Is passport renewal getting any better?

[Morgan3820]

I am looking for recent experiences. It appears from the website that renewals are by mail in only?

 

[Pilawt]

We mailed ours in for renewal in early November. Still waiting. But I'm giving our planned June 2021 Europe trip no more than a 50/50 chance of ever happening anyway, so maybe it doesn't matter.

 

[Palmpilot]

It appears that people have been using bots to reserve all the online appointments for urgent travel and sell them.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/23/politics/state-department-booking-system/index.html

"At 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 21, we temporarily disabled the online booking system for Urgent Travel Service to ensure our very limited appointments go to applicants who need them for urgent travel," the update said.

"We are making this change to address the problem of third parties booking appointments online using automated programs, or bots, and then selling these appointments to customers with urgent travel needs. We are not affiliated with any third-party appointment booking services, and we do not charge a fee to make an appointment," the update noted. "Third parties booked all available appointments within minutes of the appointments being posted online which prevented many of you from making urgent appointments, and made it difficult to determine whether your appointment was legitimate or fraudulent."

The State Department said it would honor appointments made online prior to 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, but now individuals must call to book or change an appointment.​

 

[Rushie]

My sister renewed hers by mail earlier this year, it took 8 to 10 weeks. She was expecting it to take longer.

 

[texasag93]

I ordered my kids' passports (new issue). One took 2 weeks, the other 3. My renewal took 8 weeks (November) and my wife's took 10 (January). None of us paid the expedite fee.

The issue upon travel has to be done within 72 hours of travel. My buddy got his renewal that way. I do not know how much he paid.

 

[ColoPilot]

I just renewed my kid's passport today at the local post office and the clerk said they're being told by the passport office that it will take 18 weeks unless you pay the expedite fee. We'll see how long it takes...

 

[Rushie]

I talked to my sister again, she said three of those weeks was the US post office getting it there, she had tracked it. She said next time she’ll use FedEx.