Passport Renewal
 

Does anyone know how long it is taking to renew a passport AND do I need to give my current one up while applying for a new one?

I'm interested in this too. (I know the passport site probably has the info, but fodorites with experience are so much more interesting. :-)

And is the new passport dated upon the old one's expiration? Mine expires next March. If I send it in early, I forfeit 1/2 a year. On the other hand, if I wait to late, I might not get to go on an impulsive trip to one of the countries that require a passport with 6 months still on it!!!

Plus, I hate to entrust it to the passport office this summer. It might be March before it comes back...

Yes- you must send in the old one to get a new one. As for how long it will take - read the posts - it sounds like at least 12 weeks unless you pay for expedited.

New applications are taking up to 13 or more weeks (routine, not expedited service). Not sure about renewals.

The new passport date will be the day the issue it, with not connection to the old passport expiration date.

Renewals are also taking at least 12 weeks, and even 5-6 weeks if you pay the extra $60 for expedited handling.

We mailed ours in on April 10 and don't have them yet (of course, it has "only" been 9 weeks).

And, yes, you have to send in your old passport when you renew.

Report on the National news tonight says some people who had Passports delayed may be eligble for a refund..

send the paperwrk in and I wonder how long you wait for that?????

Sorry..I just can't resist...makes you wonder about a country when law abiding people can't get in or out..and the nonlaw abiding people have no trouble going in & out...in fact we PAY to put them on airplanes and fly them out of the country...they don;t need a passport..

OK got that of my chest.

The time s/b getting shorter now that they will not require passports for people flying to Mexico/Canada. The big rush for people to get passports that never had them is why they have been taking so long.

As nytraveler and J62 said: send in the old one, it gets punched to make it invalid and then sent back to you with the new one; new one is date of issue, not date old one expired.

If you're willing to pay the money and are close enough to a Dept of State Passport Agency, you can wait until the very last minute to get your new passport. You must prove that you are departing the country within 14 days (i.e., ticket or e-ticket confirmation). You call a toll-free number and make an appointment, and can pick it up the same day. You also can expedite in this manner if you need your passport in advance of your trip in order to get a required visa for the country, but if you're not flying out within 14 days, you will have to wait for them to mail it to you (you can pay for express mail shipping).

I just did this and it cost $143: passport renewal fee, expedite fee, and $16 for express mail. It's enough of an expense that IMO I'd only do it if you have to (as I did), but it does help if you need to be flexible and are worried about the turnaround time.

Go to travel.state.gov and click on Passport Agencies for locations and the toll-free number.

(BTW, the Dept of State has had this service even before the recent snafus with renewal. It's a good resource to remember in case of those last-minute trips!)

Good luck!

Can anyone use the expedited service.
We leave Sept 11.

We applied for my son's passport 14 weeks ago. He leaves for Italy Monday (hopefully) but his passport has not arrived. Our congressman's office has been working with us for 2 weeks. What a nightmare!

Katiemay,
I don't think there is a restriction on who can do expedited (ex. people leaving within 30 days). I was just looking into this for my boss.
Here is more info:

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get...first_831.html

We are leaving on Sept 11. Our passport expires on Feb 8, 2008. We
get conflicting info from the consulate
general's office for Poland re whether
the passport date has to be 6 mo out
from date of return.
Can you use the expedite service just
because you want to, or does the travel
have to be within 2 or 3 weeks.
t

oops, I didn't think my questions had
been posted.
Has anyone used in of the website
services to expedite?

Katiemay, I would try to get specific info from the Polish consulate. Often the airline will also have this information. If you only need to have the passport be valid for 3 months from your trip, you can wait until you've returned to do the renewal.

ggreen, I have found that the consular
websites all say 3 mos. even New YOrk
which is the one that told me 6 mos.
I have checked with Lot and American a/l
and they both said we are o.k.
I did send an email to the A.embassy in
Warsaw, for further backup.
I think if they deny us entry, we can
go to the Aembassy and have it renewed
or at least extended for 2 mos.

Katiemay, I read that Poland is part of the group of countries covered under the Schengen treaty. In those countries, your passport needs to be valid for 3 months from date of visit. (I know this firsthand from a tight situation last year on a trip to France.) However, the information I read (on Wikipedia) wasn't that clear on whether or not Poland had fully implemented the Schengen visa requirements or not. I write this mostly to back up what you have posted of what you have learned. IMO I would definitely try to get an email confirmation or speak to someone on the phone: that's a long flight over! Good luck!!

I received an email this am from the
American Embassy in Warsaw and they
said my pp is valid for my travel.
Polish consulate in D.C. said it is,
too. So did Chicago. So, we are
going with their word.
We have numbers to call at the embassy
and also an afterhours number.
I feel comfortable with it.
Thanks for all the comments.

bgreen, u.s. citizens don't need
a visa for Poland. That is clear
on all websites for Poland.

ggreen, I looked at the Wikipedia
site and the treaty won't be
implemented until March of 2008.
Does Poland like the U.S.
I think the American Embassy in
Warsaw should have current info.???

Katiemay, yes I agree, I think you should feel comfortable with all those confirmations and the afterhours numbers you have, too.

The Wikipedia entry confused me, too, with that info about March 08. (That was why I sounded so vague!) Wikipedia's great for initial info, but you never can be too sure of the hard facts, so your info from the embassy and consulate is much more concrete.

