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Passport Snarl Finally Ends

Feds claim everything's back to normal

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

September 9, 2007

Just days after the Labor Day weekend marked the end of vacation time for millions, the State Department announced it had broken the backlog that created waits of up to three months for new and renewed passports.

A combination of new facilities, new staffers, and temporary transfers enabled the agency to reduce waiting time back to normal levels: 6-8 weeks for a standard application, three weeks for expedited service (with a $60 fee).

Passport offices had been swamped with millions of applications after the imposition of new rules requiring all Americans arriving in the U.S. by air to produce valid passports. The only exceptions were passengers returning from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, or other American territories.

At the start of 2007, only 27 per cent of Americans had valid passports, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

Before the new rules took effect, air arrivals from Canada and Mexico, the two most popular destinations for American travelers, only needed to show a government-issued form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license.

Suddenly concerned about their summer travel plans, millions of Americans filed passport applications simultaneously – swamping government offices that did not have enough adjudicators to handle them.

With millions of applications waiting to be processed, long delays resulted and the summer travel plans of thousands had to be postponed or cancelled.

Addressing the passport question, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, "We’re very pleased that we’ve been able to get back to our normal customer service standard."

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