Passport renewal -Oops-Shutdown

oh gosh, what rotten luck!! I hope (and feel like) hopefully things will get turned around in time for you.

But not necessary, the added stress.

At least you're in a city with actual people to process an expedited renewal if necessary; once they open up, go spend the day in the Passport Agency office.

(We missed seeing the Normandy Beach cemetery because of the 2013 shutdown ... And were very lucky to have returned from our recent trip two days before this one.)
Good luck!!

I feel your pain as they have my passport too! We don’t leave until July however, so I am hopeful I will have it back in plenty of time!
Good luck!

Oh darn crappy luck.

As I understand it, passport services are not affected by the government shutdown. Timeframes remain the same for both new passports and renewals. Plus, the U.S. Postal Service remains open & will still handle passport services. See the U.S. State Department website.

I feel your angst. We are taking a guide dog to Europe and the vet at the USDA is supposed to authenticate the international health certificate. I spoke to the office on Friday and they did not know what was going to happen. However, the last time our elected representatives failed to do their job the USDA continued to authenticate certificates on reduced hours. The documents are time sensitive so we could not do it any earlier. Still coming up with plans B and C just in case but that will mean travel that is more challenging for my husband and a bewildered dog on why she is separated from her handler.

Tom - thank you for that reference, which I found, I had tried to find something this morning. But, having been on the worker side of this so many times and had so many conflicting instructions passed to me, I am not certain that the announcement clarifies that the workers there will be operating under that "essential worker" guideline. Incidentally, if you are classified as "essential", then you as worker have no rights during that period. I lost a family vacation due to this back in 1995 as since I was essential I was not allowed to sue leave. Amazing. Fortunately it was a road trip visiting friends for the week, so we lost no money. Post Office is under separate funding and is never affected by the budget process; we mailed the renewals directly and they were already received.

Really not making light of your plight (which is very real), but as Mark Twain is reputed to have said "We've got the best government money can buy". Sometimes I'd settle for second best.

Not at all. I often quote a great line from L'il Abner "There's no Jack S. like our Jack S." (referring to their Senator from Dogpatch, Jack S. Phogbound, for those millenials here who have no idea what this meant!) I use it in reference to how something like 95% of the country wants top see a complete changeover of Congress. Everyone out--except their own rep. TC? As in TopCat? Further dating myself...

Thank you Larry! Maybe you would get my Jubilation T. Cornpone jokes.

How on Earth can a government just shut down?

This is not normal you know.

melsmith1962, why are you surprised? Look who is President and who has majority in Senat and House.

Larry, When I hear the phrase "... drain the swamp..." I always think a resident of the swamp named Pogo who proclaimed "We have met the enemy and he is us". Although the origin of the phrase may (and will) be debated, it still seems apropos.

And consider the process - there is no authorization to spend, that is the budget that must be passed. No authority to pay. Now when you completely politicize the process, make non-budgetary items part of the process, make it so that the budget can be held hostage over such items, you have a problem. It is ironic that the Republican party is screaming foul over the Democrats doing the same tactic that the Republicans used in the last several shut-downs to cause havoc, and for 16 of the last 24 years in general. I did not want to politicize this and lead to webmaster warnings and deletions, especially as we've got some nice cultural references going , but since Ilja jumped in first...Drain the Swamp...I recall there was a "Swamp Monster" in 50's Sci-Fi movies...

Without regard to parties or political leanings, we should have all purchased stock in the whiskey companies because the whole country is being driven to drink.

And I thought David Cameron was as bad as a democracy could get.

This isn't the first time the government has shut down and probably won't be the last in the polarized/divided country we now inhabit. We will weather it the way we weathered the others.

It's hard to say what will happen regarding passport processing. In another shutdown it was affected, but the State Dept memo leads one to believe that it might not be this time. From what I read, I think it depends more on where a particular service is as far as funding is concerned and how long the shutdown lasts. They normally don't last long so you may still be ok for your March date. You'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Don't panic yet, you still have time. Let us hope that they solve this problem in the next few days.

It will be running by Wed at the latests.

I think the Republicans may have to back down on this one. Not because of the Democrats but because of their constituents.......during the shutdown, no gun permits will be issued.

Sadly, though, the passport office is closed

during the shutdown, no gun permits will be issued.

Frank II - OMG, you should have put a warning on that one. I was drinking wine and nearly spit it out!!! :-)

Larry - I remember your story and everyone encouraging you to renew ASAP. OMG, what rotten luck! Fingers crossed that you will have your passports in time!

"melsmith1962, why are you surprised? Look who is President and who has majority in Senat and House."

Please remember that we have managed to do this government shutdown under Presidents from both parties and that while some of us may agree with your political rant this is NOT the place for it!

Your trip is not until March. It is still January. You have time. Not yet time to panic. Closure won't last all that long, they never do.

I work at Passport Services headquarters and we are operational. Anything you read to the contrary is incorrect. As such, your renewal application will be processed in accordance with the time frames listed on travel.state.gov, so there's no need to contact your senator. At this point, I wouldn't contact anyone in the Senate given how inept they are at doing their actual job.

Arghh! And today my wife's renewal was returned in the mail, some she ALSO FORGOT to sign it!

rmf109, thank you so much for that useful info. No, we would only have gone into Casey's office if it was about March 15, with nothing going on, and ask for help simply to get possession of our otherwise acceptable current passports, which have a year and several blank pages.

"I think the Republicans may have to back down on this one. Not because of the Democrats but because of their constituents.......during the shutdown, no gun permits will be issued.

Sadly, though, the passport office is closed"

I'm curious what "gun permits" the federal government issues.

I'm curious what "gun permits" the federal government issues.

Federal gun permits.

They allow certain people including such as those in law enforcement (like the FBI) the ability to carry weapons wherever they want. I had one for a while in my earlier career because I needed to carry a concealed weapon but where I worked there was no state concealed carry allowed. It was the happiest day of my working career when I allowed that permit to lapse and I no longer had to walk around armed.

Update--Good news. Our passport renewals show in process as of 1/23 and today, this should be good enough for them to get back in time to timely update our 3/25 itinerary. Barring any other unforeseen problems.

And further success!

Amazingly, both passports arrived this AM. That would be the 15th day after they received my signed form back, and the 11th after they received my wife's re-mailed form. My only minor annoyance is that since they were now processed separately, not only do we no longer have consecutive numbers, which actually allowed an easy memorization, but the expiration dates are a few days off, making for more work when booking. I do suppose this ought to be the worst that ever happens to me (and now it's waiting on my other thread to see if Norwegian owns up easily for my kids, or if they have to start fighting)

Congratulations, Larry. I know what it's like to wait for a passport to arrive with trip plans hanging in the balance.

Great news! I'm glad to hear that it worked out for you!!

Excellent. Well in hand nearly two months before your trip.