Gearing up for your next international trip by renewing your passport? You may want to think twice about using the new online passport renewal system if you want to get your passport back in time for your travels once the system reopens.
About The System
The U.S. Department of State started testing an online passport renewal system in September of 2022, which quickly opened up to the general public. Prior to this, travelers could only renew via mail or in person. At first glance, this seems like a significant step in the right direction of modernizing the process of passport renewal in the U.S., but many travelers are of the opinion that the program tried to run before it could walk.
In Recent News
Standard processing time for passport renewals has just jumped to 8 to 11 weeks as demand for travel in Spring and Summer has increased. Online passport renewals were meant to be a way to speed up the processing time, but many travelers have found the opposite to be true.
In fact, as of March 8th, the online passport renewal system has been ‘paused’. After our recent experience, it isn’t hard to see why.
Authors Anecdote
In a series of events that eventually led to one of our staff members meeting in person at a passport agency in D.C. for an “imminent travel” appointment, they were told by the passport agency employee to “tell all of your friends not to use the online passport system.”
Well friends, this is us doing our jobs. Don’t use the online passport system. Why, you may ask?
Here is our experience:
On January 14th, one of our staffers decided to take advantage of the online passport renewal system. The process of applying was very easy and only took about 15 minutes. They paid extra for expedited processing, and she was told to expect their passport in 3-5 weeks — just in time for an upcoming trip to Mexico.
As the weeks went by, the status on her application read “in processing” every time she checked. This wasn’t too worrisome until she was less than two weeks out from an international trip. Now it was time to worry.
Getting An Imminent Travel Appointment
If you are unlucky enough to find yourself needing an imminent travel appointment, make sure you have countless hours on hand to spend on hold. Then, when you finally get to talk to someone, don’t expect any appointments to be available — at least not anywhere convenient.
The full list of passport agencies available for imminent travel appointments can be found here, and you can see that for many travelers in the States, there aren’t many great options.
For example, if you lived in Lexington, Kentucky, your closest options would be Atlanta, Washington D.C., or Chicago. However, that’s assuming you are lucky enough to snag an appointment at one of those locations in the first place.
Our staffer was lucky enough to be in the D.C. area at the time she needed an appointment but had to spend 15 cumulative hours on the phone in order to be able to secure an appointment there.
Each time she called the agency, she was put on hold for up to 30 minutes. When someone picked up, and she told them she had renewed online, she was transferred and put on hold for anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour and a half.
After passing that gauntlet, she then had to explain her situation, and the agent would begin to try to secure an imminent travel appointment. In her first 6 or 7 attempts, the only options were for appointments in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles. Imagine having to book a $1,000 round-trip flight just to get your passport that should have already been delivered.
Finally, after talking to a dozen different agents and being told there were no appointments available time and time again, she got extremely lucky and was able to snag an appointment in D.C. after a cancelation.
If You Get An Appointment
If you are one of the lucky few who has the patience and persistence to call over and over and over again to get an appointment, you’ll have to fill out an application by hand, get passport photos, and bring your old passport to your appointment — undoing the convenience of the online renewal option.
Once you head to your appointment with all of your documents, you’ll turn them all in and get your passport within a few hours. Don’t go to a passport agency without an appointment! The airport-style security will not let you through without one, and you will be wasting your time.
Should You Use The System?
According to an employee at the D.C. passport agency, many travelers have had nothing but problems with the system. Additionally, many of the other people who had their appointment the same day as our staffer were there for the exact same reason. To quote the employee, “tell all your friends not to use the online renewal system.”
Once the system is back up and running, travelers should probably stick to the tried-and-true mail-in system until the new online system has had time to work out all the kinks.
