Is there a thread on Urgent Travel passports? Curious about others experiences. Thanks.

There is no separate thread; there are numerous datapoints in this thread.

I recall mine did come back on separate cover, maybe a month or so later.

They arrived today, 7 days later, by 1st class mail.

We received a renewal with a name change in 2 weeks. Regular service.

Fast Service (Expedited)
Nov. 30. Mailed application for passport book only. Express one day.
Dec. 2. Delivered Passport Office Philadelphia.
Dec. 5. Check cashed.
Dec, 13. New passport received, Priority Mail Express.

State Department just posted a further improvement in expected passport processing times -- they say this is now "pre-pandemic" and has been getting better every couple months with these updates:
I'll be hoping this holds and also the reports of others on even routine service ($130) applications being fulfilled in just weeks, when I send mine in before the end of the month.

I chose the expedited service for my passport renewal. A total of ten days from sending the application via priority mail to receiving my new passport via priority mail express.
December 4: Mailed application for passport book and card, USPS priority mail
December 8: Check cashed
December 14: New passport received via USPS Priority Mail Express
December 19: New passport card received
December 26: Old passport received

By the way, why does the old passport you submitted get sent so separately and delayed? And why are there so many passport processing locations?

Is it that certain offices only intake the information (and later return the submitted materials to you), while a few others actually put the books together? Does this produce more efficient handling?

Yes, it is mostly for efficiency that different offices handle different parts of the process (receiving the old pp, sending out the new pp, etc). Why so many offices? Well, they process on the order of 22,000,000 applications per year. Almost 2,000,000 per month. That would be one huge center if all were done at one place. So they have many regional centers to smooth out the load and reduce postal delivery times. Also for security - if something happens at one location (fire, tornado, physical plant / maintenance issues, etc) processing can continue - dont put all your eggs in one basket, yes?

The expired passport gets scanned into electronic storage - so it needs separate processing/handling completely different from that needed to produce a new book.

Expedited Renewal, standard return shipping

December 19: Mailed application for passport book and card, USPS priority mail
December 21: USPS Delivered to PO Box
December 26: Application showed in online system
December 28: Application Approved
December 29: Passport Shipped
December 30: Passport Received via Priority Mail

Locator: 42 (New Orleans)

11 days door to door including a federal holiday... nottt bad

(Bolding mine)

Yes, the natural (or other) disaster concern is well-founded. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded the New Orleans processing center (which at the time processed about 17% of passport applications). The applications and documents were, fortunately, recovered, but delays in processing occurred, and new (i.e., post-Katrina) applications had to be re-routed to other offices. :eek:

Will update this as it continues, but hopefully seems like things are moving quickly!

Summary: regular / routine service passport renewal application, 3 weeks from mailing in to receiving new passport back --

• Fri Dec 29 application sent by priority mail envelope from CA to Irving TX
• Tue Jan 2 USPS reports mail delivered (note holiday weekend)
• Wed Jan 3 received in status system with email notification
• Thu Jan 4 check is deposited/posted according to bank account
• Thu Jan 18 application approved (email 10pm), and 2 hours later, email: shipped (shows Tucson as origin)
• Mon Jan 22 passport delivered by priority mail; received email notification that supporting documents mailed.
• Mon Jan 29 received old passport back

I tried to time my application for when I would not be traveling for at least 1-2 months, and when I thought would be a slow time for people applying for renewals given the holiday season, before people's travel plans and realization starts increasing in the new year.

Btw, not sure where people are finding the "location code" that tells them what office produced the passport? None of the communications to me contained such info.
Edit: application # / locator 45 -- this does not seem to correspond to any of the listed locations in the wiki. Returned passport came in envelope with return address Sterling, VA 20166-1108 but postmarked/meter from zip code 03801 (Portsmouth, NH?).

I was stupid and mailed a standard passport book renewal via regular mail instead of Priority mail on December 26th. I felt like I was waiting eons of time until the system finally updated to show that they received the application 1/5. I see the check was cashed today 1/8. Based on recent data points, I am hoping the new passport will be mailed out later this week.

What is the order of steps for the Application Status? I know that it starts with "In Process" when they receive and input your application into the system. What is the next steps it will change to after this?