Passport Question

[Cindy's Mom]

When applying for a passport does the clock start ticking when you leave submit with an agent at the post office or does it start ticking when the State Dept receives it?

 

[mjkacmom]

What clock? My twins applied in March, one regular, one expedited, both came on the same day two months later.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

What clock? My twins applied in March, one regular, one expedited, both came on the same day two months later.

The clock as is the time frame. They say 10-12 weeks, when does that 10-12 weeks start. After you leave your docs with the post office or when the state department receives them? There's a three week differential and I'm trying to gauge when my son will get his.

 

[mjkacmom]

I’m going to say when he applied at the post office based on our experience, another daughter applied last summer and received it back in less that 10 - 12 weeks.

 

[longboard55]

It is usually less, but do not assume everything will work perfect. You need the correct forms. Many people get rejected on their first visit

 

[1GoldenSun]

I've always found the timeline for the process incredibly hard to predict. I wouldn't go by any "clock."

 

[DopeyDame]

Passports are running really long these days. I don't think it's really possible to predict what's going to happen.
If it's been more than 12 weeks, you can call your member of Congress office and ask them to look into it - they can usually help if something gets lost in the system.

 

[China Expat]

Be sure to do expedited! It took mine exactly 4 weeks from the day they received it to the day it arrived in my mail.My friend's passport took 10 weeks, non-expedited.

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I think the time estimate is based on when the State Department receives the completed application. I say this because the State Dept. has an online tracker and when my family and I first applied for our passports at our local post office, I didn't immediately see a status online. It took about a week before I saw anything. I assume that is because the post office mailed in our applications to the State Dept.

 

[bcla]

I don't think there's any kind of precise timing - especially these days where they're probably way behind. And the time really depends on where you submit and how backlogged the regional passport offices is. Routine passports through an "acceptance facility" always go through a regional passport office assigned to the facility.

I'll just say the last time I ever did a regular passport was with my child's first passport. I've renewed by own by mail since my first passport. When I did my kid's first passport (at a university recreational gym) while we were waiting (someone was filling out his application by hand) I saw a big manila envelope with the address of the San Francisco Passport Office. It had no postage and a big official mail warning that it was for government business only. If I were to guess, they probably send each batch of applications daily.

I personally haven't ever gone through a passport acceptance for my own passport. My first was through a passport office because my parents wanted it expedited for a trip. Back then they didn't charge extra fees for it. I don't even think I needed to expedite as they handled routine passports there (and they do at occasional "passport days").

 

[bcla]

I think the time estimate is based on when the State Department receives the completed application. I say this because the State Dept. has an online tracker and when my family and I first applied for our passports at our local post office, I didn't immediately see a status online. It took about a week before I saw anything. I assume that is because the post office mailed in our applications to the State Dept.

I suspect that passport acceptance facilities (which are more than just post offices) collect whatever they have and send them out daily. They're sent through the mail. I've personally seen an envelope used to send in applications.

It's only a rough estimate anyways, so one or two days isn't going to make much of a difference.

 

[mjkacmom]

Be sure to do expedited! It took mine exactly 4 weeks from the day they received it to the day it arrived in my mail.My friend's passport took 10 weeks, non-expedited.

Not in our case!

 

[NYCgrrl]

I believe the tracking starts when the passport agency gets it.
Ive never filed with the post office but it seems to make sense with the way they time it.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Be sure to do expedited! It took mine exactly 4 weeks from the day they received it to the day it arrived in my mail.My friend's passport took 10 weeks, non-expedited.

The “new” expedited time frame annoys me (it was same day service if you applied at the actual office) but is accurate. Took about 3.5 weeks for my 3rd party renewal.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We applied for passports a couple weeks ago at the post office and the lady told us most are taking 6-8 weeks right now. I haven't gone online and tracked the progress of ours yet. We aren't traveling until November, so I didn't pay to expedite it.

 

[Cindy's Mom]

It is usually less, but do not assume everything will work perfect. You need the correct forms. Many people get rejected on their first visit

Isn't that what I paid the post office $35 for, to make sure the docs are correct? (not being sarcastic toward you

 

[bcla]

We applied for passports a couple weeks ago at the post office and the lady told us most are taking 6-8 weeks right now. I haven't gone online and tracked the progress of ours yet. We aren't traveling until November, so I didn't pay to expedite it.

There are different ways to expedite. Once when I was talking about passports in our office, the admin said that our company worked with an expediter who could get a same day passport, but they charged quite a bit. I've heard of people going in with an emergency and getting a passport themselves same day if they didn't need a visa to go in the passport. However, when we did it, the appointments we could get weren't same day. Last time we were initially told we could pick up the passport in three days, but when we said we were under a lot of pressure to get a visa in time, the clerk said next day. I think if they're really pushed they can do it same day. I'm not sure how the professional expediters manage same day without appointments. The visa was interesting too since we were given a timeframe but we actually needed it faster than that. We went into consulate and just asked them if it was available. So someone just searched in the pile and found it was already done, even it was were two days before the promised date.

But going in person to a passport office and paying the expedite fee with pickup is the fastest way. But you're going to need access. I've heard of some people who would even stay overnight in a hotel room just to wait to pick up the new passport.

 

[NYCgrrl]

My passport is the only official photo ID I have so I always get the expedited version. Not that long ago you didn’t pay extra for the service and it was fortunate I live in a city with a passport office.

 

[Orion Nebula]

Passports are running really long these days. I don't think it's really possible to predict what's going to happen.
If it's been more than 12 weeks, you can call your member of Congress office and ask them to look into it - they can usually help if something gets lost in the system.

I had to have them call and see what was going on as I couldn't get a hold of anyone on the hotline. Turns out USPS straight out lost it, it just vanished. I sent my renewal in the day as my wife's (March 22nd). Hers went into processing four weeks ago. The insane thing is that USPS just didn't care.. I ended up having to pay the service fee, a new photo and 2-day shipping. I also had to pay for extradited. I think it ended up costing me 140 dollars or something because USPS screwed up. Part of which went directly to them...

The snotty lady also had to have the tenacity to tell me I should've sent them in the same package... umm... ya so then I would've had a 50/50 chance of them losing BOTH.

Always hated the USPS, everything from their CS to my mailman. My mailman will drive to my mail box then drive off saying no one answered my door.

 

[bcla]

My passport is the only official photo ID I have so I always get the expedited version. Not that long ago you didn’t pay extra for the service and it was fortunate I live in a city with a passport office.

How was the experience? My first passport application was filed directly at the old San Francisco Passport Agency. It's been a while but I don't remember the office being that large or that busy back then. But that was over 30 years ago. When we did it more recently for an expedited passport for our child, it was in a different building, and the waiting area was huge. We arrived late, but even then it took about an hour before our number was called. It was also frustrating because they didn't allow any food or beverages in the waiting area, and we were polite told of this by a DSS uniformed officer. It seems like they must handle a lot more of these now, even when it only supposed to be for expedited service.