coming from a person who was SERIOUSLY worried about my passport I think you are OK. We are leaving May 12 & I went to my MP's office (rep. in Canada) & they didn't think it would be a problem at all. What did you put for the date of travel on your application?I put April 12th as the travel date. I got it on April 11th. If the cheque went through last week you will probably get it in the mail anyday now.

Call your congressman/woman's office on Monday and beg for help. Call the passport office again and see if they have receive the request to expedite.
Don't give up. Your persistence will pay off and you'll get your passport.
Let us know, OK?
Karina

My daughter applied 3/9, hasn't received, but she isn't going for a university study to Costa Rica until 7/15. No problem, except she is going on a small group study and the only other girl has not applied yet. Daughter told the prof about the passport delays., he said oh, when other girl applies she'll get it in 4 weeks.

Dolt.

Of course out of daughter's control, she can't make her friend apply...I don't know what will happen to the class when the only other girl mayhap will not have a passport.

We applied two passports through normal process for my kids at local post office on March 5th, 2007, and we have not received them. Our travel date is May 31st and we also need to apply for visa. I called the 877 number on May 14th as it was the end of 10th week and was told that we should received them prior to this Friday. Since it is Thursday today and we did not get them, I called again. Now the situation becomes tricky – I was told that one of them is not done yet, so the agency can expedite it. However the other one has been done on April 19th and it is sitting there for “quality control” purpose and for this one, we may need to go to one of the local agency for reprint. Has anyone had this kind of experience? I was told that no appointment is needed for this matter. Is it true?

Both passports are being processed at CHARLESTON Passport Center, which is not open to public.

Please advise.

My advice is the same as before.

Call your Congressman.... Tell them that you want you passport OUT of quality control and in your hands YESTERDAY! Be polite but firm.

You would go to your closest passport office even if the passport is being processed in Charleston. You can actually go to any of them. So if you have a problem getting an appt at the nearest, try another.

I thought that I'd done everything that I should to make sure I get mine on time, but I still don't have mine in my hands and I have 5 business days left to get this resolved. I am finding my congressman's office not to be very helpful. My first request for help was made on Thursday or Friday of last week. As of Wednesday, they had not heard back from Charleston where my passport is also being processed. On Wednesday, she was to resubmit the request. I spoke to someone at the National Passport Office today who told me that they have no record of any requests from my congressman.

What is most frustrating about this to me is that my sister and I applied at the same time, both applications went to Charleston, at some point her's was actually a step behind mine in the processing, I called to expedite both at the same time, I called both of our congressman at the same time. She received hers by FedEx 2 business days after I contacted her congressman. But for me, it's a week later and the National Passport Office doesn't even have record of my congressman's office requesting an expedite - although it's supposedly been requested TWICE!!! I know who I'm NOT voting for in the next election.

I tried calling my senator, but got a recorded message telling me that I need to download a form from the internet, fax it in, and due to the high volume of faxes, they'll eventually get to it...and not to go through more than one representative because that will slow down the process...last thing I want to do at this point.

I called my congressman's Washington DC office and explained the situation. They say that I have to deal with the local girl who hasn't been able to help me yet, but I think that I explained my frustration enough so that the girl from DC is going to call the local girl and get her to get this moving. We'll see.

I'm not panicked yet since I do have an appt at the Passport Office in Houston on Wednesday, but I really don't have the time to drive from DFW to Houston and back in a day. I know that many are finding it difficult to even get an appt, so I do feel a little lucky there, but if they could just get some organization to the process and do what they need to do, people wouldn't be missing their trips and unecessarily experiencing high blood pressure.

Anyway, since you are traveling within the next two weeks, you need to start calling to get an appt at a passport office now just in case you do need to go. Also, hound your congressman's office....I will continue every few hours until I get a FedEx tracking number or Wednesday comes and I have to go to Houston.

Thanks you both CarolA and Mrkindallas for your advices.

I did go to congressman’s local office this morning and it seems they are very helpful. They took my material (a doc of list of events, such as when, where, how we applied), my kids’ info, such as SSN, DOB. I was told that they will contact with the agency.
On my way back to work, I was thinking, heck, it is not far to the local offices of senators (glad there are only two senators for each state). So I went to the one of the senate’s office. It should be less than 20 minute by the time I spoke with the clerk of senator’s local office. The person at senator’s office made a call, and spoke with the agency, and he was told that there was just another inquiry made from the congressman’s office. SO it seems the ball is rolling, and hopefully we can get the passports in a timely fashion so that we can get visa before we depart on May 31st.

