Got my passport renewed in six weeks.

[DandyDon]

Regular certified mailing.

Once more into the breach dear friends.​

After my attempt to get back to Cozumel failed in a series of cancelations last summer, I was so frustrated that I wondered why bother? It's good for ten years tho, I'm sure that I'll work up the guts to fly American again sometime, and even if I surprise myself and find myself this side of a headstone in ten years I doubt that I'd be up to traveling by 2031.

It's been three weeks since my second Covid jab tho, got a cheap ticket after credit card rebates to Coz for this summer, got room and diving reserved, and trip insurance in case of another failure. This may work. I'd also like to retry a DC visit if they ever open the buildings there again and retry taking the kids to see the Giant Sequoias after both of those trips failed last year. I'm not optimistic about those, but they may work as well.

 

[scrane]

Hey,
Was that 6 weeks from the time you sent it out to when you received it. I sent my documents out and they sat for 14 days in the Philadelphia Post Office. The Passport people are quoting 10-12 weeks. I still have no verification from them that they've started work on it. I have a trip in early May and I think I will have to upgrade to Expedited to ensure that I get it back in time. What a mess!

 

[scrane]

This is what I have from my wife's application that was mailed on the same day but didn't sit in the Philadelphia PO.

Your Application Status
Application Status: In Process

The U.S. Department of State has received your application for your passport book on 02/24/2021. We're now reviewing your application and supporting documents.

You requested routine service when you applied, which we are currently processing in 10-12 weeks.

Your application locator number is xxxxxxxxx.

 

[DandyDon]

Was that 6 weeks from the time you sent it out to when you received it.

Yep. Mailed regular certified on January 13, arrived back sometime since Thursday - the last time I checked my box, so 6 to 6½ weeks. It arrived by Priority Mail.

I sent my documents out and they sat for 14 days in the Philadelphia Post Office.

I would be raising hell for that. The USPS has performed poorly lately, but there is no excuse for not getting it out.

 

[scrane]

Both packages were mailed first class with tracking from Boise on 02/02. The Passport office in Philadelphia signed for my wife's on 02/05. Mine on 02/19 after sitting in the Philadelphia PO since 02/04.
I could go yell at the guy in Boise, but what's the point? The USPS has been intentially and systematically gutted.

 

[GF99/99]

Don't know if this is of any help but just throwing it out there as a little travelers tip that most people do not know about. Maybe this will help someone in the future of just a nice little track trick to keep in the back of you mind.

In specific situations you can actually get a passport in the same day. I have done it a couple times. The State Department does not really advertise it or make it easy but if you are lucky and live near one of the gov passport facilities Passport Agencies there are only a few and have to make an appointment with them and go in person with you application and they will process it and print you out a new passport in the same day.

I have done this 3 times successfully and my brother has done it once as well. I do not live in the US and am always on the go so I fill passports up very quickly and since they stopped adding pages several years ago now about every 2-3 years I need a new passport (yes I know you can special request 50pg passports and I do). I try and avoid getting new passports out of country because its a royal pain in the you know what... US Embassies are only located in capital cities/main cities so you have to fly the capital of what ever country your in book hotel room usual for 2 nights spend the whole day going to the embassy and applying then fly back to where you came from 2 weeks latter fly back book hotel room, go get the passport then fly back. Ends up being a mission and very expensive.

So what I do is my parents are retired in AZ so I try and visit them every couple years about the time my passport is almost out of blank pages. I call the passport center make an appointment spend the day drive down to Tucson submit the paperwork in the morning go poke around Tucson have an amazing Mexican food lunch then go back in the afternoon and pickup my new passport. Surprisingly I have found that the passport office in Tucson for a government facility is extremely helpful and the people working there are too. The first time I went I thought it would be like going to Motor Vehicle, but it was actually the opposite.

The catch to this is that you need to have an international plan ticket with in 72hr. however every time I have done it my international plan ticket was with in a week or two. But like I said the people working at the Tucson branch are amazingly helpful so you luck may vary from mine.

 

[Silt Life]

Philly post office is a joke! I mailed a small flat rate box to a suburb of Philly on December 13th. It finally arrived on February 12, 2021

 

[JohnN]

FWIW, my stepdaughter's BF got his first passport in about 6 weeks too. It's hard to complain about that type of service

 

[theDrExplorer]

While this may work during the before times, more than half of the passport agencies are only accepting appointments for life-or-death emergencies ("your immediate family member has died or is seriously ill or injured while abroad and you need to travel outside the United States within 72 hours (3 business days). Immediate family members include parents, legal guardians, children, spouses, siblings, and grandparents.").

For the few agencies that still accept urgent, non-life-or-death emergency, passport applications, I have not been able to see ANY available appointments in any west coast location (San Francisco, Los Angeles or Seattle) regardless of what date I put in as my travel date. FWIW, I paid for expedited service and express mailing from the post office this year, and received it back in about 4 weeks.

Don't know if this is of any help but just throwing it out there as a little travelers tip that most people do not know about. Maybe this will help someone in the future of just a nice little track trick to keep in the back of you mind.

In specific situations you can actually get a passport in the same day. I have done it a couple times. The State Department does not really advertise it or make it easy but if you are lucky and live near one of the gov passport facilities Passport Agencies there are only a few and have to make an appointment with them and go in person with you application and they will process it and print you out a new passport in the same day.

I have done this 3 times successfully and my brother has done it once as well. I do not live in the US and am always on the go so I fill passports up very quickly and since they stopped adding pages several years ago now about every 2-3 years I need a new passport (yes I know you can special request 50pg passports and I do). I try and avoid getting new passports out of country because its a royal pain in the you know what... US Embassies are only located in capital cities/main cities so you have to fly the capital of what ever country your in book hotel room usual for 2 nights spend the whole day going to the embassy and applying then fly back to where you came from 2 weeks latter fly back book hotel room, go get the passport then fly back. Ends up being a mission and very expensive.

So what I do is my parents are retired in AZ so I try and visit them every couple years about the time my passport is almost out of blank pages. I call the passport center make an appointment spend the day drive down to Tucson submit the paperwork in the morning go poke around Tucson have an amazing Mexican food lunch then go back in the afternoon and pickup my new passport. Surprisingly I have found that the passport office in Tucson for a government facility is extremely helpful and the people working there are too. The first time I went I thought it would be like going to Motor Vehicle, but it was actually the opposite.

The catch to this is that you need to have an international plan ticket with in 72hr. however every time I have done it my international plan ticket was with in a week or two. But like I said the people working at the Tucson branch are amazingly helpful so you luck may vary from mine.

 

[bcaderunr]

Mailed mine and the missus passports from a suburb of Denver in separate Priority Flat Rate envelopes on December 8. Sent both to the same address in Philly with expedite request and extra payment enclosed. Handed them both at the same time to a postal clerk.

Tracking on December 28 had mine in Denver but with the wife's now sitting in San Francisco !!!

A week later on January 6, they both made it to the Philly passport center.

Passports showed up in our mailbox on January 25 and January 28.

As an aside, we also mailed all of our domestic Holiday greetings at the Post Office on December 8. We had numerous friends who didn't get them until after the first of the year.