Anyone who has tried to get a new travel document post-pandemic knows just how risky it is to plan a trip before having the passport in one's hands.
While passport services are notorious for being bureaucratically slow in many countries, the rush of people looking to take trips after the pandemic has kept many in different pockets of the U.S. waiting for as long as four months after submitting an application.
Related: The Best Ways to Accelerate the US Passport Process
"Processing times are cyclical and rise and fall based on seasonal demand," the State Department said in a statement in the summer of 2023. "However, the volume of applications we have received during periods this year has outpaced records set by last year's volume by more than 30%.”
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Need to renew a passport this fall? Here's how long it will take
In a new note posted on Nov. 6, the State Department said that average waiting times have fallen slightly to seven to 10 weeks from the eight to 11 weeks seen at the end of the summer. Those who pay an additional $60 for expedited service on top of the $130 fee for renewals and $165 for first-time applications can expect to wait three to five weeks instead of the previous seven to nine weeks.
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Those time frames are, however, still significantly higher than the six weeks that many got theirs in before the pandemic. The State Department said that, between October 2022 and September 2023, it has seen "unprecedented demand" and processed over 24 million passports.
"As more Americans are traveling internationally again, we are directing resources to meet the unprecedented demand seen so far in 2023," the government agency says in a statement on its website.
While wait times have fallen slightly after the higher demand historically seen in the summer, the State Department also said that it is addressing the longer wait times by "aggressively recruiting and hiring across our passport agencies and centers."
Apply 'well in advance of any planned travel to avoid last-minute issues'
Those who want to guarantee that their passport is ready before a given trip are encouraged "to apply for their passport well in advance of any planned international travel to avoid last-minute issues."
Other ways to accelerate the process include booking an in-person emergency appointment at a passport office that one can get in the case of pressing need such as family crisis (this also comes at an additional fee of $190) and paying an additional $20 for expedited mail delivery so that the passport comes faster once it is out of the processing center's hands.
And if one wants to start planning a trip without being certain that the passport will come in time, a protective measure could be to purchase extended trip insurance that will allow you to cancel without a loss if the passport does not come in in time.
"In that scenario, people should consider purchasing Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) travel insurance," Elad Schaffer, who leads the Faye Travel Insurance company, said in April. "With CFAR, travelers can nix their trip for any reason, and get 75% back on their pre-paid expenses, up to their estimated total trip cost.”
