Passport delays dampen summer travel plans
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Getting my passport renewed this month was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
Why it matters: I'm one of thousands of Americans whose summer travel plans were threatened by passport processing delays. Others haven't been as lucky to get their passport issued or renewed in time for their trips.
The big picture: The system is flooded with 500,000 applications a week, on-track to top last year's record 22 million passports issued, a state department spokesperson told Axios.
- Processing times have been increasing since February. It now takes 10-13 weeks for routine processing and 7-9 weeks for expedited processing. This does not include mailing times.
- Last month, Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio joined lawmakers in once again asking the Biden administration to address the delays.
State of play: A state department spokesperson told Axios that the government is working to get back to pre-pandemic processing times by the end of the year.
- Staffers are working thousands of monthly overtime hours, with 30,000-40,000 overtime hours authorized from January through June.
- The department is trying to hire hundreds of additional staffers to address the surge. Volunteers from across the department are also working on surge teams, including retirees and new hires who will be reassigned later.
- The National Passport Information Center has tripled its available phone help lines and now offers weekend service.
What they're saying: St. Petersburg resident Chad Silver told Bay News 9 he had to delay a trip after spending 13 weeks with no passport despite paying for expedited service and overnight shipping.
- Silver said he called the phone number listed for status checks 31 times before he was able to get someone on the phone, who told him, "Maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't."
Between the lines: Lawmakers may be able to help get people through the process faster, but it's unclear how much sway they actually have in a system that's so clogged up. The state department wouldn't comment on involvement from lawmakers.
- A spokesperson for Scott told Axios that his office acts as a liaison to facilitate communication between the agency and constituents.
- "If a constituent has already made a request for a new passport, we are able to provide additional travel information to the agency, which might result in the person receiving the passport prior to the travel date. If the constituent has already requested an appointment, our office can ask for an earlier date which may or may not be granted, depending on the agency’s availability."
Go deeper: How Selene did it