Travelers looking to plan international trips in the New Year got some good news this week: Passport renewal will no longer take months on end. Processing times for US passports have finally returned to what they were before the pandemic, according to an update from the State Department.
As of December 18, passport applications are now being processed within six to eight weeks for routine service, and as fast as two to three weeks for expedited processing, which costs an extra $60 fee. “With this update, we have fulfilled our commitment to return to benchmarks from March 2020,” the department’s release says. “This reflects the work of dedicated employees working for the American people.”
During the pandemic, many US travelers let their passports expire. When the virus began to abate and interest in global travel began to surge again in 2021 and 2022, so did the applications for new passports. Suddenly, the State Department was facing “unprecedented demand” for the small blue books, leading to long wait times and a shortage of in-person appointments at the nation’s passport centers, where documents are processed on an emergency basis. The situation soon became a crisis, with travelers contacting their representatives in Congress for assistance and some even missing vacations due to not receiving passports in time to travel.
The demand reached a fever pitch in early 2023: In the lead-up to summer travel, applications jumped by 30 to 40% over 2022’s record-shattering levels. Routine processing times ballooned to up to 13 weeks, plus mailing time. In response, the State Department vowed to hire more staff and get processing times back to normal by the end of the year.
And that was certainly no easy feat. In the past year, the State Department issued the most passports ever in the nation’s history: a whopping 24 million passport books and cards were delivered to American travelers from October 2022 to September 2023.
If you're renewing your passport by mail, it's important to note that the estimated processing times do not include shipping. “It may take up to two weeks for us to receive your application after you mail it to us, and up to two weeks for you to receive your completed passport after we mail it to you,” the department notes, advising all Americans renew their passport well in advance of international travel.
Next up: online passport renewal
More Americans than ever before are certified to travel internationally—the number of valid passports in circulation is currently upwards of 160 million, an amount that has nearly doubled since 2007. “We have worked hard to modernize and improve the service we provide to the American people. We will continue to do so in 2024,” the department’s release says.
Now that wait times are back to normal, the State Department's next challenge when it comes to modernizing the nation's passport renewal process is the online application portal. In 2022, the State Department launched a pilot program that allowed 25,000 travelers to test out the new technology by submitting all renewal documents online. Many travelers complained that the Beta version of the software was buggy, and they had problems uploading the required passport photo to the site.
Now, officials are working out the kinks so the service runs more smoothly on a larger scale. Officials had previously targeted some time in 2024 to roll out online renewals to the general public, but the timeline is now less clear. “Since the conclusion of the Online Passport Renewal pilot, we have been working to incorporate user feedback and apply lessons learned from the pilot to improve the overall online renewal process,” a State Department spokesperson tells Condé Nast Traveler. “We continue to work towards launching this initiative and will provide updates in the future.”
Updates to the online renewal program will be posted in the “How to Renew” section on the State Department’s website. Travelers can also check that space for the latest information on processing times, application documents, and passport fees.
