US passports delays to continue . . . Updated July 5, 2007

By PHK

Please see the WV Passport Tips Page for our most current information on ways to navigate the maze.

We will accept no additional comments on this post as of May 16, 2007 - but comments on the June 15 "Dealing With the Passport Mess" are welcome.

And don’t expect relief soon. The backlog at the US Passport Agency that began in January is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Aside from applying far earlier than when an American citizen needs a valid passport to travel abroad* and letting the sluggish process take its course, there is something an applicant who expects to travel within the next few days and still does not have his or her valid passport in hand can do. That is – as a few of our earlier commenters have suggested - contact your US Congressional offices – Senate and/or House.

Such problems are usually being handled by Congressional District Offices rather than by representatives’ offices on Capitol Hill. The best place is to call is your Congressperson or Senator’s District Office located in the city nearest you. There should be a least one person on the staff who understands the problem and can help.

Here’s what that Congressional staffer needs to know: 1) the name of the applicant as it appears on the passport application; 2) the applicant’s date of birth; 3) the applicant’s social security number; 4) the applicant’s travel departure date; and 5) the tracking number for the passport application. With this information, the staffer can help expedite the process and rescue your travel plans. A major key is the tracking number and this can be a "Catch-22."

The tracking number is available from the State Department’s website, but only once it has been assigned. If the tracking number has not yet been assigned – or if it is impossible to search State’s website for that number because the page has crashed thanks to an overload of requests – then your Congressional staffer can still help rescue your planned trip abroad by helping to make an emergency (standby) appointment for you during the work week at the urgent passport agency office closest to you. These “urgent” passport agencies help people with trips scheduled within the coming 14 days or those that require foreign visas for travel.

With appropriate documentation the passport agency official can issue the passport on the spot. You will, however, need to write another check – but you should also be refunded your original application fee. If you need to go this route, you will need to bring with you:

1) Another completed passport application (unsigned);
2) Evidence of US citizenship, e.g. an official birth certificate (additional copies can be ordered at the Vital Records Division of your county or state of birth) if your previous passport is unattainable because you submitted it with your original application which are both lying around somewhere in a bureaucratic-privatization of services never-neverland;
3) Two passport photos;
4) Valid photo identification;
5) Proof of departure; and
6) The passport fee.

This is, after all, a constituent problem. Not only do members of Congress have staff to help cut through the passport issuance morass but they also need to know that the system is overtaxed, in chaos and as a result is failing their constituents.

As I wrote in my March 14 post on this topic – the administration, Congress and the American people must realize that government services require sufficiently trained staff and a properly operating system to handle the demands placed on them adequately. When additional requirements are placed on an already hollowed out bureaucracy (and this includes the State Department which is in charge of passport issuance) and elements contracted out are also incapable of functioning efficiently something is amiss. This is what is happening here.

The situation will only get worse until funds and trained staff members are commensurately increased to handle the much higher volume created by the new law originally proposed by the 9/11 Commission. Since US passports will also be required by law for American citizens driving to Mexico and Canada next year, the volume of requests for US passports will mushroom further.

This problem needs fixing – and now.

*Please note: the State Department website states that all US citizens who are applying for a passport for the first time need to apply in person. Please see the requirements for making such applications.

Comments

[CKR]

We're getting a lot of hits from people googling what to do about a passport that hasn't arrived when their trip is quickly coming up.

One of the situations that has always given me the most anxiety, and I never seem to get accustomed to it, is having to send my passport off for a visa or getting it renewed. Important, irreplaceable documents in the mail and a deadline coming up! It doesn't get much worse.

So all three of us here at WhirledView heartily sympathize with those of you looking for what to do. We hope that you can use our advice to get that passport and enjoy your spring break!

Part of what's going on here is requirements are placed on an agency (in this case the Department of State) without proper resources (yes, tax money) being allocated to deal with the requirements. I'm wondering, too, if the continuing resolution that is substituting for the budget the last Congress didn't pass is part of the problem. A continuing resolution tends to freeze funding at the previous year's level. All these passports weren't necessary last year, so...

[K Watt]

Please comment on expediting companies - for those who live hundreds of miles away from an urgent passport office.

[mpolman]

State is not operating on a continuing resolution. Congress passed an appropriation for State last February.

[Brady Kiesling]

This administration had decided to make U.S. public sector services more like the ones in Southern Europe. There, if you stand in line, you will wait forever. For bureaucratic service in your lifetime you must either pay a fixer, generally a former civil servant, or else incur a debt to your local politician. The system works, sort of, but if you asked any Greek or South Italian, he/she would tell you we would be insane to trade our system for theirs.

