Need To Renew Your Passport? Good Luck!

7/19/2021 10:15:49 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment

Photo by Levi Ventura on Unsplash

Article by Debra Kamin

An appointment to renew or obtain a passport is an elusive proposition these days, as those who let their documents lapse during the pandemic are finding out.

During the most extensive travel shutdown in modern history, hundreds of thousands of Americans let their passports expire. Others are only now seeing that their documents are set to expire soon. But despite the State Department making headway on a massive backlog of passport applications that piled up in the early months of the pandemic, appointments at passport agencies across the country remain elusive, and processing time for renewals by mail is lagging by 10 weeks or more. The crunch is forcing many Americans who need travel documents urgently to travel significant distances — sometimes even across the country — for an in-person appointment that will get their documents processed on time.

State Department officials would not offer specifics on the number of Americans currently struggling to get passports renewed or new documents processed, but they said in a statement that after significantly reducing passport operations in March 2020 to protect its staff from contracting Covid-19, appointments at their limited number of passport agencies — the only option for last-minute documents — are generally restricted to life-or-death emergencies. Americans seeking passports for nonessential travel are being offered “very limited appointments,” and are required to show documents indicating their travel is within 72 hours.

Routine passport service by mail, according to the State Department, can now take up to 18 weeks, compared to six to eight weeks before the pandemic, while expedited service, which costs an additional $60 and took anywhere from a few days to three weeks before Covid-19, can now take up to 12 weeks.

“What is going on now is something like I’ve never seen in my life,” said David Alwadish, the founder of ItsEasy Passport & Visa, an expediting service. Mr. Alwadish said that while an estimated 100,000 Americans abroad were facing passport problems earlier this year because of consular closures across the globe, the number of Americans at home who are unable to travel because they can’t get documents is likely much higher.

(The State Department in May shifted its policy on Americans abroad, allowing them to return to the United States on expired documents because of that backlog.)

Americans who require passports more quickly than the current processing times allow must show proof of imminent travel within 72 hours of their appointment.

Thousands of Americans trying to secure passports are reaching out to their congressional representatives for assistance, with mixed success.

Representative Frederica S. Wilson, a Democrat from Florida, is also seeing a spike. “My office is experiencing a significant increase in the number of passport requests from residents, within and outside of the district that I represent,” she said in an email. “Constituents have complained that it has been nearly impossible to reach anyone by phone or to make an appointment.”

In a bid to ease the crush, the State Department has announced a limited number of passport acceptance fairs across the country, but they are mostly for children and first-time passport applicants and do not offer rush service.

Until the State Department can meet demand, however, Americans in need of a passport in less than four weeks have limited options, and can also expect to pay extra. A same-day expedited passport costs $170, with an additional $35 for first-time applicants. That’s not taking into account any airfare, car rentals or hotel reservations required for those who travel for their appointments.

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