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Mia Caballeros of the Andersonville neighborhood planned an epic European vacation to celebrate a milestone birthday and her 10th wedding anniversary — first visiting friends in the Netherlands and then onto Spain.
Yet she spent the week before the trip in a panic because the passport she applied for in May still hadn’t arrived in early July, amid an unprecedented backup in U.S. passport applications that has upended international travel this summer.
Caballeros even paid extra fees for expedited processing and delivery to ensure the passport would come in time. Then she spent hours on the phone and online scrambling to try and snag an in-person appointment at a federal government passport agency, but the only one available was the day of her flight.
“I am a ball of nerves and my anxiety has gone through the roof,” she said, five days before her trip. “The worst part is the limbo we all are being placed into. I read how people are getting their passport the day of their flight. So do I wait? Do I postpone? And for how long should I postpone?”
The U.S. State Department is processing roughly 500,000 passport applications a week, a record-breaking rate. Total volume this year is expected to exceed the 22 million passports issued in 2022, which was the most in any year so far, according to the State Department.
The lengthy delays have been blamed in part on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a House subcommittee in March, when lawmakers inquired about increasing delays.
International travel nearly evaporated during the pandemic, so the federal government reassigned staff that had been dedicated to handling passports and let contractors go, he said. But with the risk of COVID far lower than previous years, the State Department has predicted this summer to be “our busiest summer travel season on record.”
In March, the agency extended processing times for passports, which now take 10 to 13 weeks for routine service. Customers who pay an extra fee of $60 for expedited service can expect to wait seven to nine weeks, according to the agency. Prior to the pandemic, routine processing took about six to eight weeks and expedited service could get a passport approved in two to three weeks.
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Would-be globe-trotters across the country are sharing their passport woes on social media — some offering success stories, others reporting missed trips because their document didn’t arrive in time.
“My newborn baby’s application was received on April 27,” one woman posted on the Facebook page U.S. Passport Waiting Time. “I paid for expedited … family trip was on June 23, we contacted our state senator and even so we lost our trip, I couldn’t leave my baby alone.”
“I honestly feel like we won the lottery,” another woman posted to the group, above a photo of a hand clutching a new passport.
“My trip is today with my entire family … my kid never received her passport,” another wrote on the site. “We did everything to get this passport nothing helped us. The kid and I are now staying home and the family is going. I am heartbroken.”
While tackling the bureaucracy can be daunting, lawmakers and federal authorities do offer some guidance for navigating this summer’s unrivaled passport processing holdup. The most common tip is to get the passport application in as early as possible.
The office of U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, has received 600 calls for help on passport-related issues so far this year, compared with 280 in all of 2022.
“We are seeing a huge surge in requests for assistance with expediting passports this year, as Americans are returning to international travel after more than two years of pandemic-related limitations,” said Schneider, who represents much of the north suburbs. “Our advice to everyone is check your passport expiration date today and if you need to renew it before you next planned trip, or you are a first-time passport holder, don’t delay, send your application in right away.”
As for Caballeros, she decided to take a chance and refrained from canceling or rescheduling her flights and hotel bookings, even though it might have meant losing a lot of money.
After weeks of consternation and nail-biting, she was elated when her passport arrived on Thursday — just four days before her flight that’s scheduled for Monday.
“Vacation plans have been salvaged,” she said. “I know I’m very lucky. But I know of others who were not.”
Tips and guidance
For prospective international travelers looking to avoid passport panic, experts offer some tips and advice for navigating the system:
Your local lawmaker might be able to help. Schneider said his office has been able to assist constituents with passport-related issues in more than 95% of cases. This can include obtaining in-person appointments at local passport agency offices and sometimes, in dire situations, finding available appointments at other passport offices across the country, he said.
The office of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, has handled about 875 passport cases so far this year. This is nearly double the 495 requests for help received all last year, according to Alex Ponder, an outreach coordinator who also handles passport cases for the Schakowsky’s office.
Ponder said lawmakers can often help constituents cut through some of the red tape.
“If a passport is already in process somewhere, many people are calling an 800 number or are waiting online for hours and it’s impossible to get through,” she said. “Our office or any congressional office, on the other hand, can reach out to the customer service manager and we have relationships with them.”
Ponder recalled a recent family she assisted that planned a trip to Europe to celebrate a parent ending chemotherapy.
