Passports - who know when I will see it now!

[magictam]

I applied 2/9 and my information still doesn't show up on the web site. I have emailed 2 times and have not recieved a response from either, I have called nurmouse times and only gotten through twice. The first time I was told to wait a week and if I don't show on the web site to file a missing application form, thank you, good by. This women never told me how to file the form.

After a week, multiply attempts and sitting on hold for 74 minutes, I finally received another live person, he was able to find my application (whether in his hand or on his computer I have no idea). He also told me that thier computer system had crashed and they were having to rebuild it. But he thought I would have my passport by the end of APRIL. Isn't that special?!

Today makes it 7 weeks and 1 day since I have applied. Still do not see any indication of it on the web site.

Guess I'll wait the 10 weeks and try and call again.

Good Luck to all!

[Mom4/2inthesun]

I just got back from my NCL Sun trip last Sun. 3/25. I too, had applied for my passport the first week of Jan and as of the Mon. before we left for our cruise on the next Sun. I had not received my passport. My travel agent said that I really didn't need one for the western carribean, that they would take a birth certificate and a drivers license. The law about having to have a passport really doesn't take effect until Dec. 2007. I had been very upset about my passport so I decided to send off for another birth certificate (since mine was with my passport application). I live in AL and had to send off to RI for mine. I went online and printed out the form to get mine and sent them the extra money that it costs to expidite the procedure ($5 extra I think) along with the cost of the birth certificate. I sent it to them in an overnight mail and enclosed a return overnight envelope along with a letter expressing my situation and hope that someone there would help me with my problem. I sent the letter out on Monday and got my birth certificate back on Friday. We left on Sat. afternoon to drive to New Orleans to sail out on Sunday. Oh, by the way, my passport also arrived on Tues of that same week so it worked out ok either way, but that was a back-up just in case. You may want to check with your agent and see if a birth certificate and drivers license will work for your trip, and you end up with 2 birth certificates a spare just in case you ever need an extra.;)

[Kcarp]

From the USPS website.

 

Your item was misrouted. The error has been corrected and every effort is being made to deliver it as soon as possible. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

:mad:

[letsgosomewhere]

I sent for a dup Birth Cert. figuring I'd need a back up Birth Cert. if my passport doesn't arrive in time, since I wil be cruising to Vancouver and crossing the border back to Washington state by car. Passport went in 2/10 it showed up in the system in 3.5 weeks. I used a link for vitalchek and paid 75 dollars to have copies of 2 BC's sent to me. I used a credit card and scanned my photo ID to then since they didn't like the faxed version of it. Anyway, that was done on 3/21 Wed late afternoon, and it arrived on 3/28---in 7 days. Although it was supposed to take 22 days. I was pleasantly surprised! At least now I have a BC and photo ID for the cruise and border crossing by car. Thanks one less thing to worry about! Big article about the Passport chaos on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer today. The only one happy about the lines of people waiting all day long is the pizza shop owner across the street! LOL!

[travel_mom_1]

We are travelling to Australia this summer and must have passports. My husband and I have ours, but we need them for our children. Applied on Feb.24th. I have been checking my application status daily online the last few weeks to see if they received them. Finally, as of yesterday, they are in the system. It took 5 weeks. It doesn't give me a date that I should receive them. Just that they are processing them.

[TJR3646]

We also applied on 2/24 and I just checked and it says we are being processed and should see them 10 weeks from applying for them. They cashed the check at the 3 week mark and at the 5 weeks mark we show up in the system.

[clm101798]

I'M ON HOLD! Yippee. I finally got real hold music not that lousy "we can't answer at this time" message.

 

Pretty sad when getting hold music seems like an accomplishment....10 minutes and holding.

 

I'm hungry and I want to get lunch but I don't dare leave the phone.

[clm101798]

Now I have a person!

[clm101798]

now I'm worried....

 

Spoke to a lovely woman named Sara. She recommended I have them expidited. Sigh, ok, I'll expidite it. She does up a letter (?) for me, DH and DD to request expidited. She says to call back in 3 days (won't that be fun) just to make sure everything goes smoothly. She never asked me for a credit card. Is it free or am I screwed?

[vijoge]

Why did so many people wait so long to apply? I remember seeing warnings last fall telling people to apply then because after Jan 1 the passport office was going to be mobbed with applications.

