Any type of mail going to Philadelphia is backed up, no reason provided. My application mailed via Priority mail took 12 days to reach PO box and another three weeks for the PP office to send to Charleston for processing. I saw Application not found for more than two weeks.

When calling the PP office, you can opt for a call back. That way, you dont have to be on hold for 45 mins. Its quite overwhelming when you dont know what happened to your application. There should be an initial scan of the application before the Philadelphia office forwards it for processing. This will help applicants to know that application is now in the hands of the PP center and not lost. With all the mail ongoing problems and USPS budget cuts, this is just going to get worse.

Hope everything gets sort out for you soon. Just hang in there.

Maybe I lucked out? I mailed a regular 1st class letter from NYC to Asia mid-March and it took 2 weeks. Domestic Priority mail taking 2 weeks is an abomination.

IME, the chances of an domestically mailed US passport application ending up lost and never received by State seems to be much lower than that that of the online status tracker not being a consistent and accurate reflection of what is going on in the process upon initial delivery of the application to State. But that's from years before 2018.

Yeah, I know I didn't have to be on hold - they offer the call back option every 2 or 3 minutes after telling you estimated wait time - but I knew I was gonna be at my desk for long while longer yet. And the hold music is killer. ;p I am not worried, much as we might like to visit the family in MEX sooner than later we are in no hurry with the current situation, even after both of us adults having had both shots.

And a clarification - I did not mail it in. Since our appt was at the Post Office it seemed there was no need. However, it occurred to me the day after that I should have followed the advice here and had them send it priority mail. Lesson learned for five years from now.....

Major Processing Delays
 

The state department just updated their website to reflect a 4 week wait until an application status can be checked online instead of the previous 14 day wait after applying. This shows that not only are they overwhelmed with applications but also with nervous people who cannot find their application in the system after 14 days

I applied Tuesday for a first time passport and had it expedited. I got an email today (Thursday) that it is now processing. This is an expedited first time passport. I'm not sure if they're overwhelmed but mine seems to be going fairly quickly.

Passport processing Delays
 

I think it's safe to say that when a timeline goes from 14 days to 4 weeks they are overwhelmed. But glad your application is processing fast, all the power to you.

I think the main take-away is use "special" processing (expedited service or submit via priority mail) if one wants to be able to confidently track the application and/or need time sensitive processing. Sending in any other way it will just become "lost" in the shuffle.

Their webmaster/comms folks need to coordinate better - as of 3:30pm EST today the actual passport application status webpage is still indicating to call after 14 days.... U.S. Passport Application Status (state.gov) when it gives the results of the initial search:

Your Application StatusApplication Status: Not Found

We did not find a record of an active passport application for you in our system.

If you are checking your status less than 14 days after you applied, Not Found means your application is still in transit to one of our passport agencies and centers. Please check again on this site when it has been at least 14 days since you applied.

If you applied more than 2 weeks ago and cannot find your passport status online, please call the National Passport Information Center at 1-877-487-2778 (or TDD/TTY 1-888-874-7793) to check on the status of your application.

Passport processing Delays
 

You're right, the actual results status page has not been updated and it's still showing the 14 day time frame. It's very strange because all of the other information sections of the site have been updated to reflect the new 4 week time frame. I called into the NPIC this morning and they are already reading off the new script telling me that it can take up to 4 weeks before the in process status change appears

Took about two month on the dot for me to get mine renewed (regular service) -

-Feb 6 - Application mailed to TX (priority mail)
-Feb 12 - Application arrived :rolleyes:
-Feb 18 - Application changes to “in process”
-March 29 - Application changes to “approved”
-April 2 - Passport arrived

Passport processing Delays
 

You're very lucky, I sent my renewal application to Irving Texas on March 18th, Delivered March 24th and up until today it's still Status Not Found. I'm not too worried though since my wife mailed her application at the same time as I did and my dad a week later and they are showing the same status

Passport Delays - USPS
 

Was wondering if anyone has sent their passport for renewal lately, I sent mine via USPS Priority Mail back on 3/17 but on 3/22 I got a tracking stating that it's been delayed, and as of now 4/4 there's no updated. I've opened a ticket to USPS and the Philadelphia regional post office has emailed me stating they are "looking into it". Feels like there's either crazy delays or it's just gone...

There are all kinds of USPS delays & those have nothing to do with passports.

I would report the passport as missing or stolen and provide the USPS tracking number and the information you have. State will either proceed as though the document has gone missing and direct you to file the new paperwork or decide to wait a bit longer.

USPS tracking is at best useless. In the few times I been forced to use USPS and tracking the first accurate track I have received has been days after the tracked package has been delivered. On a positive note USPS has managed to deliver every package even if it was late/delayed.