Update in OP! Passport probably won't be back in time - any experience?

[Aimeedyan]

Update! We finally have them!

It was WORK - my DH and I spent countless hours on hold for the passport agency (average wait time of 1-1.5 hours), plus I spent time emailing and calling my two senator's offices and my local representative. Then yesterday, we sat at the Miami passport agency from 8:45am-4:45pm (with a 3 year old) but we left Miami with the 2 passports!

The only appt I could ever get us, even with calling over and over again, was in NOLA this morning. However, in my many attempts to change the appointment to Miami or Atlanta, a rep recognized the appt we had been given was NOT for a same day passport, confirmed it with a supervisor and the NOLA office, and stopped us before we drove 9 hours there. The one day roundtrip to Miami was painful as it was, I can't imagine my emotional state had we driven to NOLA for absolutely nothing!

In the end, one of our senator's was able to secure the appointment for us for the next day so we dropped everything and went.

FYI some processing centers are moving quickly or within the quoted timeline. Some are not. The first two numbers on your locator number will tell you which facility they are in - a quick Google search will find you personal stories of how those particular location was doing (and I actually joined a FB group about this issue, too, and you quickly learn which center you want your passport at! Alas, you don't get to choose). Our two locations were, of course, ones that were not moving efficiently or responding to requests for urgency.

If you're still waiting, CALL YOUR SENATOR. They seem to be the only way to get things moving. The FB group I mentioned was full of people who only had success after reaching out to their elected officials.

Now we get to finally get excited about our trip


-----

As soon as we decided to go somewhere, we booked the first available appt at the post office for my 3 year old - it was a couple weeks out.

At the appt, we told the employee we were considering a cruise on May 7 and the employee was adamant we did not need to expedite and quoted the old timelines (this was the first week of March). After asking a few times, I decided to drop it and go with his advice (my husband dropped his renewal in the mail same-day but we already wrote it out to be expedited so we should be good for him). The very next week, the turnaround times were upped.

Our cruise is May 7, and they received his application on March 8. I'm 99.9% sure this isn't going to work.

I saw on Reddit that you could contact your senator's office for help so I called them last week and they told me the passport office asked them to not reach out on behalf of people until 2-3 weeks from travel. He encouraged me to call back mid-April but didn't go into detail on how they can help (do they just book the appt at the passport office, or can they get your app fast tracked?)

Would you:
1. Call the passport office 14 days out and schedule the emergency appt (we'd have to drive to Miami for it). My assumption is we'd be out the money from the original application?
2. Navigate through the senator's office and see if they can get it moving.
3. All of the above.
4. Something else I haven't thought of?

*this is a transatlantic, so he can't cruise without passport

I mean... worse case scenario is we spend $$$ on an impromptu trip to Miami, right? I'd love some head pats that we still make this trip of a lifetime

 

[Fruto76]

We are on same cruise. We sent my sons in for a new passport (since he was under 16 when he got his first one xould not renew) . It was accepted on Feb 8. At the time of our appt, processing times were 6-8weeks and like you, the clerk told us there was no reason to expedite. I have been watching the processing times go up, and I am stressed this will not be back in time. I called Monday to add Expedite service and shipping and still no changes have been reflected in his status. It is so stressful but I am hopeful it will work out - it has to, right?

 

[Aimeedyan]

We are on same cruise. We sent my sons in for a new passport (since he was under 16 when he got his first one xould not renew) . It was accepted on Feb 8. At the time of our appt, processing times were 6-8weeks and like you, the clerk told us there was no reason to expedite. I have been watching the processing times go up, and I am stressed this will not be back in time. I called Monday to add Expedite service and shipping and still no changes have been reflected in his status. It is so stressful but I am hopeful it will work out - it has to, right?

I'm so sorry you're in the same boat! I considered calling about changing to expediting, but online it said it can take a couple weeks to process since it has to be sent to another location so I freaked out and didn't. But maybe I should? Gah.

Fingers crossed it all works out for us both!

