Amid continued unprecedented demand for international travel, the State Department recommends that Americans submit passport applications at least six months in advance of scheduled departure dates.
A State Department official said in an email that current processing times are 10-13 weeks for routine processing. Expedited processing takes seven to nine weeks, which costs an additional $60.
Estimates do not include the time it takes for your application to travel through the mail; the clock starts when the State Department receives the request, the official said.
Because some countries require passports to be valid for at least six months beyond the dates of a person’s travel, travelers should verify information with the Department of State. country-specific information pages for entry and exit requirements and other important information for the countries they are visiting.
The agency said it is meeting published processing times in the “vast majority of cases” and that many customers receive their passports faster. Even so, the State Department has continued to experience increased demand for passports, the official said. Travelers should carefully review passport processing times at travel.state.gov before making final or non-refundable travel plans, the official said.
The State Department said it is receiving about 400,000 passport applications each week following higher-than-normal volumes from January through May that topped 500,000 applications per week.
Some weeks, the agency said, it receives twice as many applications marked as pending compared to the same point in fiscal year 2022. Given those fluctuations, the official said, the department cannot provide a total number of backlogs.
The State Department expects to return to pre-pandemic processing times by the end of the calendar year, the official said.
About 2 million more applications are expected to be processed this fiscal year than in the previous record period, a year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the official said.
So-called revenge travel has continued into 2023, in the aftermath of pent-up demand from travelers after a year-long pandemic and early 2020 lockdowns that forced many to stay. The increase in holidays is producing record volumes of air passengers.
Transportation Security Administration reported that it processed 2,884,683 flyers Friday: More than the previous record of 2,882,915 from the Thanksgiving Sunday weekend of 2019.
Allianz Partners USA, which offers travel insurance products, has projected Americans will spend $214 billion on summer vacations this year.
The State Department official said that people who have not yet applied for their passports generally should not call the agency for urgent travel appointments more than 14 days before their travel dates. People who need foreign visas for urgent travel are an exception and must call within 28 days of their trip for urgent travel appointments.
People who need to travel within 14 days should call the National Passport Information Center. While the State Department has increased staffing for urgent travel services, including some weekends, appointments are very limited and the official said he cannot guarantee they will be available.
People with pending applications traveling within five days should check appointment availability by calling 1-877-487-2778, the official said.
