last year I know we did get our passports on time.

tzarinna - it's not enough to have the stress of getting ready for a vacation and now have this problem. Just letting you know I feel for you and hope it gets straightened out quickly so you can enjoy your trip.

Thanks,kwren. :) This got to be the most stress trip planning ever for me. I cna breathe a little better now though.

I got it. They told me on Friday to come on Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. I got there at 2 p.m. and they hadn't given any out,the line was bad but not as bad as it could've been. So I got to chat and complain with some fellow travelers. One woman had sent in her application in February and some how it got sent to another state *can't remember which* and here it is May and she still hasn't gotten it. She told them her travel date was for April 30th. *shakes head*

Friday there were two or three armed guards. Today there were 5 or more. Hmmmmmm,I wonder what ever for? ;)

Hi, I am new but have passport anxiety! My son applied March 23rd (did not expedite) and my question is:

If May 14th (2 wks before trip) comes and we call the Passport Office, what will be involved in expediting the passport? Will we be required to go to a regional office, or can it be done by phone?
Thanks for any tips to help me sleep at night...

t

Ever since I first saw this thread I've been checking to see if my son's passport had been started. Finally, success! Thought I'd give you all some info.

We applied April 11 and it's in the system now, 3 weeks later. The page is still saying it should take 10 weeks.

Hope that helps anyone in the early stages of the process. I know I was getting worried reading about all this.

We applied March 18th and received them on May 2nd. (only 6+ weeks?- I was told 10 weeks) I was impressed. Remember that your birth certificates will be sent back to you separately.