Interesting info on passport and visa processing in the US

Interesting! My son and his wife just discovered that their daughter's passport was expired 8 days before a scheduled flight to Switzerland. They were able to get it renewed in time. They do live in NYC and I think it required a quick trip to DC but I was amazed that they were able to accomplish this.

I posted this elsewhere but will repeat it here to add a personal example. I did an expedited renewal in June and received my passport back 24 days later. So that’s promising, but probably just random good luck.

Yeah, it seems right now to be the luck of the draw whether you get it quickly or wait months and months. I'm very glad my passport doesn't expire until 2026!

Interesting! My son and his wife just discovered that their daughter's passport was expired 8 days before a scheduled flight to Switzerland.

Curious, but how in the world were they able to buy the plane tickets without revealing / discovering the soon to expire passport? Every time I buy tickets for an international flight, I have to enter my passport data, or at least review anything that is stored on an airline I have FF status, and it would be pretty difficult to bypass this step.

For that matter, the very first thing I look at anytime the thought of a foreign trip arises is to check our passport expiry dates.

JoJo, you actually don't have to enter any passport data to buy plane tickets. You'll get a reminder by text or email before your flight that it is needed, but technically you could wait until you are at the checkin counter to do it.

You do not need to enter your passport number to purchase an airplane ticket. It’s a good idea to check the passport but many airlines do not require a passport number ahead of the purchase of the ticket. That step is required closer to the travel date. For example, I just bought two tickets to Paris for travel in October from Iceland Air without having to enter our passport numbers. I did enter mine but not my husband’s because his renewal application is in process.
Quick passport renewals are a benefit of living on the East Coast, where there are passport agency locations in Norwalk, CT, Boston, NYC, and Philadelphia. When I lived in NYC, I used the Norwalk location a few times for relatives who needed rush replacements and got them in one day.

JoJo, you actually don't have to enter any passport data to buy plane tickets.

That wasn't my recent experience - at least, you may be correct that it wasn't "required" to make the purchase, but the airline website did trigger a notice that that kind of information was needed to be reviewed and completed. And that was my point, really, that it would be hard not to be reminded to check your passport expiry at time of ticket purchase.

the number of U.S. passports per American has soared from about three per 100 people in 1989 to nearly 46 per 100 people in 2022. Americans, it turns out, are on the move.

This has far more to do with rules changes than increased international travel. The late aughts saw a huge surge in passports issued due to the new requirement to carry one for international travel in North America. (Anyone remember when you could go to/from Mexico or Canada with just a driver's license?) Many of those first-time passports expired leading up to Covid, and people are just catching up. *Minor rant about contemporary journalism relying on storytelling versus reporting.

it wasn't "required" to make the purchase, but the airline website did trigger a notice

These notices are VERY easy to skip with the intention of completing it any time up till check-in.

Anyone remember when you could go to/from Mexico or Canada with just a driver's license?

You still can in some states. Anyone with an enhanced driver's license can use it in lieu of a passport to enter Canada or Mexico. At this time, only Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Washington have them (although Ohio will pretty soon) but hopefully more states will in the future.

You still can in some states

Only for land crossings. Americans used to be able to fly to our neighbors without passports—Carribean, too.

The backlog isn't because a passport is required for Canada or MX air travel - that's been required since 2008.

Since 9/11 changes and REAL ID requirements have been in place, it's ALWAYS been more difficult to get a passport. Think about it - there's 50+ states that have their own way of issuing birth certs (AND they've changed over time); same with marriage certs, divorce decrees, etc. So it's frankly, cumbersome and difficult (and heaven forbid you're an adoptee that was adopted 1+ yr after birth and have to justify THAT), and since almost no one travelled during Covid, the same uptick in hotel and flight prices is causing the backlog (and of course, staffing issues).

I think the point about the Canada/Mexico requirements is that all those passports issued when the rules went into effect are now expiring 10 years out or expired during Covid and the passport holders waited to renew because no one was traveling. It's probably a combination of factors accounting for the current backlog.

The news report I saw on TV last night said 400,000 applications per week are coming in. The State Dept recommendation was to apply 6 months before you plan to travel, as 15-18 weeks for processing is 'typical'

This post shows why one should renew their passport one year early. This means one extra renewal cost in a lifetime at most.

I have deleted the comments on Florida drivers license. They are just Real ID to be used in the US. My mistake. Read up on Enhanced drivers license. They make Canadian travel much simpler. No wonder they are available in northern border states.

