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Wait Times for Passports Continue to Increase

Wait Times for Passports Continue to Increase

by Mindy Cohn

According to the State Department website, the turnaround time for a standard passport renewal is eight to eleven weeks. 

However, an additional sixty dollars will get the applicant an expedited renewal application which cuts the time down to five to seven weeks.

Although applicants waited for as many as eighteen weeks for their passports during the height of covid, the process still takes longer today than before the pandemic. Not that long ago, passport renewals took six to eight weeks for standard service, and expedited service took two weeks.

One excuse the State Department offers for the increasing wait times is that the number of requests is up, with 21,995,760 passports processed or nearly twice the number in 2021 as was processed during the previous year.

Application numbers are up due to today's Americans' enormous demand for international trips. 

“As Americans are traveling internationally again, we are seeing unprecedented demand for passports,” Forbes reported on a comment from a State Department official. “In fiscal year 2022, we issued more passports than ever before, and we are on track to break that record again for fiscal year 2023.”

Although the State Department launched an online passport renewal portal in February of 2022, the portal was suspended after more than 500,000 citizens submitted online applications. This means renewing a U.S. passport can only be done in person or by mail. The online option is expected to be back up sometime later this year.


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