I don't blame you! Enjoy your good news!

Just received my passport after 14 weeks. Luckily my Congressman stepped in to help.
In my passport pusuit, I read many articles on the web about the fiasco. Found an interesting article from the Washington Times reporting the senate testimony by Maura Harty, State Department in charge of the passport mess. Apparently, there was a study commissioned by the State Dept LAST YEAR that predicted the number of applications this year, but the State Department chose to ignore that study and used their own lower figures. Applications started to come in at a higher rate as early as last November but Harty waited until March to hire more staff. This was by her own testimony before the Senate. Luckily, we won't have Maura Harty to kick around anymore because she is being promoted!!! Heck of a job Maura!!
Good luck to all out there who are still waiting. It's predicted to get worse before it gets better. Be sure to call your Congressman for help, that really works!

ARGH. Just called to check on my daughter's passport status (remember last week they said it was through the processing part and was due to be printed on 6/29?). Well today I hear that they can't tell where it is in the process, they have no idea when it will be printed, but I should not worry because there is no reason I won't get it. So yeah, I'm not worried.... WHY ARE THEY LYING TO PEOPLE?!!!

Applied at boston area post office in mid-March and received yesterday July 2. Didn't use expedited service and trip not planned for the fall so I don't imagine we were any kind of priority.

Oh, Sally I only wish we had gotten ours too. We also applied in March.

We renewed son's passport on April 14, but DH did not expedite. Needless to say, DH was in The Doghouse until recently. Somehow he charmed someone somewhere, because son's passport arrived today via Fedex at no addl cost. Don't ask me how. I just wanted to share some good news because all I hear is bad. We will be leaving for France in <3 weeks, and not leaving anyone behind! Good luck everyone.

I started a new thread the other day to get this information out, but there were no responses. Since this thread deals with passport problems, and some of you have paid to expedite, this should be good news:

"I ran across this website to get a refund of the fee to expedite passports that weren't received on date requested:

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc...259.html"

Good luck. Hope they don't handle the refunds like they did the passports. LOL

Some good news - I applied for our passport renewal by mail on June 19- did not expedite - received mine in the mail yesterday(July 9)!!! Less than three weeks! However, my husband's hasn't arrived as yet. So, they were mailed together - and we'll see when his arrives.

Well blh, that sure is good news FOR YOU! But somehow, it doesn't seem fair for the thousands of people like me that applied for renewal months ago ( March in my case) and have not received it yet.

I am not sure why you felt compelled to post under "Passport angst" as you had no time to fell any "angst"! LOL!!

We are supposed to leave for a Habitat for Humanity build in Hungary on July 19, followed by some travel. I sent my passport in for renewal the first week in March. Our US congressman is supposed to be assisting at this time. If this helps, I promise not to write him anything except a thank you note for at least 6 months!!!

OUCH! I mailed my passport in mid-June. Reading this thread, I must be happy if I get it renewed by January?

Cruiseluv, I'm sorry that you thought I was gloating - I was merely trying to encourage those who are waiting for their passports to come. Perhaps they will be lucky and will get them soon. I was also hoping that just maybe the passport situation is getting better??? Who knows. It may depend on where they're coming from. Like I said, ours were renewals - so they could be faster as well. My husband's did arrive today. I was the most surprised person ever to get these so quickly after having read all these posts for several months. I surely do hope the backlog is getting shorter and that everyone will receive theirs asap!

I am currently planning an exchange trip to Russia, and I was *supposed to* process the passports for visas the last week of June. We have one student who has still not received her passport, 14 weeks after sending in her application.

I am concerned about this now, and her mom feels that her hands are tied- but does anyone think that explaining the need to get the passport to process for a Russian visa would speed up the works?

My co-chaperone and I are both going away on vacation ourselves after next week- by the time we get back, it will be cutting too close to our departure date for me.

The other option is to have this one family have to travel the 3hrs. to NYC and get their own visa, once the passport arrives... I just don't want to waste their time unnecessarily...

Any thoughts?

%%-

Katya--If I were in your shoes, I would ask the family of the student to make the trip to NYC as soon as she receives her passport.

A friend of ours left last week for China and was on pins and needles as his passport hadn't arrived. This included many calls to his congressman.

His passport finally arrived 3 days before his flight to China BUT he needed a visa.

He spent an entire day driving to DC to the Chinese embassy. When he arrived, he was told there would be a 5 hr. wait. So wait he did seeing some of the sights of Washington.

Thankfully, he was able to leave on his trip but it sure was touch and go until the last minute.

blh

don't worry about cruiseluv. He/she isn't happy for anyone's good news - probably just too stressed out to be able to appreciate someone else's good fortune. Congrats to you though. I know what it is like to finally receive a passport - even if it isn't as long as others.

kwren, hey, I think you are a bit harsh on cruiseluv. If you were waiting for a passport for 15 weeks (like me) and kept getting posts from people saying how great it was they got theirs in six weeks I think you might be a bit bitter too. And what I think is happening is that it's MINOR's passports that are mostly held up. I have started to pay attention and it seems like those are the ones that take the longest. Both the one I'm waiting for and the one cruiseluv is waiting for meet that criteria. I get to call the office tomorrow for the fifth time to follow up on mine. Will it be here in time for my trip? Who knows.

cruiseluv put LOL at the end.

I thought she was joking not being rude.

sorry - didn't mean to be harsh. I think people post about receiving their passports not to gloat, but to offer hope, and to be honest, to share that they are happy becuase usually people at Fodor's both commiserate and usually also celebrate with the poster. I can understand how it would be frustrating to be waiting and waiting for a passport to arrive while others get theirs.

I think if I were to apply for a passport today, I would be feeling angst by tomorrow knowing how long it has been taking everyone else! LOL

It's interesting about the minors' being held up. Is there really a pattern with that?

Minors's passports are considered new applications each time and not renewals, so that could be why they are taking longer.
Travelatte

Monica and dandj,

Thanks for putting things in perspective.

I got a phone call yesterday from my Congressman's office. According to the Philadelphia passport office, my daughter's passport has been mailed and I should get it by Saturday. I'm not uncorking the champagne yet until I have it in my hands.

I am in my 16th week of waiting.

This is a great website with a lot of great info regarding this mess and helpful suggestions:

http://whirledview.typepad.com/whirl...g_with_th.html