The U.S. Department of State Passport Services has recently increased the waiting period for the U.S. passport processing procedure. This has created a chaotic and frustrating situation for people aspiring to traveling in or out of the country. Generally the passport processing took a normal time span of six weeks which has now been extended to ten weeks or even more. Even the expedited service takes good time, say about four weeks instead of two weeks, which it required to complete all the needful. This extended time period is due to the recent hike of the passport applications to nearly 44%. There are two reasons behind this unusual upsurge in the demand for passport processing. The first one is that during the months of February to April most people plan their spring and summer vacations and secondly, the new law that came into implementation recently that needed all the U.S. citizens traveling by air between the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central or South America, the Caribbean and Bermuda islands to carry a valid passport, Air Nexus Card or U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner documents and Alien registration card, form I-551 if applicable.
Most travelers who desire to move in or out of the USA via air are unaware of the increasing application for the passport are waiting eagerly to receive their passports within a couple of weeks but found themselves desperately seeking out for options to get their passports before their scheduled trip. The US passport service guide has been receiving a lot of messages regarding the delivery of the passport.
The US Passport Information Service representatives who are at office from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. are none less than celebrities who are always mobbed with various requests from desperate passport seekers.
One of the travelers who had applied for passports for himself and his wife in the first week of January for his trip that was scheduled on March 18 was told that he would be receiving his passport at least ten days after his planned trip. Another incident was about a person who planned to move out of the country with his three children wanted to know the status of the passport proceedings of his children. Everyone was eager to know can they really get hold of their passports before their scheduled trip or can the officers expedite a passport that is already being processed. The phone and emails were of the US Passport Information Service representatives were jam packed with such messages. Most of these questions failed to meet with satisfactory answers and the applications were delayed as they were supposed to be.
The travelers who are lucky enough to get the appointments of the representatives of the National Passport Information Service officers found themselves queuing up in long and chaotic lines that added more to the frustration.
The easiest way to evade this chaotic situation is to contact a private passport expediter. Most expediters have special relationships with the US State Department hence they are able to hand delivery your passport application and deliver back your ready passport within ten days of applying.
However, like most good things are, these private expediting services are expensive and their fees may vary from somewhere from $59 to $169 for the same day service excluding the service charges of the US government or overnight delivery. But this will at least guarantee that you get your passport and are on time with your preplanned trip.
