Applied for my 5 years old renewal at USPS here in Seattle on 01/22 and a few minutes ago, I received an email with in process. I did not pay for an expedite since we are not planning on traveling before July. His old passport expires in June and it barely looks like him anyway. I think they mail passport applications to local passport agencies for processing and the passport might be printed somewhere else. Seattle passport agency has always been efficient even when we applied for his first passport it took a week from routine application to receiving passport in the mail first time. I would rather they delay it to get extra validity. Lol