passport delayed

[Ombud]

Just now, Rick&Jeannie said:

Hah! No such thing as a "local state department office" around here! We live in a very small town in southeast Tennessee.  I assume (?) there must be an office in Atlanta, but every time I looked for an appointment there nothing showed. We did our most recent renewal by mail...it didn't conflict with anything that we had on the books.  In getting our Global Entry passes we had to drive to Huntsville, Alabama.  Just the downside of living in a small town!

Yeah, we've got to go 22 miles west but it's all on 1 Bart line (Clayton grew due to shutdown to ~ 11,500)

[theloo]

1 hour ago, eclue said:

 it is almost 4 weeks and there has not been any email update which was requested- all it shows is that it is in process. 

FWIW, when we got our kids passports earlier this year, I signed up for email updates early on and never got a single email.  I just kept checking online every week until it changed from in progress to something like shipped, then they arrived later that week.

[lindros2]

1 hour ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Hah! No such thing as a "local state department office" around here! We live in a very small town in southeast Tennessee.  I assume (?) there must be an office in Atlanta, but every time I looked for an appointment there nothing showed. We did our most recent renewal by mail...it didn't conflict with anything that we had on the books.  In getting our Global Entry passes we had to drive to Huntsville, Alabama.  Just the downside of living in a small town!

passport office ≠ state dept; but there is one in Atlanta. 

however it's appointment-only, and awful.

The foreign consulates (Brazil, Nigeria, Guatemala, etc. - 70 total) are much better.

[TPhill]

My wife and I both did our applications on 8/18/23, her at the public library in B'ham, mine at the local post office.  Hers came in the mail today, mine is still processing.

[theloo]

5 minutes ago, TPhill said:

My wife and I both did our applications on 8/18/23, her at the public library in B'ham, mine at the local post office.  Hers came in the mail today, mine is still processing.

Wow, that is so quick!

[TPhill]

We were definitely surprised!

[capriccio]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

@Rick&Jeannie can you get same day service at your local state dept office like we can in SF & other major cities?

The State Department does not have passport agencies in every state. See https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html for map of their locations.  I counted 26 with some states having multiple locations (California, Texas, New York) and many having none.

 

 

[eclue]

12 hours ago, TPhill said:

My wife and I both did our applications on 8/18/23, her at the public library in B'ham, mine at the local post office.  Hers came in the mail today, mine is still processing.

That is amazing - ours are renewals received by Dept of State on 08/09/23 - and expedited no less and pre paid express mail delivery.....maybe it has to do with your location. Ours were sent to the Philadelphia office for expedited . Lucky you!!!

[lindros2]

Note that we did not get a single email on ANY passport renewal application - ever.

 

Also - I was super nervous on one of the passports, since the online system had a different mailing address from the application.

 

I corrected the online system, but I believe it had no impact/bearing... unless it was renewed online (which is currently down after a short test/trial period).

[villageidit]

16 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Hah! No such thing as a "local state department office" around here! We live in a very small town in southeast Tennessee.  

We live in small town west of Knoxville. We tried to get appointments in Atlanta as well. None to be had because of covid. Applied at the court house and it all went smooth. Fortunately we didn't make any travel plans until we had our new passports. 

[voljeep]

17 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Hah! No such thing as a "local state department office" around here! We live in a very small town in southeast Tennessee.  I assume (?) there must be an office in Atlanta, but every time I looked for an appointment there nothing showed. We did our most recent renewal by mail...it didn't conflict with anything that we had on the books.  In getting our Global Entry passes we had to drive to Huntsville, Alabama.  Just the downside of living in a small town!

how 'small'?  I know southeast Tennessee pretty well 😉

 

initial(s) would be fine if you want to reply - or not - no problem - Vols looked pretty good to real good at times

[Rick&Jeannie]