 

[laceltris3]

Ok, so we put a passport in for renewal on January 16 (it was an online renewal for an adult, which I do not recommend for anyone, so it's a good thing they paused them). At the time, the quoted turnaround was 6 to 9 weeks without expediting. We hit 9 weeks and the status was still only "received" not even "in process." It is impossible to get through the phone lines at all. We didn't actually need it for another couple of months for a trip to France, and Senators wouldn't help until 2 weeks out but our Rep did not have that limitation on her website.

Honestly, I complained on Twitter in the replies of @TravelGov and they DMed me and asked for our confirmation number and date of travel. I was honest that we didn't need it for 2 months, but we were past the max time frame when we applied. The next day it flipped to in process and the day after that it was in hand (we did pay to expedite at the same time I engaged on Twitter, so I don't know for sure what shook it loose, but I can say the status didn't update until *after* we paid to expedite.) It seemed expediting refreshed it in the system, because a LOT of online renewals seemed to go to passport purgatory.

 

[sponica]

I would schedule the emergency appointment 2 weeks out and contact the constituent services rep at either your congressperson's office or the Senate office 3 weeks out. It can't hurt to do both.

If there's an email address, I would also do that and cc the elected people. Sometimes, it just takes a human to look and go, oh boy, this needs to be fixed.

 

[Fruto76]

I just checked on the status of my sons and it has changed from "In Process" to "Approved" it is still indicating routine service, not expedited.

 

[Jack_Sparrow_NJ]

I wouldn’t put too much faith in the Status. My Status was In Process the day it arrived. It took me 8 weeks, applied in January.

 

[mickey squared]

We are on this cruise as well and I did online renewal for my son. It was accepted Jan 30, but still "in process." I just paid for expedite and express mail. Let's hope we all get them soon!!

 

[sadiecatie]

You might be fine - obviously not a guarantee, but we went for our appointments (regular, not expedited) on February 6. I was watching the website and it indicated that our applications were “received” and in process on March 3. The status hadn’t changed on the website, so imagine my shock when we received our new passports in the mail on March 16 I know I‘ve been hearing passport applications are a disaster right now, but ours went surprisingly quickly. (we did have to wait almost two months for an appointment, but once that happened, it was processed very quickly)

 

[Aimeedyan]

Honestly, I complained on Twitter in the replies of @TravelGov and they DMed me and asked for our confirmation number and date of travel. I was honest that we didn't need it for 2 months, but we were past the max time frame when we applied. The next day it flipped to in process and the day after that it was in hand (we did pay to expedite at the same time I engaged on Twitter, so I don't know for sure what shook it loose, but I can say the status didn't update until *after* we paid to expedite.) It seemed expediting refreshed it in the system, because a LOT of online renewals seemed to go to passport purgatory.

Twitter! I hadn't considered that, and know it often gets things moving. I may do that as well - couldn't hurt, right?!

Thanks!

I would schedule the emergency appointment 2 weeks out and contact the constituent services rep at either your congressperson's office or the Senate office 3 weeks out. It can't hurt to do both.

If there's an email address, I would also do that and cc the elected people. Sometimes, it just takes a human to look and go, oh boy, this needs to be fixed.

Great ideas - thank you!!

 

[randumb0]

My son's has been in process since 2/28. I paid for expedited and we sail in two weeks. I'm expecting to use his birth certificate

 

[shosh1530]

We just got our passports yesterday after applying February 6. So an 8-week turnaround with routine processing. I believe they were quoting 6-9 weeks when we applied but I was worried because processing times jumped up right after that.

The online status was not super helpful. It wasn't tracking at all for a many weeks but I was encouraged that they at least had cashed our checks. Then it finally said processing and quickly moved to approved. The day after I saw that it was in our mailbox.

I hope you get them soon!

 

[Drbutters56]

I booked my cruise in late Feb. I found out my son's passport expires in May for the June trip. I tried to get an appointment at the post office, there were none in my area. I had to drive an hour to another location to get it done. I paid for the expedited service and we did it on March 25th or so. I hope to get it back around early May

 

[justafigment27]

I’ve been stalking the Reddit threads and it looks like people are having a rough time getting in person appointments in the two week window, so maybe throw everything you’ve got at it - including expedited service? IDK.

