I sent my passport online 2 months and week and when I call 2 weeks before traveling I can only make a appointment 5 days before is that normal?

A note for online renewal applicants. I called the passport line and had to get transferred to another queue for people who have already applied. That used up a further 25 minutes. They verified my application details and then sent a notification to the processing agency that my travel date is within 14 days. Apparently, that should be enough for them to process and send the passport in time because I am still 10 days out from travel. If application status does not change and it's 5 business days from travel then I have to call back for further options - they will either give me a tracking number or schedule me for an in-person appointment at an agency. They don't make it straightforward. I DO NOT recommend applying online.

I also updated the wiki with new menu option numbers.

They would not notify the processing agency that I have travel within 14 days since I am only at 8 weeks and when I submitted my renewal online it said 6-9 weeks for processing time. They told me I need to call within 5 business days of travel and they may or may not be able to get me an appt!

Just to add in case it is useful: I'm a Colorado resident and worked with Senator Hickenlooper's office. My US representative (DeGette) also responded to my request but it took them a few days and Hickenlooper's staff had already sorted me out with an appointment.

My appointment was on a Friday morning (8AM) and I was instructed to return for pick up at 2PM the following Monday. They were able to do large (48/50 page) books at the Colorado agency.

I’m sorry for delay in response - you posted 2/28 and it seems that you’re now ok thanks to your Rep and Senator getting you the in-person appointment :-)

I requested the Standard passport plus I used online wizard to fill out forms and then mail via priority mail flat rate envelope ($7.60 on PayPal shipping).

only today did I finally dispose of my photocopies of the application plus the shipping label :-)

very sad to see that online renewal isn’t efficient. Bummer on Ralphs’ passport arriving after travel was to start.

We applied for my kids at a local library on January 30th. The application was received on February 7th and my USPS Informed Delivery Digest tells me there is something in the mail from the State Department. That would make is only 4 weeks if we do receive it today.

Also, when I check my application status on the US State Dept website, I see that the status changed to Approved and I see this banner as well:

edit: We received the passport today. Right at 4 weeks!

We submitted an online renewal on Jan 18, and received the "received" e-mail on Jan 30th. We chose expedited processing, and the "received" e-mail indicates a 3-5 week processing time from the date of submission. We're now at 7 weeks past submission and the status still shows as "received".

We have travel in 3 weeks, on April 2nd. Is there anything I can do now, other than request a refund for the expedited service fees? I can't get through on the phone.

Contact your US House of Representatives or Senator’s office. They will typically have a constituent services person who can sometime help grease the wheels for passport or social security or such issues with the federal bureaucracy

Thank you. I spoke with my Representative's office and they directed me to complete a privacy waiver and request which I did this morning. I'll follow up on Monday and if no movement by then, I'll start to work on my Senators. I'll be at the 14 day mark soon enough.

I really, really would like to avoid a last minute fire drill.

I have posted some steps on Reddit that should give you insight into your passport's status: https://www.reddit.com/r/Passports/c...raffic_to_get/

Basically, log into your MyTravelGov account. Once you reach the page with your application info, open your browser's developer tools pane (usually done by pressing F12). Click on the "Network" tab in the developer tools pane. In the main browser window, click on your passport application number and wait for the dialog to load that lets you change your address.

You will then see an entry on the network tab called "GetExisitingAvailActionsData". Click that. Then click on the "Response" section of the request. You will see your status embedded in the JSON payload. It'll probably be one of the statuses mentioned on that reddit thread. You want to see "Fulfillment" or "Closeout", both of which seem to imply that the review process has completed and your passport has shipped, or is in the process of shipping.

This seems to offer significantly more detail into your passport's status than what the phone agents have, or at least what they are willing to provide.

My daughter applied online on Feb 5 just before online closed down and status hasn't changed from received since Feb 8th. This thread of course makes me concerned about upcoming travel for April that we did not think we be any problem. . I understand the 15 days before travel for contacting the passport help line but how early did people reach out to their representatives to get the ball rolling.

And why isn't this a bigger news story? Why don't we see this in national newspapers that the commitments made on the site are not reliable and make it exceedingly difficult to plan travel. A passport is pretty valuable thing to have and to wait months when you have requested and paid for expedited service just doesn't seem right.

If the data points are to be believed - it's online applicants that got the shaft. Paper applications seem to be making the service commitments.

It's unclear why that is - perhaps some passport specialists aren't trained on how to process online applications, maybe there were system outages, or other technical problems. Rumor has it that they are converting online applications to paper applications in order to process them more quickly. But I agree with you - this should be a story. Other western countries seem to have no trouble turning around routine applications in a matter of days or weeks. I don't buy the WHTI excuse - they know how many passports are expiring (all online apps are renewals) and so the office should be adequately staffed to handle that demand.

Thanks for sharing this. Mine shows up as "Exception". I am guessing that is because they updated my travel date to be this Friday 3/17 when I reached them by phone last Tuesday. It's all coming down to the wire. I was told 3-5 weeks when I applied. I am now at 6 completed weeks since I applied online. I will try to get through on the phone again on Monday and see if they will give me an in-person appointment. It's kind of annoying that they wouldn't allow me to attempt to schedule an in-person appointment until I was 5 business days out from travel. That was last Friday - and I just could not get through to anyone on the phone successfully to schedule an appointment.

I would definitely recommend reaching out to one of your congresspersons as well (I don’t think you need to contact more than one — I think they all use the same channel to communicate with State). When we did so last year, we got a response that mentioned “congressional appointments” at our agency, which suggests some locations may have a separate pool for those requests. They may also have some ability to bump your existing application for someone to look at sooner. If nothing else, their staff will probably be more responsive than the call center.

The periodical backlogs for US passports got much worse following WHTI requiring Americans to have passports for all flights into and out of the US. Staffing up and being equipped for peak demand based on how many passports are anticipated to be expiring would run up my passport costs a lot— no thanks, as I would rather not see my US passport costs jump up because of that too.

There are other “western countries” that have been a mess too with getting passport applications in and passports out. At least with the US passport applications, there are emergency routes to get applications in and turned quickly. A variety of the “orderly” European passport issuing authorities are more hostile toward urgent passport needs by their nationals than the US State Department.

The way the human eye still works, reviewing ink-on-paper vs other material tends to be more accurate and sustainable at stretches than reviewing digital material vs digital material.