I realize this is a super niche question and blog post that is probably only relevant for a few weeks. Anyway, we applied for a new passport on February 15, 2023. We went to one of the Seattle passport agencies and handed in the application. Did normal service SLA instead of expedited. The new passport arrived in mail on April 25, 2023. So it took about 10 weeks back in February; no idea what the current wait is like.
Applied for a family member on 2/21, received by State Dept. on 2/27. Estimated time for expedited processing was 4-8 weeks (I think). The passport arrived in late March, so right about at the 4-week mark.
Applied in early March with my local City Hall for Routine Passport Service.
Passport application was rcvd by the State Dept for processing March 10th.
At the time, the wait was supposed to be 8-10 weeks.
It’s only been 7+ weeks now.
When I check the status on the State Dept. Website, it says the application is still processing – as it has for the past 6+ weeks. It sucks there is NO sort of update on their website as to the progress of the passport application – other than it’s just waiting in some huge pile of applications somewhere until they get to it.
Currently, the website has been updated to indicate the wait as 10-13 weeks (but again, I’m holding out that at the time I applied in early March, the wait was listed as 8-10 weeks.
I have a trip planned to Europe in mid-June so I still have 6 weeks until my trip…I should be good. The only hang-up I’m worried about is the picture submission. I read so many stories about the State Dept. not accepting passport photos, even ones taken at the Post Office, CVS, Walmart, etc. I reviewed their picture rules extensively but still that is my concern that for some reason someone at State does not like the picture for some reason and rejects it.
The State Dept. needs to up their game and invest in a AI photo taker app for State Dept. photo’s.
I tried to extensively study the passport process on the various travel blogs before submitting and could never really find any good write-ups from the credit card pushing bloggers about the passport process or just skimming over it. Reddit seemed to have the latest and greatest info on the process.
Worst case scenario, contact your senator are least 3 weeks before your travel.