That is frustrating. I hope it resolves soon. They seem to be processing a bit quicker these days. Keep us posted. Good luck!

From Cameron not five minutes ago:

'Good Morning,



Thankyou for your inquiry.

Application #******** for ************ passport was approved and issued today July 27, 2021. Tracking number is unavailable at this time.

Respectfully,

Congressional Liaison

Houston Passport Agency Co'

I do hope that times are improving. But if you have a strong deadline it is worth reaching out to your local congressional staff. Glitches do happen, especially with a backlog of around 2 million applications, and the staff does help.

JF

Update: Passport arrived this morning at 8:30 am.

Update: Passport received yesterday on 7/27/21.

Is the latest current wait time 12 weeks? or has it grown even more?
Is there still the same $60 expedited fee despite the same rushed service?
Are there any expeditors providing a 24-hour turnaround? even for substantial cost?
Has anyone been able to go in person for an appointment?

Officially it’s up to 12 weeks if expedited but it seems like a great deal of people get it done in a month. Still $60. As far as I know even expediting offices can’t get a very quick turnaround.

Passport received. End to end routine processing time.
 

I received my renewal passport today. The entire timeline:

May 5th: mailed application to the Philadelphia routine processing mailbox via Priority Mail, electronic signature receipt

May 8th. Application received in Philadelphia and signed for.

June 16th. Application shows up in system as received 6/16 and "In Process". 5 1/2 weeks in mailroom/lockbox limbo.

July 26th. Application shows "Approved". Just over 5 1/2 weeks in "In Process" status.

July 27th. Passport shipped

July 28th. Passport received (I did pay the extra $17 for overnight).

Total elapsed time from mailing application to new passport in hand, 12 weeks on the nose.

This was routine processing, I have no travel planned until late Fall and that is to Canada which I could use my valid, unexpired NEXUS card for instead of a passport if it came to that. I mostly renewed it when I did because I've always held a valid passport since 1986 and mine was expiring in October.

They appear to be speeding up. My actual processing time was 5 1/2 weeks once it showed as "received", far less than the 12 weeks warned about on the website (18 weeks including "mailing" time).

I do have an issue with the disingenuous "mailing" time, since most of that time is not in the hands of USPS, but rather in their mailroom. I did some internet research and found that it is actually pre-processing (OCR scanning, etc) outsourced to Citibank. Why they are putting the blame for the inordinate "mailing" time on USPS instead of the actual culprit, their contractor, Citibank, is a matter of speculation.

In any case, good luck to those of you in a time crunch. The relatively short time, 5 1/2 weeks, spent "In Process" for this routine renewal should be good news.

For those of you keeping track, while my application was sent to Philly, my passport was issued by the New Orleans office.

It seems rather obvious blame-shifting. They're trying to make their own metrics look better by shifting it to one that they can pretend is beyond their control. A lot of people are probably falling for it, particularly given the actual USPS issues earlier in the pandemic (around voting time, but I won't get into that.)

I didn't know Citibank was handling opening/scanning mail for them. To me, that should raise some questions about letting a private corporation with a history of information security breaches handle something as sensitive as passport applications, but the use of contractors by the federal government is widespread. Either way, interesting tidbit of information, thank you!

Citi appears to be pretty proud of their operation, which has clearly devolved into cluster:
https://www.citigroup.com/citi/citif...t_of_state.htm

And at least one Senator appears to be royally pissed at them:
https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news...ans-passports-

That letter provides the clearest yet explanation for what has been going on. Thanks for sharing!

Tip: If you are looking for if a passport agency is taking walk-ins (even if they state on their website they don't)- I found the Google Reviews on each passport agency very helpful. People wrote detailed experiences if they were accepting walk-ins- what time they got there etc. So you may want to check that out if you want to walk-in to an agency.

So I received this random email notification tonight… why does it come five weeks after the fact? It’s been “in process” since June 28, but somehow the computer system decided to tell me tonight (July 31)? Odd…

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...08f7be39c.jpeg

Question: Move to another state while passport in process?
 

Does anyone have experience with moving to another state while a U.S. passport application is in process? Will they forward the new passport? Is there a way to change the application, or better not to touch it?

History:
March 5, 2021 -- new baby born
March 17, 2021 -- applied for new passport at post office, standard processing
April 1, 2021 -- status shows "In Process"
June, 2021 -- cancelled international trip (no passport for baby, plus never-ending lockdowns...)
August 1, 2021 -- status still shows "In Process"
August 20, 2021 -- planning to move to another state

How long does it usually take to get the citizenship evidence back after receiving the passport and passport card? I've heard a week is typical, but it's been longer than that. (I'm not panicking just yet, but I'm anxious to get my naturalization certificate back.)

Passport
 

I live in Atlanta, Ga , but I applied for first passport at USPS in St.Petersburg, Fl on 5/11/2021. Routine service. Received application received email on 6/4/21. Received approved email on 8/2/21. Passport should be received by 8/8/21 per email.

I hope this helps as I used this forum to read many of the posts regarding processing times!