Passport Woes Continue as Americans’ Travel Plans Get Delayed

A U.S. Passport cover in Washington on May 25, 2021. Eileen Putman/AP Photo

The State Department is still dealing with a major backlog of passport applications and higher-than-average wait times this August as Americans travel in larger numbers post-pandemic.

The record-breaking number of passports this year has put massive pressure on Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to alleviate the crisis.

However, instead of a major foreign policy crisis, the issue involves an unwieldy bureaucracy of which Mr. Blinken is in charge.

The massive backlog of applications at the height of the peak summer travel season is causing anguish for millions of Americans who are attempting to get or renew their U.S. passports.

The State Department said it was still recovering from disruptions caused by the pandemic, despite the surge in passport applications, led by Americans who failed to renew their passports over the past few years.

Travelers Stranded Due to Passport Application Delays

Many surprised travelers have found that it will take months to renew their passports, forcing many to race against the clock, while dealing with a maze of paperwork, or cancel their planned vacations.

Some of those who planned to travel in August discovered that it was too late to obtain or renew their passports in time to leave the country.

The State Department said it is taking 10–13 weeks for routine passport processing, while expedited processing, which costs an extra $60 on top of the standard $130 fee, takes about seven to nine weeks.

At least 430,000 passport applications are being processed a week, down from a peak of 560,000 per week in March.

The department is on track to issue 25 million passports in 2023, an increase from last year’s 22 million.

A spokesperson for the department, told Federal News Network in July, that it plans to return to pre-pandemic processing rates by the end of the 2023 calendar year.

The goal is to reduce processing times to about six to eight weeks for routine service and two to three weeks for expedited service.

State Department Goes on Emergency Hiring Spree

The Bureau of Consular Affairs is attempting to hire hundreds of additional passport processors, but new applicants are being held up by the lengthy federal hiring process, which is complicated by the need to pass security checks to handle sensitive personal documents.

The bureau has only hired 177 new passport adjudicators this year, an increase of 10 percent, and intends to expand its workforce by an additional 10 percent.

The State Department has also formed “surge teams” of volunteers, including retirees and new hires, to process passports before reporting to other assignments.

Foggy Bottom has further plans to fully launch its online passport renewal platform by the end of 2023, or early 2024, after testing the platform in late 2022 and in February this year.

Americans who need passports in a dire emergency can get one faster, with an in-person appointment, rather than relying on the traditional mail-in process, but elevated demand has made that option harder to secure.

Others have been dismayed to find out that these appointments were only available at locations far from home with the exception of “life-or-death emergencies.”

The backlog is also causing exhaustion for passport service employees, National Federation of Federal Employees Local 1998 President Lee Wentz, told the Federal News Network.

“We’re all here doing what we can to help everybody. And if we were on the other side of the coin … I’d be frustrated too,” he said.

We all totally get that, we totally understand it. But at the same time, from the employee standpoint, we’re doing everything we can to help everybody,” Mr. Wentz said.

“It would be nice if we could get everybody a passport in six-to-eight weeks, which we’ve done in the past. But when you hit unexpected requests for product, it’s hard,” he said.

‘Struggling’

Millions of angry Americans have also been ringing the offices of their congressional representatives for help with expediting their applications.

Utah’s congressional delegation told Mr. Blinken in April that their offices were “struggling to handle all incoming emergency requests due to the sheer volume” of pleas from their constituents.

“Constituents are reporting that they are placed on hold by passport offices for hours before calls inexplicably drop,” said Utah’s congressional delegation in a letter, adding that those "who do get through are being given incorrect information over the phone, such as being told they cannot upgrade to overnight shipping or expedited services.”

Lawmakers have sent several letters to the State Department about the backlog and have introduced bills to remedy the situation.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) has called the backlog a “crisis,” while his colleague Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has called it “an unacceptable failure.”

However, Mr. Warner said that the State Department was not all at fault, saying it had been hit by a “perfect storm of events” due to the travel lull caused by the pandemic and is now trying to keep up with the surge of renewals.

He mainly blamed hiring freezes during the Trump administration for creating staffing shortfalls and called for the hiring of more personnel, especially those in information technology.

Under Fire for Application Backlog

Republicans, in contrast, have blamed Mr. Blinken for neglecting the problem, rather than blaming structural or staffing problems.

In a letter to the secretary, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), made a mocking reference to the World Economic Forum in Davos, which Mr. Blinken has regularly attended.

“While running a competent passport application process may not make a panel at Davos, this is an important function of the federal government that directly affects the lives and plans of millions of Americans,” he wrote.

In a July follow-up letter to Mr. Blinken, the senator from Missouri noted, that the millions spent to promote DEI programs, combating wildlife trafficking in China, and $120,000 on “gastrodiplomacy,” could have been better used to hire “more passport agents.”

Mr. Blinken announced at a July news conference, that his department was “throwing everything we can at this, trying to make sure that people have those blue books, that they’re able to travel.”

“It’s something that comes up repeatedly with members of Congress, with folks that I come across,” he said.

In a symbolic visit, Mr. Blinken paid a visit the previous month to the largest passport processing office in New York City.

“I saw the operation firsthand and saw people working overtime, double time, triple time to get blue books into people’s hands,” he said. “We’re trying to do our best at getting people their passports.”