Passport Renewal?

[GROUCHPUSS]

Has anyone recently renewed their passport? If so how long did it take? Did you expedite it? 

[Sean_B]

 

[robc1972]

Friend did a couple months ago.

Took about 2 weeks for the card to come in and a few days longer for the book.

[jnb3382]

My husband just got his renewed passport book in the mail a few days ago. It took about 6 weeks from the day we mailed in the application. 

[bjfitz0703]

Took like 3 weeks.  Did it at the post office.  Got a card and a book and they came separately and at slightly different times.

[robc1972]

A lot depends on what part of the country you are in.

There are different offices to send to depending on where you live. For the last 6 years the North East office has been very fast (less than a month) for me and everyone I know that has renewed or gotten a new passport.

[zqvol]

Turnaround time is around 3 weeks.

[mss22859]

DW and I renewed ours earlier this year, took about 4-5 weeks total. Funny story regarding this-our granddaughter sent for first one and got it a week quicker than our renewals!

[ontheweb]

Earlier this year, we renewed and it took basically 6 weeks from mailing to receiving the new passports,

[ducklite]

I always renew mine at the 8 month out time period so I'll always have at least six months left.  I'm not worried about the few dollars I'll "lose" by renewing early.  The potential to lose an amazing last minute opportunity by not having enough time left on a passport could be far more costly.

[Capt_BJ]

for OP

 

State Dept actually keeps this page fairly current ... where normal processing time can be found:

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/processing-times.html

 

Note that here you'll also find a link to a 'tracking site'.  When I last renewed on this tracking site you could sign up for e-mail notifications as your package passed certain checkpoints and I found these quite accurate.  In fact I had a notice that the package was mailed to me, and RECEIVED it while the basic tracking still said 'processing'.

 

p.s. last time I went thru this, renewals and original application went to different offices . . . 

 

and wrt the 6 month rule: Those countries that are members of the Schengen Agreement require that your passport have validity for 3 months beyond the planned length of your stay. This becomes 6 months for US citizens as they are automatically granted a 3 month tourist visa. There are countries outside of EU that are Schengen participants https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-countries-list/ and some other places that simply have their OWN requirement.

 

Schengen comes into play for most Med, EU river and Scandinavian cruises 

[SimplyMarvie]

Processing time for passports always gets longer in the summer time because that's when most people travel. I'd plan on at least 6 weeks, and possibly longer -- I've heard that the standard turn-around time may go from 6-8 weeks due to staffing at Passport Agencies (the people who print the passports) so plan ahead. 🙂

[GROUCHPUSS]

Just go mine back today. Passport office received my Doc's on 7-19-19 and I got Passport in my mailbox on 8-23-19 and I did not do expedited service.

[The Mikado]

Mine: 2 1/2 weeks on a straight renewal of an expired passport

 

Wife: 5 weeks on a renewal, also expired but with a name change for our marriage. 

[Keith1010]

We expedited ours and the process took nine days.

Keith

[Wayfairers]

Going to have to renew ours for an mid April 2020 trip.  Trying to decide whether to send them in Early January or mid December. 

[LoriPhil]

We just received our renewed passport after about 4 week wait.

[Toofarfromthesea]

Filed August 29th, got them yesterday.  We both expedited and did the fast mailing option.

[clo]

6 hours ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

Filed August 29th, got them yesterday.  We both expedited and did the fast mailing option.

Did you expedite it cause you were getting closer than you were comfortable with?

[Toofarfromthesea]

17 hours ago, clo said:

Did you expedite it cause you were getting closer than you were comfortable with?

 

Yeah, pretty much.  We have a cruise where we need it (missed the 6 months to expiration by about a week) coming up and I didn't want to take a chance to save a few bucks.  It was dumb, on my part, to not realize we were inside the 6 month window so I could have done it sooner.  But hey, if that is the dumbest thing I do all year it will be a pretty good year.

[wickky]

We sent our renewal request in on September 3rd.

Got an email stating they received and were reviewing on September 5th.

Got another email on September 18th stating passport renewal had been approved and they were being mailed. Per this email, we should be getting them on or around September 24th.

 

So, approximately 3 weeks from sending in to receiving in mail.

 

[nybumpkin]

I mailed my renewal application on 8/31 and the new book arrived on 9/18. Our TA is happy - now she can work on our flights for our river cruise next summer.

[akcruz]

54 minutes ago, nybumpkin said:

I mailed my renewal application on 8/31 and the new book arrived on 9/18. Our TA is happy - now she can work on our flights for our river cruise next summer.

 

Wow, we sent ours in mid August and just got them back.  Wonder if it is different processing centers or the fact we did passport books and cards this time.  Either way about a month is pretty good timing.

[alexspepa]

16 days for me and I did not expedite...just received it today.

[Jimnbigd]

2 years ago it took about 3 weeks. (USA). My big complaint is that there s a period of time when we do not have a passport because we have to mail in the current one. I wonder what people who have to travel outside the USA do during this time when they don't have a passport? It takes time, even if expedited. Be sure to use certified mail to send in your current passport.

 

Edited October 10, 2019 by Jimnbigd