I called my congressman yesterday morning to help with 2 passports. We depart in a 'few' weeks.

The assistant took my info in less than 2min, and 30min later I got a call back from the her stating that they'd expedited them and I'd get them by FedEx by next Wed.

The assistant told me they were hung up at the Charleston office, but she'd called the Norwalk office.

I'll report back if I don't get them. If the congressman route works I'll thank them kindly.

The Patriot Act and Homeland Security have a lot to do with the slow processing of passports since the officials have to spend so much time insuring that not everyone is a terrorist. This tends to slow things down a bit. I just read a news report that states passport processing is way behind and that if you want to go out of the country to be prepared to apply for a passport at least a year or more in advance. Sad but true.

Can you re-apply for a another passport if you get tired of waiting around?..A co-worker applied for her passport 14 weeks ago. Leaves Tuesday PM to go to Kenya. Does NOT have her passport and has been calling congressman, passport #'s for 2 weeks. Re-applying sounds like a good idea to me!

An article from today's news about this problem....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../PASSPORTS.TMP

Sounds like she needs to call the congressman's office again and threaten to call the press if his office cannot expedite her passport.

CISteefel

I sent in a renewal in mid March and it came last week.

I allowed plenty of time because I know there was/is going to be a mad rush because of the new passport laws.

I also took into consideration that this is their busiest time because of Summer vacations.

I'm not smarter than anyone else ... I have just as much common sense as the nxt person!

The OP (yeff316) got his passport in time. - He was smart for sending it in first week in March.

People need to be patient and stop whining. - I have a hunch that the same people who are making such a fuss over this are going o be the first ones to say something if someone got a passport that shouldn't have. Honestly, do you want them to just rush through it?

There are people who planned just as well as you did, sent their passports in March, and have not received them. They were just as smart as you but did not have the same result. What else should they do so they don't miss their vacations?

Oh, and the OP only got his on time because he called his congressman and complained.

Use a service.

I just want to REALLY recommend that you call your congressman. I applied on March 3rd (not expedited) for my June 15th departure - I know this was cutting it close. When I really panicked last week, I called my congressman's office (Harry Reid) on Thursday morning and low and behold, my passport arrived FedEx on Saturday morning. I had the same problems as everyone else - I realize now I should have applied much earlier. CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN!!!

Yes, Wallace and Gromit, some of us also sent our renewals in in March and have not received the passports yet. I submitted my husband's and my daughters at the same time, he got his weeks and weeks ago and we're still waiting on hers. At this point I really wish I'd paid to expedite even though I don't need it until mid-July, because at this rate I think I will be doing the last minute race despite all of my planning. So it has nothing to do with planning ahead and everything to do with pretty much basic incompetence on the part of the State Dept. It is not reasonable to expect that people can do without a passport for the 3 months plus it takes to renew one (and my daugther's is a renewal) nor to have to call your congressperson because they can't manage to process a passport for three months.

I agree with calling your congressman. We applied on March 21 and had nothing by the 10 week mark last week. I called Senator Hagel's office that day and their office tracked them down. They arrived via FedEx this morning.

Good luck to you!!

Oh, I forgot to add that going to your local office in Seattle is probably the next best bet. Our closest passport office is in Denver and I know of one family who has an appointment there on the 11th and they fly to Mexico on the 12th. THAT'S cutting it a little close!