[magictam]

Why did so many people wait so long to apply? I remember seeing warnings last fall telling people to apply then because after Jan 1 the passport office was going to be mobbed with applications.

Why do you assume so many people waited to apply? I vaguely remember hearing something about the changes in the passport rules, but as I had no plans to travel outside of the country let alone this year, I didn't pay too much attention.

In late January we decided to take a cruise to Alaska. We know we don't need a passport to do Alaska but we decided to get them anyway. We can use them in Canada and hopefully this will speed up the coming/going process faster, in the event of an emergency and we had to fly out of Canada and if we really liked cruising we have the passports for future use. Plus we're not leaving until August.

Many people were told like I was that it would take 4-6 weeks from date of application to receive the passports. With that information, many of us thought we were applying in a timely manner.

Maybe the better question to ask is why did the US Government not anticipate this onslaught and put into place the means do deal with it?

[vijoge]

Many people were told like I was that it would take 4-6 weeks from date of application to receive the passports. With that information, many of us thought we were applying in a timely manner.

 

But all the warnings last fall were saying if you waited until the first of the year it was going to take a lot longer than normal. It was a big topic on all the news programs the first week in Jan also.

[vijoge]

Plus we're not leaving until

August.

 

Well, if you're not leaving til August obviously you have plenty of time and my question really doesn't pertain to you at all.

 

I was mostly asking about people who are leaving next week and are now trying to figure out how to get their passports in a hurry.

[Keksie]

But all the warnings last fall were saying if you waited until the first of the year it was going to take a lot longer than normal. It was a big topic on all the news programs the first week in Jan also.

 

Not everyone waited so long. We sent in the renewal for my husband's passport the earliest we could (6 months out). We should get it back just in time for our trip. When we sent it in they were saying 6 weeks (so we didn't expedite). Then it changed to 10 weeks. Still ok if the 10 weeks is true. I hope things slow down before I have to renew.

[vijoge]

We sent in the renewal for my husband's passport the earliest we could (6 months out). We should get it back just in time for our trip.

 

 

It's taking 6 months to get it back? I've heard up to 12 weeks, but 6 months?????????????????? WOW!

[magictam]

Well, if you're not leaving til August obviously you have plenty of time and my question really doesn't pertain to you at all.

 

I was mostly asking about people who are leaving next week and are now trying to figure out how to get their passports in a hurry.

 

By your posts, your question does apply to me. According to you, we all should have applied as soon as we heard that the laws were changing, which means I should have applied last year.

 

For those of us applying in January and February we were told we would get the passpost 4-6 weeks after submitting applications. That was in plenty of time for end of March, early April departures. Now after submitting the applications, we're being told it's 10+ weeks out. We all applied in plenty of time. We didn't wait to the last minute.

 

I go back to why Didn't the government plan better. I may not need it until August. But it's not fair that I put the application in plenty of time (2/9) , check was asked (2/15), I still don't show up on their website as processing my applications and only by being on hold for 74 minutes did I finally speak w/a live person that said it would be end of April before I received my passports.

At this point I thank goodness I applied when I did, cuz probably won't see it till July!

[Keksie]

It's taking 6 months to get it back? I've heard up to 12 weeks, but 6 months?????????????????? WOW!

 

No it isn't taking 6 months to get the passport renewal back, but you can't renew until 6 months before it expires. We are travelling in early May. This will leave us a window of 2-3 weeks from the 12 week timeframe. This is way to close for me. If something goes wrong it won't leave us much time to fix it. My point was that not everyone waited until the last minute. With the information that was given and the timeframes set by the government for renewals a lot of people are left trying to figure out when their passports will show up.

[clm101798]

But all the warnings last fall were saying if you waited until the first of the year it was going to take a lot longer than normal. It was a big topic on all the news programs the first week in Jan also.

 

So, should I have gotten a passport before I knew I needed one? Take time off from work druing a time when I am so busy getting a lunch break is a luxury? Not to mention that DH and I had to coordinate the same day off because we both have to go with DD.

 

Very nice of you to blame people who did nothing wrong other than believe the government. When I applied I checked the website and it was still saying 6weeks to get it. A couple of weeks later I check the time and it say 6 weeks. It wasn't until the end of February that they began saying it would take longer. So it is my fault I believed them. When they kept saying 6 weeks I assumed that they had increased their staff to deal with the extra volume so they could insure that their customers would receive the same service they had always provided.

