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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Mar 1, 2022, 6:35 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: CKDGM
Passport Agency Appointments (same day expedited service)
Appointments for same-day expedited service often go quickly. It is best that you schedule your appointment with the passport agency exactly 14 days before your trip. You will want to call the passport number before the center opens at 8am EST as they will have just opened up one day (14 days out) of appointments at all agencies. Appointment times start at 8am. It is important that you have enough buffer in your travel schedule. For example, if you make an appointment for a new passport at 11am and your time of travel is at 2pm, there will not be enough time for you to get your passport. If you book the 8am slot you may have to wait until the end of the business day to get your new passport or it may only be a few hours.

You will want to have your date of travel, time of travel, your flight itinerary number, name of destination, full name of applicant, and applicant's birth city, and the zip code of where you live (to help them find the closest available center with open slots). Use the following steps to increase your chances of success to booking an appointment as they can go very quickly:
  1. 14 days before your trip, you need to schedule an appointment with the passport agency.
  2. At 7:55 am call the passport number 877-487-2778 (This have to be exactly 14 days before your plane ticket or less. If less, it will get harder to find an appointment)
  3. Click 1 (For English)
  4. Click 2 (New Passport)
  5. Continue to Click 7 to repeat, and keep doing this while watching your watch or using Time.gov to get the exact time down to the second.
  6. When your it hits exactly 8:00 am Click 2 (for traveling within 14 days option)
  7. There will be a delay of 3-4 second and you will wait for the next available agent. If you are very lucky, you will be put straight through to an agent. You may be waiting few minutes or maybe as long as 15-20 minutes.
  8. If you did not click 1 exactly at 8 am, you may have to wait for more than an hour and half
After the appointment slot has been reserved you will be provided with a unique identifier code and reservation number. These details will also be emailed to you.

Credit: chgoeditor

Known office locator numbers (not complete)
Note: The office code (first two digits of your application locator number returned by Passport Status) is the office reviewing your documents and approving your application. It isn't necessarily the address you mailed the forms to (always Irving or Philadelphia for renewals) nor the facility where the book is physically printed and mailed (often Tucson or Hot Springs).

10: Boston
11: NYC
12: Honolulu
14: Stamford, CT
15: Portsmouth, NH
17: Aurora, CO
18: Chicago
19: Washington, DC
20-29: Portsmouth, NH
34-39: Charleston
40-42: New Orleans, LA
45: Portsmouth, NH
50: Los Angeles, CA
51: Miami
53: Seattle
54: Minneapolis
55: Dallas
56: Detroit
57: San Francisco
58: Philadelphia, PA
61-64: Tucson
65: Hot Springs, AR
67: San Juan, PR
68: Portsmouth, NH
69: Portsmouth, NH
71: US embassies/consulates abroad (possibly Portsmouth, NH)
74: Atlanta
75: St Albans, VT
76: San Diego, CA
77: Buffalo, NY
78: El Paso, TX
79: Houston, TX
80: Special Issuance Agency ("Issues diplomatic, official, service, and no-fee regular passports, and facilitates visa processing for those traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.")
95: Online

A list of agencies and their locator numbers is listed on this page under the heading, "List of passport agencies and centers with locator numbers."

H/T Nayef, txviking, and various individual posts both here and on Reddit. If you have a locator not in the above list, check the return address agency name or postmark/ZIP on your returned citizenship docs, or passport card if you applied for one, which may be the processing office, although the address itself is likely to be a PO Box in Sterling, VA in all cases (which appears to be a lockbox location that processes mail for all locations). The passport books are printed in fewer locations, often Hot Springs and Tucson, and may not correspond to the agency where the processing steps occurred. If it doesnt match the list above, please add or correct.
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Current US passport wait? (Merged Threads)

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Old Jun 3, 2020 | 5:54 am
  #541  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: United, Delta
Posts: 55
Originally Posted by Sheila91
02/19/2020 - Passport renewal application received (Philadelphia / Standard)
02/21/2020 - Check cashed
02/22/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
04/30/2020 - I called and was told the application is still 'In Process'
05/20/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
05/28/2020 - Passport application 'Not Found' via website
06/01/2020 - I called and was told 2 different things by the same CSR who refused to check my status.

Has anyone spoken to a CSR who got the same 'I won't check your status"?
Has anyone had their status changed to 'In Process' to 'Not Found' and actually had a good result?

TIA
Some posters have shared that they received their passports after their status changed to "Not found" I don't think the application status tool is very reliable, even in normal times.

Bummer about the agent refusing to check your application's status. That is wrong, but the employees don't care because the State Dept doesn't care, because "They are keeping us safe"
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Old Jun 3, 2020 | 8:32 am
  #542  
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Originally Posted by s0ssos
Hmm, this thing called the Post Office seems to be working.
Is this just an excuse to make it so Americans cannot leave?
My thoughts on this are in Bad Omni territory.
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Old Jun 3, 2020 | 11:29 am
  #543  
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Originally Posted by beachmouse
My thoughts on this are in Bad Omni territory.
Is there ever "Good" Omni?

David
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Old Jun 3, 2020 | 1:07 pm
  #544  
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Originally Posted by DELee
Is there ever "Good" Omni?

