By PHK
July 2 Update: For practical suggestions on navigating the passport application process see our Tips Page.
June 13 am update: Trying to get through to the State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs on passport delay problems? One commenter just suggested trying State's Task Force number: 202-647-7948. Let us know whether this helps. - or not. Your feedback is incredibly useful to others.
June 12 pm update: AP is reporting that the State Department told Congress last week that those people who have paid for expedited service and did not receive it will get their $60 refunded. Details on how to obtain refunds can be found in the link. Hope State adds enough staff to handle this one in a timely fashion - or maybe it will outsource it.
June 12 am update: Many thanks to Bob Sullivan at MSNBC for the reference and link. Most appreciated. We agree: Having to cancel trips at the last minute when people follow State's rules is worse than unacceptable.
June 9: AP and the Houston Chronicle are reporting today that "the rule changes (that the Bush administration announced on Friday that 'temporarily waive a requirement that US citizens have passports to fly to and from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, provided he or she has already applied for a passport) won't apply to travelers who haven't applied for a passport yet." If AP and the Chronicle are correct then the temporary passport waiver is only available to people who have already applied for their passports. According to State on June 13, this interpretation must not be correct. See more recent information below.
June 13 Update on June 9 AP story above: State says that the temporary passport waiver also applies to people who will apply or have applied for a passport even after the announcement of the new policy last Friday. So, for instance, if you apply for a passport today and get confirmation of receipt of application hopefully in a week, then the waiver's still effective for travel after receipt of the confirmation you received via State's website. If you have not received that confirmation you need to call or e-mail the Department. Let us know. (Or a WV caveat: if this fails, try the Congressional route.)
State, however, also cautions US citizens planning to travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or Bermuda by air and without a passport that they check first with their airline and the Embassy or Consulate of the country they plan to travel to to make sure that their arrival without a passport is also acceptable to the other country involved. Good point. Other countries have border regulations that also need to be met. Please check State's website for this latest advice.
It is clear, however, that the temporary passport travel waiver expires September 30, 2007.
Home Security is unhappy and was obviously dragging its feet about the temporary waiver. The State Department finally admitted in public that it cannot meet the demand. This is good news - but how will it help those planning to travel elsewhere with passports applications stuck in a passport never-never land? Interesting that the temporary waiver decision was announced just as the story is belatedly being picked up by the national media.
Note to readers: This is WhirledView’s sixth post on US passport issuance delays since February 7, 2007. The other five posts can be found most easily through WhirledView Categories: US Passports and Visas. This post includes information including travel to and from Mexico not included in previous posts. If you're experiencing passport issuance delay problems and need help navigating the system and/or want to learn from others' recent experiences, please read WV's fifth post on the topic dated May 16, 2007 . The May 16 post includes numerous thoughtful and helpful reader comments. Some suggestions from those comments are incorporated in this June 3 post, but not all.
A hearty thanks to the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) and Elizabeth Fernandez at the San Francisco Chronicle for raising WhirledView’s profile in the blogosphere and especially among internationally minded, wanna-be globe trekking Americans who feel like they are living on a reverse Ellis Island because their passports are delayed – or these crucial travel documents have arrived just in the nick of time but only after feats of incredible personal ingenuity and perseverance.
The US Passport Agency which comes under CA’s jurisdiction – but ultimately reports to Condi Rice – has been unable to cope with the increased number of passport applications since the post 9/11 homeland security law went into effect on January 23, 2007. The US Passport Agency in Houston – to which State recently sent a 12 person special “spot” team to help out – reportedly had a backlog of 90,000 applications pending as of last week.
The new US law requires passports for people entering the US from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and Bermuda by air. CA tells us that the increase in volume of applications runs about 33 percent over last year and more passports have been issued between October 2006 and April 2007 than were issued in a single full year before 2003. We know from numerous comments on the previous five WV passport delay warning posts beginning on February 7 that any number of Americans has been unable to travel overseas without first experiencing major passport delay problems and many sleepless nights because of the Department’s sluggishness in rapidly fixing this eminently fixable problem. A number - and we do not know how many - have had to cancel trips in their entirety because of the passport delay problem.
