In 2023, three members of my family had to get our US passports. The news claimed that passports were taking much longer than usual because of renewed interest in travel post-pandemic. The official website https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/how-apply/processing-times.html let us know that there were indeed longer processing times:
For my family, the time to receive the new passport from mail-in date ranged from 3 weeks (Tremendously quick, considering it was normal service!) to 11 weeks. The one that took 11 weeks of wait time was the last one, so we were getting a bit concerned given the others were so quick!
Renewal of Valid Passport with Name Change
This passport was submitted in February for Routine Service and arrived in about 5-6 weeks. It did involve a name change, but it seemed to be processed in a normal amount of time.
Renewal of Expired Passport
Much to our surprise, this person visited a post office to get his picture taken on June 9th, sent in his passport renewal application on the same day with his expired passport, and received his new passport in the mail by the end of the same month. We did not pay for Expedited Service; this was Routine Service. This passport took ~3 weeks, which was remarkably quick!
New Passport
Like the Expired Passport Renewal above, the application was sent on June 9th. According to the government site, it was received by the passport office on June 13th.
Given the speed at which the other two passports arrived, we were getting a bit anxious as weeks went by. The website’s newest estimates were 7-9 for Expedited Service and 10-13 weeks for Routine Service. I frequently visited https://passportstatus.state.gov/ to check whether the status with no change to be seen.
The difficulty with this one was that if it took longer than 13 weeks, I would no longer be in the US. This passport was for a minor, which meant that both parents had to be present or fill in some forms. I was also concerned this passport application might be rejected because the nice USPS lady who took the photo had the would-be passport holder’s head take up a lot more of the picture than usual.
If her passport were declined or took a long time to get done… well, I started making mental lists of what to do. I would be gone by 2 weeks before this would-be passport holder’s travel, so could I contact the various offices early? According to what I saw, my options were:
- Call the passport office to find out status of passport. (Does that actually help it get done any faster…?)
- Call congressman or senator. (Appears to have mixed results.)
- Call the passport office to ask for “expedited at agency” appointment. (But this can only be done if traveling within 2 weeks! Would this still be possible if I were not physically in the US? What documents would I have to prepare ahead of time?)
Fortunately, we finally received the passport on August 28th, roughly 11 weeks from the date we sent it in. The supporting document, an original birth certificate, was received a few weeks after, on September 14th.
Does this mean anything?
I think that Passport Renewal applications take less time to be process than First Time Passport applications, but that is just my guess. It would make sense in that they have vetted all your documents at least once before when it comes to renewals, so that should take less time.
I was getting extremely worried about the First Time Passport for the minor, but that worked out.
