I feel hesitant posting this with all the issues others have had, but as I had made a wrong assumption I wanted to point out the information.

I recently got married in May and therefore had to update my passport with my new last name. After reading about the massive delays, I was sure that it would take endless months.

Well I mailed in my passport for the name change with all the necessary documentation the week of July 4th and got it in today.

I just wanted to point this out. Not sure if I just lucked out or if the delays are strictly for renewals.

Just an FYI.

Thanks for the info. Question. Did you get a brand new passport or is it just a name change they made in your old one? That could be the difference.
My son's passport was expiring and we had to get a new one. Friday will be 13 weeks since we sent the old one in. Oh well.

Can't speak for jodee, but when I changed my name, they reprinted the main page of the passport (aka the 'shiny page') with a note that the new name was printed on page 26. Then on page 26, there's just a dot-matrix print-out of my new name. Seems weird since they had to reprint the main page anyway (you'd think they'd put my new name on the main page and my maiden on the dot-matrix, to make it easier on the ID checkers) but I digress! I wodner if it has anything to do with the state in which you file.

And here I thought renewals were easier than new passports... we got ours back after about 3 weeks, but this was about 4 months ago.

My passport expired in May. I sent in my new application on July 5, and received my passport on July 13. I paid the expedite fee, wrote "EXPEDITE" on the envelope and included a USPS next day envelope with $17 of postage on it. I sent it all to the Passport Center in Pennsylvania. I live in California.

On today's Yahoo page there is an article about the randomness people are experiencing. But overall, the best things you can do to hurry up the process is to pay the expedite fee and write EXPEDITE on the envelope.

Or, you can do like my friend who actually got to the airport for a trip to europe and realized her passport was expired (which I find frightening) she obviously could not get on the plane with the rest of her family - so she went home and went the next morning when it opened to the passport office in our city, and had a passport that afternoon and left a day later to join them ....which I find unbelievable while so many are waiting so long - if the people in our office can do this, maybe the main passport office ought to send a carton full of any passport application renewals from our state for them to handle!

We applied for our son's passport when the State Dept was still saying 10-12 weeks, right before the truth came out.. that they were overwhelmed. I would have paid the expedited fee if I knew then what I know now. I'm not sure that it would have made a difference though since they're now refunding expedited fees. But I do agree that it all seems very random. Thank goodness our upcoming trip is to a country that will allow us to enter it with the State Dept proof of application and his birth certificate.

Escargot: Wow re: your friend. Did that just happen? Lucky her.

Yes it just happened last week. I could not believe it, I was just so surprised that with all they are saying it was so easy and took her a day doing it that way and here we all were saying 'are you crazy how could you not check that and you will have to call every politician we can think of...etc..etc and she walks in and walks out..

Go figure. Someone else I know in NCarolina sent for hers, waited and waited and drove over three hours from her home to try and get it and long story, long lines, but it never happened for her.

The inconsistency is what makes me dumbfounded.But then again, it's a government thing.....

Double WOW, escargot. Thanks for the reply.

caribtraveler - I got a 100% new passport.

Very random indeed.

My husband's standard renewal took 13 weeks, received last week.

If you go to the passport office (at least here in NY) with your tickets, you pay the higer fee and t

oops... don't know why that happened. Anyway, you wait (and wait) and pay the higher fee and usually walk out with a passport right then and there (I'm talking about a renewal though - don't know what happens when it's a new one).

jodeenyc: My goodness. Well, good for you. At least, not everybody is getting a raw deal.