US Passport Problems Redux - July 2 Update

By PHK

July 2 Update: For practical suggestions on navigating the US passport application process, please see our Tips Page.

For all WV posts on US passport issuance problems (they begin February 7, 2007) except The Tips Page, please see WhirledView Categories (righthand column) and click on US Passports and Visas.

We closed comments on this post on May 16, 2007 - but comments on the more recent "The Erratic State of US Passport Issuance" and "The Erratic State of US Passport Issuance Continues" are welcome.

This is the fourth in our series on the continuing saga of US passport issuance delays.

Previous WhirledView posts with additional information on this topic: US Passport Delays to continue . . . on March 30, US Passport Delays Drag on at State on March 14 and American International Travelers Beware: don't buy that ticket until your passport's in hand on February 7.

Why is it that the US national media is still so willing to take this administration at its word? Have reporters learned nothing since W and his minions came to power?

On April 2, AP unquestioningly reported the passport “good news” story just as the State Department wanted it told. Namely “a boost in staffing and overtime and weekend hours at the 17 passport agencies has reduced processing delays. . . . Expedited applications, which require an additional fee, will now again be processed in two weeks, down from four at the height of the crisis. Standard applications will still take 10 weeks,” the Department said according to AP.

That announcement came over a week ago: would that it were so. It may be true that delays are down, I know one of my former colleagues received his expedited passport in record time – but for the State Department to try to reassure frantic citizens that all is back to normal when lengthy delays continue is not only a really bad idea from a public relations standpoint but a breach of the public trust.

If the situation were as hunky-dory as the Department claims, then why is it that we at WhirledView still receive comments from desperate American citizens trying to figure out how to wrest their documents from the unnamed bottomless passport agency pit and save overseas trips they have already paid for from disaster because they still don’t have their passports?

If all were right in Foggy Bottom, why do my previous three posts on US Passport Delay problems remain as Google “best sellers?”

If all is back to normal in the US passport issuance world, why did the State Department finally announce only last week that it plans to rehire up to 150 retired Foreign Service Officers with previous consular work experience to bolster the staff of beleaguered passport agency offices throughout the US to help deal with the overload?

And if “alles” is really “ in ordnung,” why did CBS’s Harrisburg affiliate just report today that “It used to take about 4 to 6 weeks to get (a passport). But now with more people than ever applying for passports its taking up to 3 months”?

Meanwhile, for those of you - like the reporter at CBS Harrisburg - who have just discovered what a mess the situation really is and need your passport sooner rather than a month or so after you were supposed to have returned from the trip you may not be able to take because you don’t have your passport and your documents back, please see the following WhirledView post for what to do to help yourself.

And a few additional suggestions - thanks to several commenters who have raised the questions for which I now have answers:

• If you need to schedule an emergency appointment at one of the regional passport agencies and the location is not close to you, I’m advised that you will need to take the trouble and bear the inconvenience of traveling to the local passport office even if it means a lengthy drive, an overnight stay and taking kids out of school – but don’t do this without having first secured an appointment. Your Congressional District Office staffer can help make your emergency appointment and will do it for free.

• A reminder for in-person appointments for children’s passports: both parents need to be present or, if not, the absent parent must sign a notarized approval for the child to obtain a passport.

• Finally, given the way the system operates or doesn’t, there is no advantage in paying a private expediter to arrange for your appointment at an emergency passport agency office when congressional offices will do this for their constituents free of charge.

Before you place all the blame on the US State Department - aside from its misleading statements about over optimistic claims of efficiency - please understand that its ranks were decimated during the 1990s in the name of post-Cold War government downsizing, that a desperately needed personnel increase under Secretary Colin Powell alleviated the problem somewhat, but that additional personnel requirements placed on the Department as a result of the Afghanistan and Iraq occupations and Condi Rice’s decision to increase positions in countries like India and China but not request additional Foreign Service positions overall have left far too many State Department positions unfilled in the US and in American Embassies overseas.

The bottom line: there is just are not enough staff to take on the added passport issuance requirements once air travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean were included in January 2007. To make matters worse: Expect a further increase in passport requests in or before January 2008 when passports are required for land travel to Mexico and Canada.

Meanwhile, according to an article in The New Mexico Magazine of March 25-31, somewhere along the line, a crucial piece of the passport issuance process was privatized to Citigroup. This too factors into the delay problem and slows down issuance – because this piece of the contract operation is also understaffed.

So with the caveat that paying a fixer won’t help, Brady Kiesling’s comment on an earlier post on this topic rings all too true:

“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.”

Unfortunately, the fastest and sometimes only way to cut through the US passport issuance bottleneck is via the offices of your members of Congress. It’s not the way this railroad should be run and it certainly should not become the American government's modus operandi with respect to a basic and crucial fee-for-service operation for its citizens.

Meanwhile, the administration needs to get its act together pronto, stop the public obfuscation and request Congressional help to acquire enough funds and qualified personnel to fix it. Now.