David
Good Omni has some nice chatter on sports and entertainment and such and lots of cute pet photos.
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Old Jun 3, 2020 | 5:13 pm
  #545  
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Join Date: Oct 2008
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submitted renewal MArch 7

Check cashed still waiting.
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Old Jun 4, 2020 | 6:42 am
  #546  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: United, Delta
Posts: 55
Yeah they can take our money; doing the job is a different matter.
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Old Jun 4, 2020 | 3:28 pm
  #547  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Illinois
Posts: 6
Data point for routine service (will update throughout process):

​​​​​​2/15/2020: Mailed both renewals via Priority Mail (did not do express)
2/17/2020: Delivery to Processing Center in Irving, TX
2/20/2020: Checks cashed
2/19/2020: Website shows both applications as received 2/19/2020 and processing (currently processing in 6-8 weeks)
2/21/2020: Received emails stating both applications are processing
3/20/2020: Status Approved (for hubby's passport) and being printed. Should arrive on or around 3/28/2020
3/20/2020: Status Still processing (for my passport)
3/24/2020: Received hubby's passport from Tucson, AZ
​​​​​​4/07/2020: Still waiting for my passport to be sent...
5/15/2020: Still have not received my passport
5/21/2020: Status showed not found, called and was told that everything was safe and sound and not to worry (never asked me for my info)
6/4/2020: Just happened to check to see if the website showed anything different and my passport has been sent as of 6/4/2020 with an estimated date of arrival of 6/10/2020
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Old Jun 4, 2020 | 3:31 pm
  #548  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Illinois
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by BillyBaht
Some posters have shared that they received their passports after their status changed to "Not found" I don't think the application status tool is very reliable, even in normal times.

Bummer about the agent refusing to check your application's status. That is wrong, but the employees don't care because the State Dept doesn't care, because "They are keeping us safe"
I had the same issue and I checked my status today and it showed that it was mailed out today. I hope you get some good new too!
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trinitey2000 is offline  
Old Jun 4, 2020 | 3:34 pm
  #549  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Illinois
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by Sheila91
02/19/2020 - Passport renewal application received (Philadelphia / Standard)
02/21/2020 - Check cashed
02/22/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
04/30/2020 - I called and was told the application is still 'In Process'
05/20/2020 - Passport application 'In Process' via website
05/28/2020 - Passport application 'Not Found' via website
06/01/2020 - I called and was told 2 different things by the same CSR who refused to check my status.

Has anyone spoken to a CSR who got the same 'I won't check your status"?
Has anyone had their status changed to 'In Process' to 'Not Found' and actually had a good result?

TIA
I checked my status today because my status went from processing to not found. My passport was actually mailed out today. I hope that you get some good news as well.
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Old Jun 4, 2020 | 5:20 pm
  #550  
 
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 6
Originally Posted by trinitey2000
I checked my status today because my status went from processing to not found. My passport was actually mailed out today. I hope that you get some good news as well.
Thanks for letting me know and congrats!

How did you find out that it was mailed out today? Did the website change it's status again for a second time, did you get an email notification or did you speak with a CSR?
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Old Jun 4, 2020 | 6:45 pm
  #551  
 
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 4
Originally Posted by MSerforfun
They changed the main message on their website now. Safely Getting Back To Work For You

We ask for your patience as we gradually resume normal operations and address COVID-19 related processing delays.
Thing is though that I can't ask the law enforcement officers in other countries for some "patience" when they want to see a valid and unexpired passport with a valid visa.

What a joke!

Official procedure from the embassy here:

We send all applications to the US anyway, we don't have any information nor further guidance. Come back again in August if the current application from April is still on hold and apply for an emergency passport.
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Old Jun 5, 2020 | 11:49 am
  #552  
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
An eventual step may be for the host country or other countries to just acknowledge that passports are valid (at least for some purposes) for X months beyond the printed expiration dates on the passports, but I haven't asked around to see what is being done on that front yet.
Hi GUWonder - have you heard any chatter or updates on the topic of acknowledging passports as valid beyond the printed dates?
Section 107 is offline  
Old Jun 5, 2020 | 4:56 pm
  #553  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: United, Delta
Posts: 55
Originally Posted by trinitey2000
I checked my status today because my status went from processing to not found. My passport was actually mailed out today. I hope that you get some good news as well.
Thanks so much for sharing! Gives me hope
Weird that your passport took over two months longer than your husband's

Last edited by BillyBaht; Jun 5, 2020 at 5:13 pm
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Old Jun 7, 2020 | 10:01 am
  #554  
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The backlog for application processing involves 1.6+ million applications and counting.

I can’t recall a passport backlog as big as this ever in the US.

Less than 27,000 passports were issued in April and May:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/16-m...ry?id=71046544

And most of the sub-27k issued passports were not your average applicant looking to do a “non-essential” personal trip.

The backlog is, if anything, being very slowly and haphazardly handled at times, so some of you may have some luck. The bad news is that new applications are apparently jumping up faster, and they are adding piles of applications to the backlog.

Originally Posted by Section 107
Hi GUWonder - have you heard any chatter or updates on the topic of acknowledging passports as valid beyond the printed dates?
Nothing in terms of updates, but my focus has been elsewhere and I have been “keeping my distance”. . But with such a big backlog, it’s going to get interesting.

Last edited by GUWonder; Jun 7, 2020 at 10:11 am
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Old Jun 7, 2020 | 4:24 pm
  #555  
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Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: SoCal
Programs: UA Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 227
Submitted at my local Post Office in mid-March (I think the 13th)

Received an email on June 5th that says:Application Status: In Process

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot provide an update on when you will receive your passport and the return of your citizenship documents until we resume normal operations and staff return to our agencies and centers.

While we continue to accept applications, process your payments, and safeguard your forms, we cannot update your passport status at this time. For more information, read our COVID-19 update.
With a link to the Safely Getting Back To Work For You page cited above.

Dont have any foreign travel planned, but hope too some time late this year, early next year conditions permitting.
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