[CKR]

Thanks for the info, mpolman. I've been thinking lately about doing a post on the continuing resolution, which is causing problems in the science community. But I haven't done the research on it yet; you're making me recall that some of the budget was passed and some not.

Short version of post: This year is not last year, and you can't fund it that way. But I guess Congress thought they had better things to do than to figure out a budget.

[Fengming P Kong]

I wish I have read this website one month ago when I sent in application.

How do you contact Congress? Is there any phone number? I need to go to China to give a lecture in one week, my application for passport is not yet trackable. I am desperate, do not know what to do??????

[Sakshi]

I applied for my daughters passport in January and haven't received it till now although i had called the passport office and requested to expediate it. I have now scheduled an appointment at the san francisco office but dont have my daughter's original birth certificate. I dont have enough time to get a copy of that. Can someone suggest what should i do?

[Mike]

What a mess this is....we are leaving next Wednesday.....my families applications were sent in 10 weeks ago (we were told 6 weeks Max in February).....

I am getting the Runaround from everyone....the Passport Agency (who I have called 4 of the last 5 days).....my Senator (who hung up on me today), and my House rep have done nothing to help.

My passport showed up today, but none of my families did....what a joke and mismangement at the highest levels.

[Jennifer]

I wish I would have known it would take 10 weeks to get a passport when I renewed 10 weeks ago. I still haven't received my passport, and I am scheduled to leave in 4 weeks. What a nightmare!

[Tracy]

What if your passport has been mailed by the agency but doesn't arrive in time? We're leaving on Thursday, and the website says the "information was electronically submitted to the usps" today, Monday. The passports are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. We have an appointment on Wednesday, but I don't know what they can do if they already mailed them to us!

I gave them the only certified copies of birth certificates I had and I wasn't born in this county, so I can't get another one before Wednesday. I just don't know what to do!

Won't they know our applications were valid if they actually issued us a passport, and can't they give us another one on the spot?

Help!

[Amy Williams]

This is so crazy I had me and my fiance's passports expedited and included the overnight envelopes marked expedited and addressed to us through the county clerks office. We are now 5 days from our honeymoon and its now going on 7 weeks since we submitted them. The Oklahoma county clerks office has been no help they have no clue whats going on and of course I keep getting the runaround by the agencies call centers. I'm 8 hours from the nearest passport agency and Im 4 days away from my wedding. (AAAGGGHHHH!!!!)
Forgot to mention that when the passports first registered on their website they put them in wrong as routine service...when I called them they denied they were put in wrong but what a coincidence the next day they were showing expedited. Now there showing expedited but with routine delivery which is not true should be overnight delivery. they keep telling me its a system error that they do show it as overnight. This is so crazy!!!

[patricia kushlis]

Tracy: It's possible that the passport agency can still issue your passport and invalidate the one in the mail - but I would suggest asking the staffer in your Congressman's District Office who handles passport complaints. He or she should have plenty of experience by now. They can answer the question also regarding your birth certificate problem. I agree. It is a nightmare. Let us know the result please.

[Laura O. Ganser]

I paid expedite passport service for my baby. I have not received the passport and our trip is tomorrow early in the morning. Can somebody tell me if I can take my baby's birth certificate, social security or anything else to proof he is US Citizen. We are taveling to Germany. The airplane tickets are already paid for. HELP ME WHAT CAN I DO?????

[Jane]

I am suppose to be leaving the 12th of May to go to Guatemala with my family. I applied for my passport in Feb, and I still have not received even a phone call or e-mail telling me the tracking no. I have called the travel agency every day to check on this and everyone gives me a different answer. I asked them to expedite my passport and put it on a RUSH. This has been over a week that I did this. Something needs to be done.

[patricia kushlis]

Jane: You will probably need to check for your tracking number on the State Department website. Don't expect the department to get in touch with you via e-mail or any other way. You need to be proactive. If you can get the number, jot it down and call your Congressional District Office and ask the staffer who handles passport delays for help. If the number is not yet available ask the staffer to help arrange an emergency appointment for you at the nearest passport agency. Please see my posts on what you will need to bring with you. Don't delay.

[Kathy]

I am devastated. I very seldom take vacations but decided to splurge on a short cruise with my daughter this year. I applied for my passport in Feb, did not expedite since I was told it would take about 8 weeks to process, and am now 1 day before departure without a passport. I began calling 2 weeks ago and this past week have been calling a couple of times a day to get updates. Everytime I call, I am told after being on hold for 30-45 minutes that my passport is being processed and it has been marked expedite due to the need to have it. The website does not seem to be updated at all. I am about to lose the whole cost of my trip and my nerves are shot. This whole passport situation is a bureaucratic mess. I even contacted my Congresswoman's office (Sue Myrick) and they apparently have not had any luck either. I am 9 hours from a "regional office" so that is not an option. My passport is at the New Orleans processing center where the computers were down all weekend. I think I have experienced it all.

