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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 Jul 9, 2020 | 6:46 am
  #616  
 
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Wow that's 4 times longer than normal
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Old Jul 9, 2020 | 8:57 am
  #617  
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From this link (https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...al%20holidays.), it looks as though they are still on track to eliminate the backlog, but there were fewer passports issued last week. Is that because of the federal holiday to observe Independence Day? I was glad to see that four agencies are now in phase 2, although there does not seem to be any timeline for getting to phase 3.
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Old Jul 9, 2020 | 9:07 am
  #618  
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The posted application backlog is worse than expected as it’s only down by 80k from the prior period. The excuse given is that the Fourth of July had an impact on ability to eat into the backlog.

1.43M remaining in the announced backlog. And you still have to consider what the mail issues mean for incoming application numbers.
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Old Jul 9, 2020 | 6:02 pm
  #619  
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Originally Posted by TWA884
Thank you for the link to this article. Thankfully our household got passports, GEs, GC, Real IDs out of the way before March. Seeing that passports are processed at eleven regional passport agencies rather than at the State Department, I am wondering how well its balanced out, so that the applicants in the fifty states are experiencing about the same delay.
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 4:08 am
  #620  
 
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Originally Posted by vanillabean
Thank you for the link to this article. Thankfully our household got passports, GEs, GC, Real IDs out of the way before March. Seeing that passports are processed at eleven regional passport agencies rather than at the State Department, I am wondering how well it’s balanced out, so that the applicants in the fifty states are experiencing about the same delay.
My renewal took four months door to door, similar results for earlier applicants that sent their passports in during February. I did my real ID driver's license in March, so now it's time for Global Entry
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Old Jul 10, 2020 | 2:50 pm
  #621  
 
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Finally received our passport today.

They received our application on 02/24/2020.
Passport received on 07/10/2020.
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Old Jul 11, 2020 | 11:52 am
  #622  
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Originally Posted by BillyBaht
Checked my email this morning, July 9 and saw an email from the Dept of State, sent at 2340 July 8, notifying me my passport is being shipped by US Priority mail, tracking number included. Whooooo- hooooo!

Mailed old passport to Irving TX on March 13, so about four months door to door. FYI
that makes me somewhat hopeful. Accepted by Irving TX on Mar 23 and havent heard anything back. Maybe within the next couple of weeks fingers crossed!
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Old Jul 12, 2020 | 5:34 pm
  #623  
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just got a notice passport is being mailed, 4.5 months processing time to renew.
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Old Jul 13, 2020 | 12:19 pm
  #624  
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Originally Posted by TheBOSman
Final update:

​​​​​​2/8/2020: Mailed renewal via Priority Mail (not express)
2/12/2020: Delivery to Processing Center in Irving, TX
2/14/2020: Check cashed
2/14/2020: Website shows application as received 2/13/2020 and processing
3/23/2020: Status updated to Approved
3/24/2020: Shipped with tracking number provided
3/26/2020: Arrived at residence via Priority Mail, old passport not returned quite yet (coming separately of course)
Just as an aside, my old passport was not mailed out to me until June 11th . Looks like sometime around early-mid April everything went off kilter...
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Old Jul 14, 2020 | 8:25 am
  #625  
 
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Ok so after 16 and a half weeks my fiance has had an

"Application Status: In Process"

email. Does that mean anything significant as in they are actually working on it? Just don't want to get my hopes up. It's been dire waiting all these months, especially as it's the Dallas office.

Just hoping that someone can shed some light on what the wait time is after getting this email?


EDIT

Just an update. Original application was in Dallas (which isn't even in Phase 1 yet) called the passport info line though and found out that the application is being handled in Charleston SC.

Last edited by Prince Keldar; Jul 14, 2020 at 11:58 am Reason: UPDATE
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Old Jul 14, 2020 | 8:29 am
  #626  
 
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Originally Posted by asnovici
that makes me somewhat hopeful. Accepted by Irving TX on Mar 23 and havent heard anything back. Maybe within the next couple of weeks fingers crossed!
Have you had a 'In Process' email at all?
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Old Jul 14, 2020 | 3:41 pm
  #627  
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Originally Posted by Prince Keldar
Have you had a 'In Process' email at all?
only email I got was when they processed my check and accepted the application
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Old Jul 15, 2020 | 8:29 am
  #628  
 
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Child passport renewal chronology:

03/18/20 - Applied at the Post Office

03/23/20 - Application accepted

07/14/20 – Application Status Approved. Given USPS Priority tracking number and estimated delivery time 07/20/20

07/15/20 – Status page changed its contents again. Tracking number no longer there and estimated delivery time changed to 07/21/20. The status page now has the “pre-COVID” look:

“You requested routine service when you applied, which we are currently processing in 6-8 weeks. You should receive your passport book on or around 07/21/2020. Your application locator number is XXXXXXX”

Luckily I could find the tracking number in my browsing history and the expected delivery date (from Arkansas to Ohio) is actually 07/17/20.
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Old Jul 15, 2020 | 8:30 pm
  #629  
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
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Citizenship Documents

They received my passport application on 03/17/20 and I got my passport in the mail on 07/14/20 so almost 4 months wait.

I havent received my proof of citizenship documents back yet. Does anyone know how long does it take to get those back?
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Old Jul 16, 2020 | 2:10 pm
  #630  
 
Join Date: May 2020
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My friend applied for her passport renewal and daughters first passport in Philadelphia in February. They received them this week.

Im still waiting on my renewal from Philadelphia sent March 23...
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