We also know this from comments from friends and acquaintances who have had problems navigating the dysfunctional system and from local and regional media reports – a recent one in the Houston Chronicle chronicles the increase in private parking lot fees due to the surge of clients at the Houston Passport Agency. This thanks to Dave, a commenter on our May 16 passport delay post, for providing the link. Here are Dave’s links to two other relevant newspaper articles – one from Oklahoma, and another from Austin. The latter includes page after page of recent comments from frustrated passport applicants. They mirror the many similar comments we also have received.
This is a local, regional and NATIONAL STORY
You would hardly know it, however, from much of the national media – as several WV commenters have pointed out. Perhaps this is yet another ongoing story that needs to bubble up from the blogosphere and the local/regional media before it receives the national attention it deserves because in the end, it is a national story. Or perhaps the June 3 San Francisco Chronicle's front page feature on the problem and earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle will turn this story into the national one that it is.
What was once routine has, over the past several months, become a nightmare – at least for some Americans. People have had to reschedule or cancel trips abroad. They have reportedly lost anywhere between hundreds and thousands of dollars because they did not receive their passports in time. For anyone reading this, the reason, as we have explained before is the breakdown in the US government’s passport issuance process as a result of poor planning, outsourcing, lack of staff, additional requirements as a result of 9/11, and over taxed and probably outmoded equipment.
At the very least, State could have changed the dates on its website to reflect the realities. Somehow, the people in charge of this operation still don’t seem to understand that it’s far better to post the lengthiest wait time possible rather than promise a vital, time sensitive service that cannot always be delivered to everyone on time.
I won’t argue with CA’s cheery public affairs officer that many Americans are apparently receiving their passports on time and the wait times as indicated on State’s over-optimistic webpage are accurate for someone who applies today. I don’t have the data to quibble with the first assertion: State, however, certainly should. But I’m not sure how CA can be so sure of the latter since none of us will know for sure until nine weeks into the future. Maybe, however, the Department’s crystal ball is able to project beyond the present presumably because it has a better handle on the fixes – more staff (but will they be enough?), another passport facility termed a “mega processing center” in Hot Springs, Arkansas that came on line on March 27 - that are being implemented to help alleviate parts of the problem.
In fact, the Hot Springs mega facility should already have begun to alleviate lengthy delays - or not - but I also note from State’s press release that it will not be operating at full capacity until the end of 2007.
According to CA in its May 23 Press Release, this new facility “is dedicated solely to printing and mailing out large quantities of passports.” The Arkansas mega-facility is to receive electronically transmitted already approved applications from the other passport agency facilities. This will mean other agencies can focus their resources on “processing and adjudicating more passport applications.” Terrific. Sounds great. A consolidated plant with state of the art printing equipment may work better than the broken system in place.
Yet, the skeptic in me questions the further splintering of a process that is already delayed because of outsourcing at the initial stage to two Citigroup offices – one in Philadelphia and the other in Los Angeles – before the applications ever reach one of 13 agency offices scattered throughout the country. Citigroup backlogs are where the first delay begins. They can add one to four weeks to the turn around time. If numbers do not show up in the tracking system, blame Citigroup because it’s Citigroup that opens the envelopes, removes and cashes the checks, assigns a computerized tracking number then reseals the envelopes and sends the applications on to one of 13 US government passport agency facilities for document and data-base checks. Seems to me adding yet another location will just add one more place to misplace information - but then I haven't seen the production facility and don't know how the system fits seamlessly - or otherwise - into the existing operation. So maybe I've got it wrong.
The correct official line – or divine intervention from the Virgin of Guadalupe?
Meanwhile, I learned of someone here in New Mexico who recently received her expedited passport in three weeks. This must be something of a record because the times I’ve heard otherwise for expedited ones have been in the 4-6 week range. I’m not sure whether this should be taken as proof that the Department’s official line is accurate and everything is coming up roses or whether it is another miracle performed by the patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe whose statues and replicas grace many New Mexican homes and businesses because the earliest ever turn around time I’ve heard since January 23, 2007 is four weeks for expedited passport service unless, of course, one pays a fixer or in CA lingo a “passport courier” in DC. The latter seems to be taking 36 hours and anywhere from $160 to $250 over and above the government charges. Please note: WV does not endorse the use of passport fixers by whatever name.
