Passports

[crazyank]

On 4/4/2020 at 4:18 PM, Heymarco said:

Not sure where you are from but the US stopped issuing passports for the moment. Once they start again, they will more than likely be backed up.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2020/04/01/coronavirus-state-dept-halts-passport-services-most-travelers/5102705002/

This is not quite correct.  Passports are still being issued.  What has been stopped is expedited service,  and face to face service is limited to emergencies.  Passports issued thru the mail is still going on but with some delays.

[sparks1093]

17 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Why wait until the last minute? Are people trying to save $125 or something? Is that what this is about? Why is there such a resistance to keeping things up to date or such a willingness to do things at the midnight hour? I’ve had a passport for my entire adult life and have never let it expire,  even when I had no travel plans or intent to use it in the near future. It’s $125(+/-), renew your freaking passports people and save yourselves the headache. The instructions from the post office will even tell you to renew it if there’s only 6 months left on it, just to be on the safe side, so why play with fire? 

I didn't get my first passport until 2015 and was just fine without it until then. It all comes down to what one's personal travel needs are. If I'm not planning any trips near the expiration date of my passport then I will probably let it expire <gasp> until I need to renew it for the trip that I'm taking. It's not a huge deal at all, just personal preference and I personally don't see it as a headache. So let's say I had a closed loop cruise scheduled 3 months before my passport was set to expire and then nothing scheduled for the next 12 month or so. I'd go on the cruise with my soon to expire passport. Then when we had another trip planned I'd renew it a few months before hand. No fuss, no muss. I might feel differently about it if the government added the unexpired time onto the new passport, but since the US government doesn't do that it's moot.

[SRF]

16 hours ago, thinfool said:

It should be noted that the restrictions are for 'new' passports.  There is no change for renewals other than long wait times.

We recently renewed...6 weeks to the day from the time we sent our docs out till they returned.

COVID may lengthen that number.

 

Not exactly.

 

Just limited locations for new passport applications in person.