USVI-On-Line

I know I have cut it close with this but I am wondering about anyone's real time experience with passport renewal.

I sent ours off last Friday (Oct 19). I paid the extra $$ to expedite. They claim it will be processed in 3 days from receipt.

The site recognizes receipt & that my passport is in processing. My husband's (which was in the same package) is not even showing in the system yet.

The site even acknowledges my request & payment for expedited service. Still, it says 3 weeks. 3 weeks is not 3 days. I figured on a week for them to do it and then a week max for it to get back to me.

Just curious if anyone has any experience with this and can share a realistic timeline.

Bill's expedited passport took about 2 weeks. We live in the same area so maybe that's a good reference. My sisters non expedited took 2-3 weeks but she is in GA.

One of the girls on our trip waited until the last minute to get her passport and she finally sent in an expedited application and got hers back in about 3 weeks. The times listed on the web site (3 days) was before the government had this massive passport backlog from changing the requirements.

Anyhow, your trip is coming up pretty soon, right? What I'd recommend is calling your Congressman's office and having their state department liaison check on it for you. They can get through the red tape much better than we can. (I used to work for a Congressman many, many moons ago, and I saw passports magically appear on more than one occasion.)

If you don't know who your representative is, go to this web site and put in your ZIP code. You can either jot an email from the page it takes you to, or use the name to look up their web page and call.

http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Hi Flip-Flop,

I agree with LuLu. We applied last summer for expedited passports, then when we checked their status on line, mine didn't show up at all. My husband called our Congressman's office in Kentucky, and his assistant was very responsive and agreed to help. She called the "passport gurus" in DC, and all of our passports arrived before our trip.

Good luck.

Luckily for you, if you are really in a pinch (get under 2 weeks), you can go to the Washington, D.C. passport office and get a new one there.

There are only 13 offices in the U.S. I think the one nearest to me in Tennessee is in New Orleans. When I worked for the Congressman in Ohio, people would have to fly into Chicago before their trips to pick up the expedited passport because that was the nearest office.

Seriously, though, your Congressman's office will make one call and you'll have a status on your passports, and you'll definitely have them before your trip.

I will give it until 2 weeks out and then I'll start calling hounding people. The only thing that worries me is that his isn't showing up at all. I mean, they were in the same package.

I wouldn't worry too much about the package part of it. That was the case with mine, but we found out they were all received at the same time in the same package. Don't know why mine didn't show up, but I wouldn't wait to long to check on it just in case.

I've heard this more than once. I'm wondering if maybe they just put the status on one person in the package into the system.

Did you get a passport for your new baby? And I believe there is something that both parents have to sign to prevent international abductions, but I'm not really sure how it works. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Lulu76 wrote:I've heard this more than once. I'm wondering if maybe they just put the status on one person in the package into the system.

Did you get a passport for your new baby? And I believe there is something that both parents have to sign to prevent international abductions, but I'm not really sure how it works. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Perhaps that is the case.

We did not get a new passport for the baby yet. We are waiting for him to look a little more kid like and a little less babylike. We plan to take his birth certificate and since both parents on there will be with him we don't anticipate problems.

The process for our daughter's passport application two years ago was very easy. We went to the local PO, did everything including taking the photo there, and had it in our hands in 3 or 4 weeks.

The US Dept. of State is efficient in one way. My check was cashed yesterday! A mere 5 days after I wrote it!

When I got a new passport (I lost my original one after it expired) in 2002, it only took three weeks in all. With all these new guidelines and the fact that you need it to go anywhere, they take so much longer now. Eventually I'm sure it'll even out, but I think it should be like Social Security numbers are now, and you just apply for it the second a new person is born.

My wife and I mailed our passport renewals at the same time the last week in September...they both came back within 3 weeks (we did not expedite). Hers came back four days before mine, however.

We went to get them for the kids last week. They told us that they are back on schedule now. Hopefully that's right!

I just sent my passport renewal in on Oct 4th, and got my new passport on Oct 22nd, so it's taking less than 3 weeks for non-expedited passports!

Got this message online this morning for both my app & my hubby's:

"We have finished processing your passport, and it has been mailed to you. This means you should receive your passport on or about 10/31/2007."

YAY! I sent it off regular mail on 10/19/2007.