Originally Posted by
kale73
It almost sounds as though the U.S. Department of State is “shaking down” passport applicants for more money.
I’m sure it’s more incompetence/sloth than malice.
Yup. Incompetence. I get that with COVID, there are fewer employees and it would take longer than the usual 3 - 4 weeks. BUT. Why are the applications taking weeks to show up in the system and then 10 - 12 weeks on top? And if they indeed have low staffing levels, then as soon as you fork over the money, how is the passport getting approved, printed and mailed out in a mere day? Seems like they wait for you to break and pay and then its immediately processed.