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US stops processing most passport requests due to COVID-19
Details dated April 3, 2019 can be found here: Because of public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, effective March 20, 2020, we are only able to offer in-person service at passport agencies or centers for customers with a qualified life-or-death emergency and who need a passport for immediate international travel within 72 hours. Learn more below to see if you qualify for a life-or-death emergency appointment. While you can still apply in person for a U.S. passport at some acceptance facilities and renew through the mail, you should expect significant delays receiving your passport and your citizenship evidence documents. Please consider waiting to apply until we resume normal operations. We suspended expedited service on March 19 and are not offering this service to any applicants. What If I Applied Before March 20? If you applied and requested expedited service on or before March 19, 2020, we made every effort to meet our commitment of 2-3 weeks door-to-door service. However, due to limited staff, we are still working on a small portion of incomplete expedited applications submitted on or before March 19. You may experience additional delays. If you applied and requested routine service on or before March 19, 2020, you should expect significant delays receiving your passport and your citizenship evidence documents. |
Why not just apply by mail? Sure, it's slower, but this shouldn't be such a big deal since you can't (easily) travel to many other countries from the US now.
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Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32262592)
Why not just apply by mail? Sure, it's slower, but this shouldn't be such a big deal since you can't (easily) travel to many other countries from the US now.
If an application is just going to sit there, it may be better to wait until later when newly submitted applications can again be handled in person with or without an expedite fee. |
Originally Posted by GUWonder
(Post 32262857)
New applications received without accompanying indication of “life and death” emergency meeting the published requirement are no longer being processed; instead they just sit to be processed after staffing levels allow for it again.
If an application is just going to sit there, it may be better to wait until later when newly submitted applications can again be handled in person with or without an expedite fee. |
Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32263044)
The directive applies specifically to "in person" applications. There is no mention of mail service being suspended, though I understand there is a bit of a backlog. This is currently being discussed in the "US passport waiting times" thread.
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Originally Posted by moondog
(Post 32263044)
The directive applies specifically to "in person" applications. There is no mention of mail service being suspended, though I understand there is a bit of a backlog. This is currently being discussed in the "US passport waiting times" thread.
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Moderator's Note
US passport application and processing issues are generally discussed in the USA forum, where there are several active threads discussing current processing times and the suspension of in person applications (except in cases of qualified life-or-death emergencies).
TWA884 Travel Safety/Security co-moderator |
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