[Lydia G]

I applied Apr 16 for a passport for my newborn baby so that I could take him to Mexico to visit family members and to take my mother in law back as she was here for the birth of my baby. I applied at a public services office and paid the fees for the passport to be expedited and overnight delivery. We had scheduled the flight for May 7, as the website says it takes 2 weeks to receive expedited passports. Three weeks of waiting and no passport. The state dept website at first had the incorrect information that we had requested routine service, but had paid additionally for overnight delivery. I called the NPIC phone number and was told that it would be updated as they could see that I had paid the correct fees for expediting, It was updated two days later. I have been checking the status almost daily. I called the day of our scheduled trip, which we missed, no they will not accept the birth certificate for my baby, I also tried to show the airline the receipt of the paid for expedited passport. The told me that I had to reschedule. So we as consumers have to pay for the state dept not being able to do as they promise. I called the state dept on the day of my missed trip and was told that they were going to send a message to the place where they would be processed so that it would be expedited more, and I would receive by Wed, May 9, did not happen. I called today and no update. This is ridiculous, most of the times that I have tried to call, their phone system hangs up on the caller. "So many callers that they don't have a place to put on hold."

[Jo Ann K.]

I applied for my daughter's passport in January for an upcoming June 9 trip. We have not received it and when we track it on the website it says it's being 'processed'. When can I realistically expect to receive it or should I make an appointment in San Francisco

[Lily]

I applied at a local post office over ten weeks ago. Our scheduled flight is in five days and no sign of my passport. I have called the NPIC serveral times. The first time I called I was told that I wasn't giving them much time. That confused me since their voicemail said we will not be able to speak to a person unless traveling within two weeks??? Then they said there is not much they can do. But their voicemail also said, "don't worry" and that they make "every attempt" not to have people miss a trip. I was told that I can try to make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency. The automated lines did not have any available opening in Los Angeles. There is a huge misrepresentation from the local offices accepting applications and the states website. I understand that the back log is a not a quick fix but why can't they set our expectation and say that it can take several months with no guarantees? Also, why bother paying operators to answer phone calls if they are not able to help. I have taken your advice on calling our congressman and have faxed them my information. Waiting for an update which I will post. If you have any other suggestions please let me know.

[donny boy]

Who should be fired over this mess. As a taxpayer paying income, sales, property, and of course inheritance taxes I deserve better than this and so do you. How much do you want to bet the Diplomats and politicians that get their's free don't have to wait over the published time to get their free passports done. Who should be fired for this mess and who should be voted out is what I want to know..
I finally got ahold of someone who said they would "try to expedite" my childrens passports but no gaurantee. It's taking 10 weeks after being entered into the system. It took 4 weeks to be entered he said. So maybe 14 weeks. It's now entering the 12th week..and where I live the postoffice continually losses our mail and what happened to the guy in Houston who was steeling passport infromation from the mail for indentity theift?
Do we even have a chance at this?
Once again our future is in the hands of fools......

[wendi]

HELP!

Please tell my passport is going to be here in the next couple days! I applied 14 weeks ago and it still say's in process I have my Congress person working on it. I am leaving the morning of May 19th. Should I be worried? It has been in expediting since the the 4th. I call twice a day and they just keep telling me the same thing. I tried to make an appointment at my Colorado office and with the 1-877 number and they tell me no days are open before the 19th!!! I am devistated and can not even sleep at nigh. My husband got his a month ago!! I need a happy story!!!

[Patrick]

Similar story here. Mine was submitted in February, it's been almost 12 weeks now. I leave Friday morning and it is Wednesday today. If they don't mail it today I am going to have to drive 500 miles to go to Houston apparently to get it the day before my trip. What a crock. They have supposedly expedited it and I have had my Congressional Representative do the same but I am not holding my breath that they will be of much help. What happened to the concept of a redress of grievances? I ought to be reimbursed for this hassle and refunded the passport fee at the very least.

[DDriver]

Patrick, did you make an appoinment for Houston? We are scheduled to leave for Canada on the 24th but if that falls through it's no great loss considering I did not pay for the tickets. However, we are scheduled to leave the country for Eastern Europe on the 14th of June and that must happen because I am quiting my job for this. Those tickets were bought six months ago. I applied on feb 16th and I don't really want to make the 600 mile journey to Houston but if I have to I guess I have t o.