Since one of the passport is in “quality control” and I was told that there is not much they can do about it, and the other one is not done yet so they can expedite it. We also plan to make an appointment at Chicago’s passport agency but at this time, we can’t be sure when we need to go to Chicago. We want to have both passports and apply visa in Chicago.

I think the delay is a scandal - there are passport expediters who are guaranteed a number of slots where they can get their clients quick passports - the State Dept has agreed to this - these expediters work with individuals but are invaluable to cruise and group tours so they can assure passports.

to me it should be one queue, one price next up next served but Congress or someone has caved into special interests - not surprising i guess.

At least according to an article in Travel Agent magazine this is how they work.

Thanks.

Check a couple of commercial companies for expediting passport and on the website they say that once you have applied, they can’t expedite it. It is good only from the beginning.

I called the congressman’s office again and was told that they won’t get status update until next Wed at the earliest, which is around May 23rd, or 24th. The maneuver room for getting a visa is diminishing. I think I may have to cancel the flight, waste about 5000$ for tickets and stuff. I just can’t deal with my little girl’s tear as she wants this trip so badly.

I don’t know what I can do at this stage. I really don’t. So hopeless in the dark …..!!!
I really should not listen to the clerk at post office saying everyone getting passport within 10 weeks.

You all have a good weekend,

plead to the airline and see it they have a heart - like on bereavement fares?

Wanted to update - I received two of my three passports I am waiting on for our June 28th trip today. I applied for these two in Feb.-- they got here today. The third one I paid for expedited service but did not apply till April 9th. So it has been almost 5 weeks... it shows "processed" in the system...

I applied for my passport on 5/16 at my local post office. I paid the extra money to have my passport expedited, as my trip to Playa Del Carmen departs on June 7. I know 3 weeks is cutting it kind of close, but I had no other options. I tried to call the Passport hotline, but they wouldn't even talk to me unless I was traveling within 14 days. I didn't want to waste a whole week just waiting, so I went ahead and applied.

I am kind of nervous about the whole thing...I am so afraid I will not be able to go on my trip! I did see today on my bank statement that they did cash the check, so maybe that means I will get it soon? I hope so! Anyone have any advice? Thanks!

zzc: If you do have to postpone your trip, there is a good chance that you won't lose all the $5000 paid for tickets. Even with so-called non-refundable tickets, the airlines will often issue what amounts to a credit note, less a fee per ticket of about $100-200 and this credit can be used to purchase flights in the future. That's still not great, in the circumstances, but you likely won't lose the whole amount. If you booked your tickets through Expedia, Travelocity or something similar, though, the rules might be stricter.

Well travelers,

I am very much impressed. I received my expedited passport within 10 days from date of application. The only problem though, was my birthday was wrong. I immediately called the Passport hotline, and was connected with a lady that spelled out exactly what I need to do to have it fixed. I had to overnight my passport back to the center, I did this on Tuesday, and I am expecting my passport back (corrected) today. We'll see if the government can really come through with their promises.

It would be nice to see that the Gov made good on some promise at least
I hope for you.

Good news! I did receive my passport on the day promised, corrected and everything! I won't be missing my trip afterall! :) I hope this gives some hope to those how are nervous!

I posted this in general interest but will add it here too.

Here's info for anyone that is having trouble with their passport or paid an expedite fee and didn't get expedited service.
http://tinyurl.com/3ye6h9

This is getting really ridiculous. I need to renew my passport before August 8th, so I followed all of the instructions in this forum: sent my application Express Mail (with a return paid Express Mail envelope) and paid the fee for expedited service.

I just checked my status... according to them, I requested "routine" processing, which will get my passport to me in 10-12 weeks. Did I forget to check a box? I looked everywhere for one, but the only instruction I saw was to add $60 to my fee. Arg... I can't believe I have to wait until Monday to call on this.

Maybe the US should outsource to their own embassies. I nagged my husband nearly to death to get his picture taken for his passport which expires in August. He finally got the photo two weeks ago and I mailed the passport maybe 10 day ago to the Swiss Embassy in Bern. He received it today.