From the responses on this thread, it is taking a long time, and of course you have to pay, within the USA. I always get the pages added when I'm out of the country, and would recommend this method, if at all possible.

Well, you don't HAVE to pay, as the service is free. It takes a long time. But your Congressmember can intervene, if needed, again at no charge.

I mailed my renewal from CA on 7/17 to PHL, standard mailing, processing, and return. I received the new passport on 8/13, slightly less than 4 weeks turnaround.

I don't have any trips planned in the near future but was being proactive. Of course, if I did need my renewal urgently I would still be waiting!

Did your status on line change from "being processed"? Did you receive an email that it had been mailed back to you? Or does it just show up in the mailbox? Thanks

I don’t know about kenish’s but Mrs. Cholula got an e-mail saying hers was complete and being sent. And it showed up a couple days later.

My application continued to show “being processed” for the next ten days after hers showed up. And we applied at the same time.

So another call to our congressman resulted in my passport being pulled from the stack and FEDEX’ed a few days later and almost two weeks after hers arrived.

As has been said earlier, it’s good to be proactive here if you’re facing a deadline.

Here is how my 'standard processing' renewal went:

> Mailed application and check via first class mail on 7/31
> Four days later, I had an email that it was 'received and in process' and would take 6-8 weeks... Checked often for updates....to no avail..
> Added on the travel section that I was traveling on Sept 8th (in case it helped -- but it didn't)
> Rec'd email Mon, 9/17, that it was finished, and being mailed
> Email included a P.O. tracking number that was useless....it didn't appear in their system at all till the 20th
> Rec'd new passport on 9/21....that is roughly SEVEN WEEKS for a standard renewal...
> Did not include the extra pages that I requested

My renewal date is one week before my expiration date.

So, that was my experience....and fortunately I wasn't forced to make phone calls or stress over it...

Expedited passport renewal report:

Renewal materials mailed (USPS express) Sept 8
Passport delivered (USPS express) Sept 19

11 days total -- nice!

Honestly, putting a travel date weeks before you need it is quite disingenuous. It may get to the point that people who really need a passport, won't get it in time because everyone is always crying wolf. I have no problem with giving a few days before travel, but any more than that is just abuse of the system.

However no less disingenuous, IMO, than the State Department "Commitment" (their words on the passport application) that we would have our passports in hand 10-12 weeks after receipt of application.

As I said in a previous post, we were well into the 14th week and I only received mine then because I got my congressman involved.

And this was only a renewal and didn't require whatever investigative process is needed for an initial application.

I said I was traveling 5 weeks after I mailed the application -- not sure why that is an abuse

If you said you were flying in 5 weeks, but weren't, then you were trying to bump yourself up. You got your passport back in 7 weeks, a timely fashion, it seems with all the congestion going on. What happens to the people who really are traveling in 5 weeks, and don't get their passport because you wanted to have your passport back quicker?

I'm not defending the State Department's handling of the Passport fiasco this year. I knew it would be a cluster***k, as people will always wait until the last moment to get a passport, when they've been warned for 2 years about the impending need for one.

You're not alone in this, of course. Fudge a few days, sure. But a couple of weeks just puts more strain on the system.

If you have read all of this thread, you'll also have read that most people getting the RFID passport didn't get extra pages. I renewed mine a bit early in 2005, so I didn't have to wait when the demand for passports was high, and as a bonus, had no problem getting a 48 pager. (Now half full!)

I mailed my renewal off on Sept 8 via regular first class mail. I did not pay the expedite fee or make any special requests, but I received my new passport, quite shockingly, on Sept 19. It was mailed back to me from New Hampshire, via Priority Mail.

I saw an article in yesterday's newspaper that said, according to the passport office, that the backlog has been eliminated. Waiting times to recieve passports should be back to normal, according to this article.

Ed

When I arrived in SCL on Wednesday afternoon, I sent the embassy an email asking about adding pages to my passport and I explained that I had some more trips coming up and most likely would not have enough time back in the US to have it done before my next trip. They responded that it would take 2-3 days and that they would not expedite the process.

This morning I went to the embassy anyway and explained that I had a flight out tonight and needed their help. At first they balked, but then agreed and asked me to pick up the passport at 3pm. Went back at 3pm, but passport was not ready because they had a computer problem. Anyway, 1 hour later the passport was ready! And at no cost either. Very impressed.

yes - I should have noticed that I was getting close to filling up my visa pages....I had only 1 free page left! td:

Pretty similar experience here. We dropped off my daughter's application at the post office September 8 and it came today!