“Their passport arrived just in time, with a few days to spare,” she said.
But she urges prospective travelers to reach out to their lawmakers as soon as possible when there’s a passport snag.
“I would also say, if you are reaching out to a congressional office for assistance, do so sooner rather than later so the congressional office has as much time as possible to help,” she said. “Given the sheer volume of applications nationwide and the number of requests coming in across the country, our ability to have these applications expedited has been more difficult than it ever has been before.”
When it comes to passport wait times, assume the worst. With the recent spike in demand, Ponder said she’s seeing wait times on the longer end of the ranges posted on the State Department website. If routine processing says 10 to 13 weeks, count on 13 weeks as you’re making travel plans; if expedited service says seven to nine weeks, assume it will take the full nine weeks, she advised.
Ponder said some passport applicants are planning travel in the hopes that their passports will be processed in early or in middle points of those ranges. But doing so risks that the passport won’t arrive in time for the trip, she said.
“I will say that if people apply with enough time, they are getting their passports,” she said. “But a lot of people aren’t aware of the processing times or they’re cutting it too close.”
Take delivery time into account. The State Department website cautioned that processing times don’t include the time it takes to mail the passport.
“It may take up to two weeks for applications to arrive by mail at a passport agency or center, and up to two weeks for you to receive a completed passport in the mail after we print it,” the sites said. “Consider the total time it will take to receive your passport when you are booking travel.”
Passport seekers can also pay for expedited one-to-two-day delivery service for an extra $19.53, according to the agency.
Don’t use a third-party “passport expediter” company. Third-party, private companies sometimes advertise that they can expedite a passport application. Ponder said to avoid these companies, which sometimes charge hefty fees.
“People are panicked and they’ll pay hundreds of dollars, and there’s no guarantee they’ll get their passport any sooner,” she said.
The State Department also warns that these companies can’t expedite the process.
“You will not receive your passport any faster than you would if you applied in person at a passport agency or center,” the agency’s website said.
Check the specific passport validity requirements of the country you’re visiting. Some countries have requirements that passports be valid for a certain number of months after travel, in some cases up to six months.
“We’ve had constituents show up (at the airport) with a passport valid for, say two months, and be told they can’t board the flight to that country,” Ponder said. “We recommend that people check their passport before they book their travel. Check the passport and also check the country you’re traveling to and see if there’s a validity requirement.”
There are special services for life-or-death emergencies. These are cases where an immediate family member living in another country has died, is dying or has a life-threatening condition, according to the State Department. Emergency appointments for a passports can be made with documentation of the life-threatening event and international travel documents, the agency said.
Ponder recalled a recent case where she received an 8:30 a.m. call from a constituent whose father had died in Israel, but the son didn’t have a passport. She said she was able to help the son get an emergency appointment at the Chicago Passport Agency at 9:30 a.m. the same day and he was able to fly to Israel that night. In the past four years, Ponder said she’s never seen a life-or-death emergency case where a passport wasn’t secured in time for travel.
New York, Honolulu, Puerto Rico, El Paso
Jen Needham of west suburban La Grange Park was scared she’d have to miss a work conference in Montreal in late June due to passport delays.
Two weeks before she was supposed to board a flight, she called at 7 a.m. to try and get an in-person appointment at a passport office.
“There’s one appointment in Manhattan,” she said she was told over the phone.
At first, Needham thought the appointment was about an hour away in Manhattan, Illinois. Then she realized the appointment was actually 800 miles away in Manhattan, New York.
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She said she contemplated taking the appointment and flying there just to get the passport, but realized that trip would cost around $1,500, even with using her travel points.
Needham said she called several times again, only to be offered appointments in Puerto Rico and Honolulu — destinations that were even farther and more expensive than the trip to Canada that spurred the search for a passport in the first place.
Afternoon Briefing
A few days before the conference, she made an appointment with a passport agency in El Paso, Texas.
“It was important that I went to this conference,” she said. “It was important to my business and my company.”
Just before she booked travel to Texas, the office of her representative, U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, was able to help her get an in-person appointment at the passport agency office in Chicago.
Four days before her June 25 trip to Montreal, Needham went to the appointment and got her passport later that day. She was able to fly to the conference and return with no other problems.
“It’s bewildering to me. Why is it taking so long to get a passport?” she said. “It could very well get worse. The interest in international travel is coming back around.”
The Associated Press contributed.