my best friend sent in his paperwork through a local post office for a NEW passport (not renewal) expedited ($60 extra) on Aug 31, right before Labor Day. the passport arrived on Sept 11! i believe they are back on track. it was processed in no time at all considering two weekends (one Labor Day long weekend) in those 11 days that it took.

I wonder what effect this will have on the situation?

Passport Requirements to Resume Oct. 1
www.fodors.com/wire/archives/002722.cfm

To follow up on renewing my passport, I ended up overnighting all of my documents to an expediter with "A. Briggs" in the Seattle office last Tuesday. Received my new passport yesterday...less than 5 business days!

Wow, that's the fastest I've heard! Congratulations - and happy traveling!!

DD applied on 8/20 and the passport arrived on 9/24 - 5 weeks to the day.

I just returned from our trip to
Poland and wanted to let you all
know that I breezed right thru the
immigration. The officer was a very
nice young man (handsome, too) and
asked if we were there for business
or pleasure and if we were passing
thru. I said it was pleasure and
we were there to visit his country.
He then asked what did we know about
Poland. I said that it was a beau-
tiful country and they had been
under communist rule for a long time
and before that occupied by Germany
He said that is right and there is
a statue of Stalin in the center of
Warsaw and that everybody hates it.
He stamped my passpost and said
Welcome to Poland!
So,
now we know that the 90 day rule
applies to Poland.
I will be sending the passports in
next week for renewal.
Excuse the lack of punctuation in
he saids and I saids.

Katiemay, that's fantastic! I remember you were quite concerned, and spent a lot of time and energy to understand the situation. Sounds like you had a great beginning to your trip - I hope you get a chance to post a trip report!

ggreen

lcuy, you know I remember your post on this thread: "fodorites with experience are so much more interesting". I so agreed with that sentiment when I read it! Now that I know you're off to India - what did you end up doing about your passport renewal?? Did you forfeit your 1/2 year, or is the old one still in effect? Do tell!

You can get it within a week with an expediting service. I wound up finding I could do it for $100 with something calling itself "passportready"; they were cheaper than a lot of others. They got it done fast. If you search Google, there are tons of these services.

I had to send in my old one with the renewal, and the expediting service said they could only help if I didn't already have a "slow way" application renewal in.