59 minutes ago, voljeep said:

how 'small'?  I know southeast Tennessee pretty well 😉

 

initial(s) would be fine if you want to reply - or not - no problem - Vols looked pretty good to real good at times

SD outside CH

[voljeep]

12 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

SD outside CH

yep - got it

we were more NE of CH - 35 years ago

[theloo]

I submitted our renewals by mail on August 7.  Never received any information or email from the State Department.  Today, I got a notice from USPS that I'm getting 2 packages from passport services tomorrow.  When I checked on my passport status, it only says my application was approved, not shipped, so the packages might be my supporting documents and/or old passports.  One month of processing is not bad.  I was prepared for the full 13 weeks, plus 4 weeks for shipping.

[AZjohn]

Not a passport story but a Global Entry renewal. My wife and I did our GE renewal online at the same time (on our own PC’s). She was approved in 5 minutes but my approval took 11 months.

 

Just pointing out with the US government run department you just never know how long or short the process is going to take (lol).

 

Cheers

[lindros2]

4 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

Not a passport story but a Global Entry renewal. My wife and I did our GE renewal online at the same time (on our own PC’s). She was approved in 5 minutes but my approval took 11 months.

 

Mine (GE) just took me a day - had the card in 4 days, including a holiday.

Wife took 3 days.

 

My previous one took 3 months.

[Rick&Jeannie]

5 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

She was approved in 5 minutes but my approval took 11 months.

Hmmm...been a bad boy, have we? 😄

[AZjohn]

4 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

Hmmm...been a bad boy, have we? 😄

You know, it sure felt that way🤣

But no, I’m too old now to get in trouble anymore.

[Rick&Jeannie]

3 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

I’m too old now to get in trouble anymore.

But I thought you said you were married....?

[eclue]

So our renewed passports were sent back exactly one month to the date...Received them on Sept 9th after paying for expedited processing and express shipping....we were so excited....went ahead and got some tickets to fly to Vancouver and jump on the Majestic on Sept 26th....

Processing times are much faster these days.

[skynight]

19 hours ago, AZjohn said:

Not a passport story but a Global Entry renewal. My wife and I did our GE renewal online at the same time (on our own PC’s). She was approved in 5 minutes but my approval took 11 months.

 

Just pointing out with the US government run department you just never know how long or short the process is going to take (lol).

 

Cheers

I also renewed on line. Received my new card in a week. Was surprised when it arrived.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:19 AM, aleciajoyful said:

My first passport was expired more than 10 years, so I had to apply for a new one, not a renewal.   I live in Florida, and I can see my passport is being mailed to me from Tucson, AZ.  I have been checking the website daily for updates for the past 3 weeks.    

 

Applied in person 7/5

Received by US Dept of State 7/7

Approved 8/30

Delivery expected 9/2 (according to USPS Informed Delivery app)  

 

8 1/2 weeks in total and I did standard service.  Travel is not until late October.  

same, but we applied for a renewal by mail June 1 and received new passports back August 4. So, 8 weeks as well. Not expedited, because the cruise is in November.

[Abercrombie2019]

On 9/1/2023 at 10:19 AM, Steelers36 said:

Service in Canada can vary and it was quite poor according to reports during and post-Covid.  I am not sure how they are doing these days, but our service level is 10-20 days (depending on how application submitted), plus mailing time.

We renewed our passports in August.  We dropped the renewal forms off at a Service Canada office and had the first passport back in 10 days & the second one in 12 days. We were pleasantly surprised.  (Unfortunately we didn't get the new format passports)

[theloo]

Question: how much time elapsed between receiving your passport and supporting documents?  When I applied for my kids' passports in February, the packages came the same week.  I renewed in August, received my new passport 2 weeks ago, but haven't gotten back my expired passport and other documents yet.  

[Wheelhouse]

I applied for my Irish passport renewal online on May 20th.  On May 24th tracking showed it to already be in NYC.  Of course since it was registered it took the USPS until June 8th to get it to my home.