Considering the record number of hits WV is receiving on our May 16 passport post – as well as the ever increasing comments which continue to dominate our right hand sidebar comments section, all, however, is not yet well in River City’s Foggy Bottom – or more accurately the State Department and its home in the city on the Potomac, not the city on the Rio Grande. For me, that jury remains still out.
NO WAIVER: PASSPORTS ARE NEEDED FOR FLIGHTS FROM MEXICO
Let me interject here, however, that whatever the airlines are saying about Americans not needing a passport for a trip to and from Mexico because there is some kind of a waiver, don’t believe them. This is not true. Here is what the US Customs and Border Patrol website says. They mean it.
I personally asked both Consular Affairs and Customs and Border Patrol public affairs officers on May 29 and was told that 99.9% of Americans flying to Mexico and back have valid passports.
In so doing, I learned that the Mexican government does not require a passport for entry so part of the airlines’ story is accurate. Now that works for getting there – but how about the return? If one is driving, or taking a bus back to the US the lack of a US passport may be fine until the more stringent US passport for land travel requirement kicks in in 2008.
Right now, I was advised, not having a valid passport on return to the US via air will mean being pulled out of the immigration line, put in a secondary line for additional border patrol checks and who knows how long that will take. A birth certificate doesn’t cut it. So yes, a person may be able to get back in to the US after a flight to Mexico without a passport, but my advice: don’t chance it – particularly if you have another flight to catch or need to be back at home at a particular time or day. Besides, the US Border Patrol does not have to let you back in at all – or can substantially delay your return – until it figures out you are who you, and your other documents, say you are.
Other Tips for US passport applicants: additional does and don’ts
There are several State Department Consular Affairs Bureau tips for US passport applicants worth reading and following before and during the process. They are found on State’s May 23, 2007 press release.
Read the final section: “Important Points for Travelers” and follow it carefully – including marking EXPEDITE on the outside of the envelope that contains your application and use the other tips included in the section’s first paragraph.
• Do not, however, expect the status of your application to appear online when State says it will. Do not expect to get through to the 1-877-487-2778 number at the National Passport Information Center in a timely fashion. There are other numbers that may be helpful that have been recommended by several commenters on our May 16 post (scroll down). Here’s one in DC that may help: 202-647-7948.
• There is also a 9-3-1- trick that may help you navigate State’s overloaded automated call center system. Here’s how a WV commenter explained it: “The ‘9-3-1’ trick...when they try to kick you off the 800 number with ‘All our agents are busy and we can not answer your call at this time’....hit ‘9 ‘, ‘3’ and then ‘1’ and it takes you back to ‘please hold’ without having to redial. It worked for me several times and I got through in about 20 minutes. Then you go to music but that is a good sign, a real person comes soon after.”
• Meanwhile, do not expect all the call center operators to give you the straight story: they are overwhelmed, probably new, poorly paid and inadequately trained. Besides, the information they have access to may not itself be accurate.
As you get to crunch time, e.g. two weeks before your intended departure and if you still have not received your passport, your best recourse is to call your Congressional District Office and ask for help. Many Congressional office staffers are very helpful – although even they cannot guarantee success – other Congressional offices are less so (see comments on WV's May 16 post.) The offices are themselves swamped with constituent pleas for help with the same problem. In Oklahoma, all members of Congress interviewed by NewsOK for an article published on May 30 described a land swell of constituent calls the past two months for help to overcome the obstacles in obtaining a passport. Each Oklahoma Congressional Delegation member normally receives a handful of such cries for help at any one time. Now Representative John Sullivan’s office has over 500 alone pending.
In addition to a list of WV suggestions for navigating the system included in our May 16 post “The Erratic State of US Passport Issuance,” you will find any number of suggestions from readers themselves.
Please continue to share with us your own experiences both pro and con. We wish you success and hopefully a wonderful trip abroad.