I applied for a new passport last January at the post office and received it in just under 3 weeks. My birth certificate came in the same envelope as the passport. A co-worker applied for hers a couple of weeks ago and got it in 6 days! A hell of a lot faster than last summer when it took another friend 12 weeks to receive hers. It arrived the day before she left for the Bahamas, which is where she was getting married. these were all processed by the Philadelphia office.