. I always carry my passport when happily traveling out of the country. Global entry has made coming back easier.

This post shows why one should renew their passport one year early

I agree with this, and it is what we did a few years ago, during Covid, even with no prospects of going anywhere.

And I might add: pay for the expedited processing and delivery.

@racquet588 - FL does not have an Enhanced DL, only VT, NY, MI, MN and WA do. REAL ID does not equal EDL, REAL ID compliant documents include EDLs, passports, TWIC cards, NEXUS cards, and in most states, driver's licenses (some states, incl NY, do issue NON REAL ID compliant DLs).

"The U.S. secretary of state had an answer, of a sort.

“With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,” Antony Blinken told a House subcommittee March 23. When demand for travel all but disappeared during the pandemic, he said, the government let contractors go and reassigned staff that had been dedicated to handling passports.

Around the same time, the government also halted an online renewal system “to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it,” Blinken said. He said the department is hiring agents as quickly as possible, opening more appointments and trying to address the crisis in other ways."

Looks more like incompetence to me. They need to acquire more contractors and/or hire up. Can't blame this on COVID after all this time!

Skunklet, thank you for pointing out my mistake on equating real and enhanced licenses as the same. I have deleted that misinformation.

I think the point about the Canada/Mexico requirements is that all those passports issued when the rules went into effect are now expiring

Yes. Thank you, Ponygirl

Sent mine in June 14. Expedited. Will see how long it takes to get back!

@Dave - that's the exact date I mailed my expedited renewal in!

Edit-

Removed irrelevant comment

Joe 32 F, you beet me to it! One vote for Valerie for no reason at all!

This will surely make Dave sad...but I already have my passport back.

Joe, Valerie mentioned above that she got her passport back 24 days later. It's just luck, I guess, how the dice (or passports) roll.

I wonder if it would help to mail it certified. Sometimes that gets more attention than a regular envelope.

I overnighted my to the expedited mailing address. My total outlay was around $250 for the passport, once I paid for the US Postal Service overnight.

Valerie, I think that definitely made a difference. Sending something outside the regular mail circuit gets attention, and that's probably why you got yours so fast.

Well I have an enhanced DL but have never used the feature. Maybe some day. It works for Mexico too but no interest in it with those border states I guess, and even Florida has surface transport to the Bahamas.

I wonder if it would help to mail it certified.

This requires a delivery signature, I think that would be slower than regular mail.

Some might find this link interesting -- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-and-statistics.html

You'll have the standard volume of first time passports and passport renewals, but then there are cycles. Rule changes requiring those returning by air from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda to present a passport, misunderstandings of new rules, etc led to a surge in applications in 2007. State department only planned on 12 million applications that year, but applications topped out at 18.3 million and a backlog that year. It's easy to see that 2007 leads to surges in the next decade. Look at passports issued for 2016, 2017, & 2018, then suddenly the State Department closes up shop and passports issued in 2020 drops to 11.7 million down from 20.6 million.

All the various things related to this are extremely slow not just passport renewal. For example I applied for Nexus back in late Feb or the first day or two of March and NOTHING has hapoened with the application at all as far as i can tell. They say it will be 12-14 MONTHS. Now this is I am sure in part because this involves Canada as well as US governments so…. I am sure it is the worst of all worlds.

But it shows that all various branches of this are backed up.

This requires a delivery signature, I think that would be slower than regular mail.

Not really, Tom. When I was practicing law, we had to send documents by certified mail in order to fulfill service of process, and it takes the same amount of time as regular mail when you are sending it to a business (or in this case, a government office). The only difference is the signature requirement and that is done almost instantaneously with delivery to a business.

One advantage of certified mail is that you can track it and get a status report once it's delivered.

As noted above, I mailed my expedited renewal June 14. For the record, I sent the renewal via Priority Mail at the encouragement of the post office person so that I could follow the post office issued number and know it was received. I checked the passport website today (July 23), and my status was changed to "Mailed" on July 21. I paid for Priority Mail for the new passport -- don't know if that helps or not. Hopefully, I will have my passport soon! Time to start planning a fall trip 🙂.

Good to know, Dave! Hopefully the backlog is lessening. Mine doesn't expire for another 3 years but I'm already thinking about how to work my trips around the passport renewal. 😊

"Mine doesn't expire for another 3 years but I'm already thinking about how to work my trips around the passport renewal."

Oh wow, that made me laugh out loud, Mardee!! We are a bunch of travel enablers here!