Another case study to add to the pile.

My husband renewed his passport 3/5/07 via mail, no expedite fee. His case number was trackable online after 4 weeks. Online status said his application was processed around 5/30/07 and we received the passport through normal mail on 6/5/07. It took a full 3 months for a renewal, originally was told 8-10 weeks. The passport was the old type, no electronic chip inside.

We applied for our 2 children's passports on 3/19/07 at a US Post Office. We didn't expedite, were told it could take up to 10 weeks (but our travel was beginning of July so we thought we were fine). After 6 weeks, it still didn't show online as having been received. I emailed and got a response after 4 days that it was received --- could track it online after that. More and more passport horror stories were surfacing and I started getting worried. Online kept having the same status: "processing" with no additional info. 6/8/07 US Dept of State said no passport requirements needed for Caribbean (our destination). Birth certificates were sent with the applications, but I had another copy so we were OK. 6/20/07 in the morning, status was still the same "processing"; in the afternoon, status changed to "processed, will receive in the normal US mail around 6/25/07". Imagine my surprise getting 2 FedEx packages today 6/21/07 --- passports were next day FedEx delivered! Passports were the NEW type, electronic. Apparently they are paying attention to the travel date you listed when you applied, otherwise I don't see why they would FedEx the passports when we didn't expedite. No congressional help, though I did call to ask (they said to call back within 2 weeks of travel). All in all, just over 3 months for my children's new passport applications.