Don’t agree. DoS has witnessed large budget increases of late. And consular services in particular got rather large increases. It is taking nearly ten years to roll this program out where less developed countries are taking a few short years to launch. There has been massive schedule slippage. Some European countries redesign their polycarbonate passports every 5 years. A far better explanation is just serial incompetence, lack of proper program oversight and accountability.

The “user fee” mentality in the US is the big factor in why the US passport application situation is what it is. The European countries in which I’ve had more recent involvement haven’t had the same long lasting affinity to the user fee mentality for passports that plagues US passport issues, so if they want to blow their money on more frequent redesigns and limit validity to 5 and 3 years as much as they do, they can eat it as far as I’m concerned. In the case of the US, we the more common US passport fee paying applicants are the ones who get hit faster and more with cost increases when massive schedule slippages don’t happen and thereby fail to act as a sort of restraint on inflation. The slower the transition the better it is for me.

any idea when the nextgen passport will actually rollout in full? That is, widely available?

We have travel planned to Sweden and the UK in late November and just realized our 2 under-16 year old kids passports expire in early January. It seems UK only requires the passport to be valid during our stay, but Sweden requires 90 days validity, which we won't meet.

Since the kids are under 16, I can't find a single post office with an appointment near me over the next couple of weeks, and am concerned that if we find an appointment in mid-September or later, the renewals won't be processed in time for our trip.

Any ideas on how we might best go about this?

Several options:


Safest route:
1) When there are less than 14 days before the trip, get an emergency appointment at a passport center. Or line up and wait. They should be able to do everything same day.

and/or

2) Contact Swedish Embassy/consulate near you. Explain the circumstances and also include the fact that Covid disruptions have made it difficult impossible to get their passports done in time, explaining that you will still leave far before the passports expire. IF they say it is ok, then that letter/e-mail should be enough for the airline, and will def be good enough for Swedish passport control.

If you are brave, and know what you are doing.

3) Go to a notary and make a notarized signed statement (for the airline) saying that you do know that your kid's passports have less than 90 days of validity BUT you all still want to fly and you will not seek compensation and will hold the airline NOT RESPONSIBLE for any costs should you be denied entry into Sweden. Ultimately this is all airlines care about, which is ultimately the cost of returning you and a possible fine. In my experience Swedish passport control will care less, especially as Swedes can travel to the US up until the day their passports expire I believe. Again, this is the brave route that I only follow when I am very familiar with a country and their "rules" on the ground, otherwise you are opening yourself up to potential serious costs.

Double-check with several of the acceptance locations near you — there might be a USPS Passport Mega Center, or a non-USPS location (eg a university or court clerk), that takes walk-ins. I posted above about some examples in the Atlanta metro area. Expect a significant wait most places that take walk-ins, but probably worth it in your situation.
https://iafdb.travel.state.gov/

Even if you can’t submit the applications until mid-Sept, my gut says if you don’t mind paying the expedite fee, you might be okay — most of the recent data points in this thread suggest 3-4 week expedited turnaround, and in fact, it seems like your time frame even falls within the official (conservative) estimate of 5-7 weeks. Also, having an application already submitted wouldn’t preclude calling in for an agency appointment 14 days before departure, and/or contacting your Congressperson for an extra nudge, if that’s necessary when the time comes.

Final update:
Mr Tivv passport card delivered, return address St. Albans, VT 05478
Mr Tivv original document received Aug 23, return address Sterling, VA 20166-1171. I did not capture postal stamp zip code
Ms Tivv original document received Aug 25,return address Sterling, VA 20166-1171. postal stamp zip code 03801 (Portsmouth, NH).

My general impression is that orignal document return address means nothing, but passport card return address & original document postal stamp zip code are from the passport agency used.
So 75 locator number seems to correspond to St Albans, VT 05478. Google says that a new passport agency.

I'd recommend you to look for non-USPS location in your area using https://iafdb.travel.state.gov/. Those are less known and sometimes it's easier to find advance appointments or same/next day appointments appearing due to cancelations. E.g. I was able to find a nice agency that is part of a university sports center. They register students into the sports center and do passports at the same time :). With it I was able to secure 2 next day appointments and get my passports really fast. And no lines at all - 10 minute in-out time.

Cal (UC Berkeley) has a passport acceptance center in the sports / rec department. https://recsports.berkeley.edu/u-s-passports/

They let non-UC people in to use it?

David

All you had to do was to follow the link:

Not really- and I don't have a fancy highlighter when quoting.

David

Whoo hoo! Score!

David

Yep, UC Berkeley is exactly where we got our passports. I was not sure where in US work2fly is located, so I advised a general list. Note that if talking UC Berkeley specifically they currently have only ~Sep 20 appointments, but I find next day slots pretty often due to cancellations. Also Mill's Valley (and surroundings) USPS is pretty good (unlike Bay Area and East Bay that seems full.
My son is turning 16th in a week, so I am watching for an appointment for him as well :)