The publicly announced backlog in passport applications was showing yesterday as being a bit over 1.3M. In other words, the rate of the 7-day bite into the running backlog was a bit over 100k even as passport issuance volume for the period was closer to double the rate of the prior few 7 day period. If the coronavirus surge in the US doesn’t put a halt to this kind of eating into passport issuance volumes, then a lot of the March application people should be good to go with passports within weeks at most.

that is encouraging. But I am not holding my breath. I will most likely rely on the "return on an expired passport" tactic for hoped for holiday travel.

My wife submitted her renewal by mail on 3/15. This week she received “Approved” and “Shipped” emails with an expected delivery date of 7/23 - and it actually came today (7/18).

Mine, submitted at the local post office just after that still shows “In Process”.

so what are current considerations for such? i can imagine talking my way through CBP with some interview etc delays but would an airline allow one to board a flight back to US with expired passport?

well, that's a good question; I hadn't thought about that - would be quite a problem if they won't. Instead of taking chances with the airline and since the boys don't have passport cards, I guess the best tactic will be to apply for renewal passport at the embassy soon after getting in-country.

Renewal, routine service, express return.

Mar 6: mailed to Philadelphia processing center via Priority Mail 2-Day
Mar 9: delivered to passport processing center
Mar 11: check cleared bank via ACH, status “In Progress”
July 7: status changed to “Shipped”, passport shipped Priority Mail Express 2-Day from Hot Springs, AR, estimated delivery July 11
July 8: received passport!
July 11: received passport card via first-class mail
July 20: received old passport and passport card via first-class mail

Funny thing is I received a status update email on July 7 at 3:47 pm saying that my application status was Shipped. Almost 10 hours later, at 1:30 am on July 8, I received another email saying that the status was Approved. (Oh, good! :D)

They return your old passport card too? Do they punch a hole in it?

The publicly reported application backlog is still at 1.23 million. The week prior the reported backlog was 1.31 million. The number of issued passports for the period plummeted down by a large five figure amount while the newly received application count increased by a relatively low five figure amount.

This should mean that most of March applications are done at this point.

I do hope so, 17 weeks is a long time to wait (March 23rd) when you want to take the first flight out.

Strange that passports processed are down 76k this week. Offices going back to Stage 1 perhaps?

Does anyone know why they processed fewer passports this week than last week?

Last week, they processed 274000 passports. This week, the number went down to 198000 passports. This is a significant drop, although it is still fortunately more than what was issued the prior week.

I think it is down to some offices going a step back lockdown wise. The week before was due to the holiday. "Passports issued July 2-8 were lower than the previous weeks because of the July 4th federal holiday."

I was hoping to see another 250k+ processed this week.

I was hoping for this as well and find this really concerning. The number of passport centers on phase one and phase two listed on the page seems to be the same as last week (I was not able to find an archive of the page to check) and the list of passport centers on those phases looks the same as it did previously. I wonder if these listings are out of date? I appreciate your insight regarding this. I just wish that they found a way to keep passport offices completely open as this is a really essential service.

I am hoping and praying that they will get through the passports quickly. It is very frustrating as it seems that so little can be done regarding this and as though many people waiting for passports are in such a helpless position.

Naw, processors had to take some summer vacation.

David

Thank you very much for your response. This gives me a lot of hope.

Here are the latest stats anyway save interested people looking them up:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5cb20e363e.jpg