An update. Both of my kids' applications just got approved. I checked the status at 4:30pm today and was still "in process." I got an email update for one of the applications at around 8pm. I checked online again, and both applications were approved. Now waiting for UPS.

Submitted at USPS - 3/6
Received by the State Department and check cashed - 3/13
Approved - 5/3
Locator - 62

Still a bit slow but at least you got e-mail notifications.

David

Did you do expedited or regular?

Expedited

Something weird just happened. In late afternoon on 5/4, I got a notification that the passports had been shipped (due to be delivered on 5/5). I got the track numbers for both passports. Then just a few minutes ago, I got another email notification and the status changed back to "Approved." I went online to check again. Both applications' statuses changed back to "Approved." But the USPS track numbers still work and both packages are already in the Informed Delivery system. Not sure if anyone else has encountered the same problem.

It's such a mess.

It’s been this way for many years now with the application status and the emails.

“even as the emails and status updates online are too often stale and unrepresentative of what is going on with the app, an update and the emails going out should be reassuring”.

And too often the emails never even happen or even happen when they are basically irrelevant.

I had the same experience (except never received any emails). The tracking number / Shipped status was replaced by Approved and never came back (even after receiving the passport). Definitely recommend signing up for Informed Delivery or at least saving the tracking number whenever it appears on the status check.

Yes, same here. After mine showed "Shipped" with a tracking number, the next time I refreshed it went back to "Approved." It had also reverted from "Approved" to "In Process" at one point prior to that. I've read reports where people received their passports in the mail when the system still showed "In Process."

If you have a USPS tracking number, I'm sure you're good to go and will get them shortly. I also use USPS informed delivery, and they popped up in there shortly after they were shipped, so I could follow their progress.

Nice to hear!
Was this expedited?

Apparently it's been sitting in my mailbox since 5/2. Sent by Priority Mail. I was waiting for online status to change to something like "shipped" after "approved", never did. Like others said, check your USPS Informed Delivery (or mailbox :p) as soon as you see approval.

Not one email from passport agency during this whole time.

Yes, it was expedited. It took 7.5 weeks from the time checks were cashed. I received the passports via USPS Express Mail today, even though the status changed back to Approved from Shipped over night.

I initially made an appointment for 4/6 to apply at a local county's office. Fortunately, I got an appointment at a USPS for 3/6 later. (Where I live in CA, it's hard to find an appointment.) Otherwise. I would be cutting too close to our travel date. I remember when I applied for my first passport back in 2007, I went to the passport agency in Chicago. I had an appointment, but they co-mingled us with folks without appointments. I waited for 5 hours there. Back then, there was a surging demand for passports because Canada/Mexico started to require passports for travel.

Processing / Expedited / Locator 69 (National Center - but in CA)
 

Ok - so - chewing fingernails to get kids passport back expedited and make it in 8 weeks with the NH/69 national center being shipped back to CA.

4/28 applied in person California USPS office / Expedited
5/3 check cashed (electronically), locator 69, indicating "National Center" in New Hampshire
5/3 status "In Process"
...
6/24 departure from the US (maybe)?

We didn't read the whole notion that it may have been better to just get an in-person appointment 14 days before departure at one of the CA processing centers (SF, LA etc.) - and now we are sort of in this awkward "maybe it will work" moment. We had 8 weeks to departure when we applied - so - right on the cusp...

Question - based on SOME comments it appears that the "69" processing center has been faster than some others (notably 62), and the latest we saw in this thread was a locator 69, 3/23 application that arrived in the mailbox 5/2 (indicating 5.5 weeks turn around from the NH/69 center). Are we deluding ourselves thinking that we can get it in 7 weeks based on those (sparse) datapoints? Can we make an appointment NOW for 5 days before departure (in June) or do we need to simply wait?

You said "Mailed 3/23" - did you apply in person on 3/23 at a USPS post office? If so - what date did they cash your check (in case you can see that)? We are also at the locator 69/NH center and chewing our fingernails to see if we get it back in time...

In my research, which may or may not be accurate, you cannot make an appointment until you are within 14 days of travel, if you haven’t already applied, or 5 days of travel, if you have an application in process. The danger with your idea that you shouldn’t have sent them in and should have waited until 14 days ahead is that you may not have been able to get an appointment at all. See the article posted up thread from Frequent Miler (TL,DR: living in the northeast, he could only get an appt in either El Paso or Puerto Rico).

They also will not even speak to you on the phone at the passport agency (877#) until you are 14 days from travel, counting the travel day (so don’t call on a Monday if your travel is on Monday two weeks hence, because that is 15 days for them). My suggestion is to wait until a couple days before the 14 days and, if it still hasn’t arrived or shown as approved online, reach out to your federal representative for your district. They most likely have a contact link on their website for this exact purpose. If it allows you to include an attachment with your query, then attach your e-ticket as proof of travel.

Good luck!

By mail. Per post #2342: Mailed application 3/25. Delivered 3/27. Today, 3/29, check was cashed.

Processing time seems to be changing for the better in general (after the bad publicity). Hopefully yours will take less time than mine.

I agree with Susan that you did the right thing to apply now. Have a backup plan in case, but you pretty much have to wait until 5 days before travel to get noticed (by current rules).