We mailed our renewals (expedited) in on October 20 hoping for processing before the possible government shutdown. Voila! They arrived today! Sadly, although we requested them, our old passports were not returned. A piece of history gone as we had a LOT of stamps!
Posted by
Seattle, WA & Bordeaux, France
326 posts
You should get your old passports back. Typically they mail them separately. My daughter received her old passport about a week or two after she received her new one.
Posted by
The Heartland USA
9018 posts
Laurel, the old passports are always returned in a separate, later mailing.
Posted by
11606 posts
Your old passports are usually returned with a few weeks so watch for them. We have many old passports which were returned.
Posted by
Salem, Oregon, USA
2758 posts
Laurel I had a similar fast turn around time on my passport (mailed 10/10, received 11/4). I just got my old passport in the mail today (11/14). They sent it snail mail, not priority.
Posted by
OP
Forest Grove, OR
11798 posts
Thanks! Good to know I’ll likely get the old one back. Last time we renewed was at the American Embassy in Rome and we picked up in person. Those were the days!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33987 posts
congratulations!
Has it been 10 years since you arrived in Rome? Wow how time flies.
Posted by
OP
Forest Grove, OR
11798 posts
Nigel, we arrived in Rome 11.5 years ago! Renewed passports in 2015 before we retired there. 😊
Posted by
Seattle, WA
335 posts
My un-expedited renewed passport just arrived today in exactly 5 weeks from start to finish!
Edited to add: FWIW, although I got my passport in record time, the state department’s customer tracking systems failed for me. I signed up for the progress tracking that was supposed to update me with an Email when my passport was received, done and mailed etc. I did not get one single email. And the online tracking was always showing “not available” meaning their system was down.