Originally Posted by
sullim4
I'm now at 10 weeks, going on 11 weeks this coming Wednesday after being quoted 6-9 when I applied back in December.
My NEXUS renewal from October at this point has had a faster turnaround time. I don't know who is running the show at State, but they either need to ask for more money or clean house on the passport side of things and get someone in there that knows what they are doing. The long turnaround time isn't as frustrating as the lack of communication and the oft-broken online portal. Even a mass email or a website update to anyone that went over the originally quoted time with an updated timeline would make me feel somewhat better.
Going on 11 weeks without an expedite fee? Ouch.
It’s been sort of a mush show to some extent or another for decades. If State asks for more money to avoid massive seasonal backlogs, it will come with much higher passport application fees. Given that I have no problem getting new/renewal passports back within 2 weeks of application without paying an expedite fee, I have no desire to see higher application fees. One way to reduce these periodical massive backlogs and not expedite and exacerbate the fee hikes is to see US passports being less needed for cross-border air travel.