I mailed ours out on 2/1/23 using regular service and they were received in 2/8/23. The status just updated and they are now listed as approved and set to arrive on or about 4/8/23 - so that would be 9 weeks and 3 days from the day we sent them in and 8 weeks and 3 days from their received date.

Our cruise is the first week of May, but it’s closed loop from PC so I haven’t been panicking and didn’t bother with upgrading to expedited, but have been kind of stressed because I prefer to sail with a passport. I wasn’t paying close attention to processing times when I sent them in and figured I had plenty of time.

Good luck! It’s crazy that the PO person told you not to expedite. I’d be so annoyed.

 

[OpieDoodle]

I'd call and expedite and express ship it if you haven't already. You should be able to add the expedite still.

 

[Fruto76]

I have good news to report My son's passport arrived today. It does not look like they charged the expedite service even though I called to upgrade it last week. I will say I posted on Twitter Friday after seeing here that it was helpful for some and recieved a reply asking when travel was set and what the application number was. Did not hear anything after I replied to them, so no telling what prompted the movement so quickly but I am so relieved to have it and hoping everyone else in the same boat gets theirs soon as well!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Small update: I called today to expedite service and the very nice woman on the phone told me that after my request form was submitted, it would take up to 27 days to review the request and potentially expedite it. No guarantees. I said "my trip is in basically 27 days!"

I asked her opinion on whether I should do it, knowing full well she probably wasn't allowed to say (she wasn't) but she asked me my travel date again and said I could call back on the 24th for a emergency appt. I took her implied advice and didn't go through the expedite process.

I'm off to create a Twitter account and see if that helps move things along any! If not, I see an impromptu day trip to Miami in my future (and we both have to come since it's for a child)

 

[Fruto76]

Small update: I called today to expedite service and the very nice woman on the phone told me that after my request form was submitted, it would take up to 27 days to review the request and potentially expedite it. No guarantees. I said "my trip is in basically 27 days!"

I asked her opinion on whether I should do it, knowing full well she probably wasn't allowed to say (she wasn't) but she asked me my travel date again and said I could call back on the 24th for a emergency appt. I took her implied advice and didn't go through the expedite process.

I'm off to create a Twitter account and see if that helps move things along any! If not, I see an impromptu day trip to Miami in my future (and we both have to come since it's for a child)

That is exactly what I was told- if accepted it could be up to 27 days not including shipping and it was not guaranteed. I do think that calling and requesting expedite service might be what made my son's start moving. I sure do hope the same is true for your little ones! Just know it took a week after that call to request expedite service before I could see any kind of status update on the website.

 

[Haley R]

Our ds’s passport application was received 3/9. We paid for expedited and it’s still showing in process online

 

[Mango7100]

Small update: I called today to expedite service and the very nice woman on the phone told me that after my request form was submitted, it would take up to 27 days to review the request and potentially expedite it. No guarantees. I said "my trip is in basically 27 days!"

I asked her opinion on whether I should do it, knowing full well she probably wasn't allowed to say (she wasn't) but she asked me my travel date again and said I could call back on the 24th for a emergency appt. I took her implied advice and didn't go through the expedite process.

I'm off to create a Twitter account and see if that helps move things along any! If not, I see an impromptu day trip to Miami in my future (and we both have to come since it's for a child)

If you have to do it, there is a form that the other parent can fill out (I think it’s called Statement of Consent, but it should be on the web), have it notarized, bring a copy of both sides of the other parents drivers license and then they don’t have to be there in person. I just had an appointment to renew (well she’s a minor so it’s actually getting a whole new one) with my 9 year old. My husband did not come but I had the notarized form and a copy of both sides of his drivers license in addition to the other required paperwork. Had the appointment 2 weeks ago, we aren’t traveling until end of June but I went ahead and did expedited because of all the horror stories,