 

If the Passport office has been saying how it was going to be busy why weren't they perpared? Why is it my fault that they advertised a 6 week turn around time and then realized that they were understaffed, even though they knew the heavier volume was coming?

[vijoge]

By your posts, your question does apply to me. According to you, we all should have applied as soon as we heard that the laws were changing, which means I should have applied last year.

 

For those of us applying in January and February we were told we would get the passpost 4-6 weeks after submitting applications.

 

 

When I got my passport in 2000 they told me it would take 6-8 weeks. It doesn't make sense for them to tell you 4-6 weeks in Jan/Feb of this year when it was common knowledge that they were going to be especially busy.

 

As far as getting it last year, I guess if you knew you were going to need a passport that would have been a good time to apply-beat the rush and all that.

[clm101798]

By your posts, your question does apply to me. According to you, we all should have applied as soon as we heard that the laws were changing, which means I should have applied last year.

 

For those of us applying in January and February we were told we would get the passpost 4-6 weeks after submitting applications.

 

 

When I got my passport in 2000 they told me it would take 6-8 weeks. It doesn't make sense for them to tell you 4-6 weeks in Jan/Feb of this year when it was common knowledge that they were going to be especially busy.

 

As far as getting it last year, I guess if you knew you were going to need a passport that would have been a good time to apply-beat the rush and all that.

 

Last year I didn't know I would need one. So you would recommend - just to beat the rush - to get a passport I don't need, take vacation time just to do this and possibly waste money...In case you didn't know, kids passports are only good 5 years. So I should have used my time and money last year on a passport for her when I had no idea if we would use it in the next 5 years?

 

What the heck does their time frame from 7 YEARS AGO have to do with anything now? All that tells me is that over the past 7 years they have improved their service. Also tells me that you have a current passport so that this issue does not effect you at all, yet you seem to find fault with people who are have a problem.

 

Tell me, when you got your passport in 2000 did you receive it in the 6-8 week time frame they told you? How would you have felt if after you applied and they took your money they told you 'sorry, it is now going to be 12 weeks. Too bad.'?

 

The people here did not apply a week before they are leaving and then complaining they aren't getting them. They are applying within the time guidelines given to them by the government. Now it feels like our passports are begin held hostage - ransom amount is $60 per passport. People here are looking for HELPFUL advise, a place to vent, a shoulder to cry on, and maybe some success stories to give them hope. We don't need someone to unjustly blame us for something that is beyond our control with no recourse other than to pay the $60.

[magictam]

When I got my passport in 2000 they told me it would take 6-8 weeks. It doesn't make sense for them to tell you 4-6 weeks in Jan/Feb of this year when it was common knowledge that they were going to be especially busy.

A lot has changed in the last 7 years haven't they? And just like many people besides me have said they were told 6 or less weeks.

As far as getting it last year, I guess if you knew you were going to need a passport that would have been a good time to apply-beat the rush and all that.

As my first post indicated, didn't know til late January I might need one.

 

I refuse to take the blame for poor planning. I think I and most others like me planned as best they could and shouldn't be attacked for it. Which is how I feel when I read your statements.

[vijoge]

First of all, I didn't attack anyone. I simply asked a question. Read my original post.

 

Secondly, I have no way of knowing what you or anyone else was told about the time required to receive your passport. I do know that every news program and newpaper, as well as these boards, recommended that you apply early and expect delays after the first of the year.

 

I do know that someone booked a cruise in September, didn't apply for the passport until Feb and still doesn't have their passport. I'm not in any way picking on (or attacking) that person-just pointing out that had the passport been applied for in Dec it would have been received long ago.

 

Just take it as a friendly reminder to plan ahead. :)

[magictam]

You keep repeating that we should have planned better. Gez, I think if all of us had planned ahead for vacations we didn't know were taking and spending money we didn't have at Christmas we could have bogged the passpost system down faster than February.

When and will the government prepare for the influx of applications. They still didn't plan well themselves did they and they knew way before the rest of us that the rules were changing. They had plenty of time to higher more staff and put in to place procedures to deal with the influx.

[Kcarp]

Just an update for anyone that applied around 2/2 for your Passport. I recieved mine today, exactly 8 weeks to the day.

[Minnesota Lady]

Just an update for anyone that applied around 2/2 for your Passport. I recieved mine today, exactly 8 weeks to the day.

Thanks so much for your information, we should be right behind you, I hope. Again Thanks!