From what I understand, the Schengen treaty says all foreigners need a visa - HOWEVER, for tourists, that visa is the same as the entry stamp when you pass through immigration. So you don't need a visa in the way we think of one. (This is something I never knew until recently; I never considered the immigration stamp to be like a visa!)

Have a great trip! :)

FYI - I paid the expedited fee, sent my application in Express Mail and enclosed a self-addressed, postage-paid Express Mail envelope.

They received it on Tuesday, June 12, and I got my new (and old) passport today, Friday, June 22. 10 days! Best extra $90 I've ever spent.

(In case anyone wants to know, I'm from Los Angeles and sent my passport renewal to Philly)

I finally got thru to the Los Angeles
Consulate General and was told that
pp 90 day rule applies.. I told her
that their website doesn't give any
pp info, just the visa. She said she
is going to update it. We will see!!
I feel much better. That is my
last source of information. IF it is
wrong, those immigration agents are
going to see this old lady cry.

<b>WHEW</b>

Just received our new passports (with requested extra pages) after 13 weeks, with regular service. We got the old ones back along with the new. Good thing we didn't need them until Oct. I was going to panic in Aug.((*))

I just wanted to share my passport renewal experience with everyone.

I downloaded the forms from the trav.state.gov site and submitted everything myself, however instead of sending it in the regular mail I sent the documents via Fedex to the address for 0vernight delivery service that does not deliver to a post office box. Note that I did NOT request or pay for their Expedited services - I merely enclosed a check for $67. These documents were shipped on Thursday 7/26 for delivery on Friday 7/27.

Less than two and a half weeks later it was completely processed and I got back it in the mail on Tuesday 8/14.

All I can say is WOW! I cannot help but wonder if it helped that I shipped the renewal application to them via FedEx and perhaps it got mixed in with all of the ones from people who had requested and paid for the expedited service. Or perhaps I just got lucky :)

I live in NJ and sent my documents to the New Castle, Delaware address on the trav.state.gov website. I also went to the 'check the status of your request' page on that site and registered for emails to track the status. They emailed me when they started processing the renewal, when the completed it, and when they mailed it back.

Good luck to all of you who are waiting for yours.....

dex, that's fantastic!

That's a great story! You were very lucky!

I've heard Expedited passports are taking 3 wks now. The outook is not supposed to improve.

Shana

my girlfriend applied new (she had one from when she was a teenager but that wasn't good for renewal some 30 years later!) she applied at a local office on July13 using the expedited option. she received her passport yesterday Aug. 18. the processing office went thru the philadelphia passport office...

I have to get a new passport as well. I just realized the other day that my passport is lost. I won't mention any names, but a person who's initials are S.H. may have thrown out a box of good stuff and kept a box of junk during a recent office move.

I have downloaded and filled out the proper forms and will go get pics taken on Monday. I was hoping to talk myself in to a short trip to NYC or Chicago to truly expidite things, but alas, I have no firm travel plans outside the US. I will, however use the expidited service and let you all know how it turns out.

Three weeks isn't bad, but you know someone can always call Monday morning and say &quot;hey, can you come down here and take a look at this thing?&quot; I always want to answer &quot;Yes, sir.&quot;

We sent in my husband's passport renewal (regular service) the first week of August and received it back two weeks later. We were stunned! Maybe they've finally gotten all their processing offices up to speed.

You are lucky. Don't count on the processing being up to speed. We sent our daugther's passport in for renewal on June 29, over 7 weeks ago. The State Department website is saying it will arrive mid to late September (probably 12 weeks).

Husband applied for renewal at the end of May and we just received it this weekend , no expedited service.

I had to renew our kids passports in June and we received them back in 4 weeks. I was pleased that it took only 4 weeks after hearing about other people's horror stories. It used to be where we didn't renew our passports until it was needed. These days, I say renew it as soon as it expires.
Right after 9/11 happened, we found some dirt cheap fares to Japan that was too good to pass up. We had to expedite our kids passports and was able to make the trip. Today, with the high cost of the passport fees and questionable turnaround time, I always make sure our passports are current.

Mr Again called, he got the mail, my renewed passport came in exactly 2 months later. June 29 - August 29.

I live in San Francisco (does it make any difference?) and mailed the passport to the address I don't remember now :) but to the address on the website.

I wonder what the time differences are between renewing and requesting a brand new passport...

I don't think there is any difference.

The backlog is caused by the law of having a passport going to Canada/Mexico, and I beleive the majority of the applicants request a new passport, not a renewal.

My daughter renewed her passport the middle of April at our local PO. The passport person told her it would either go to LA or one of the southern cities..don't remember which one.

She received the renewal this past Saturday so it took a little over four months.

We received our daughter's renewal from the Seattle office recently. It took 8 wks.

The new passports have microchips imbedded in the front cover, which is quite thick. The pages are different with great pictures of the US and wonderful quotes.

Just thought I'd let you know that we paid for expedited service and had our passports in just under four weeks. It was well worth the extra money to have them back in less than a month. :)

Lots of factors affecting passport times including which passport office it is being sent to, whether a new or renewal, your &quot;travel history&quot; if you are renewing, and how much info is already in your &quot;security&quot; file when they go to process the passport or renewal. I received my passport back 10 days after I mailed it (didn't expedite) but I work for Uncle Sam and now days that translates to they even know what kind of toilet paper you use. Things are speeding up though, but definitely don't wait until the last minute.

LOL Orcas - I thought the 4-color pictures and high-minded quotes were overkill and a waste of my taxpayer dollars! To each his own, right? :)