(2023-03-21) Dealing with Passport status/delays

Processing of passport applications is backing up at the State Department. It's very frustrating.

• there's no status updates to "In Process" between them taking-in, and being done.
• it's seemingly impossible to get through to their phone number - you can't even get to on-hold, you just get kicked off
• you can't even go anyplace in-person to get attention (I tried, and they wouldn't let me in the building - and didn't even have a process to make an appointment, you have to do that through the phone)

Here are my basic recommendations after my recent experience. Most are obvious.

• apply early
• make sure you fill in your scheduled-travel date if that's relevant (if you don't have any, then this page probably isn't relevant, just let it take however long it takes)
• pay for expedited processing if possible, or at least for rush-shipping
• check your status online

When you hit the 2-weeks-before-trip point and you're panicking....

• first call the number late at night or on the weekend to get the message with their working hours - I think they run later than you expect, but you can't find that out online or from the regular hold messages
• block off a few hours where you won't have interruption
• re-dial repeatedly - calling 3x a day isn't likely to work, just re-dial as soon as you get bumped off - it took me a solid hour to get through
• eventually you'll get to stay on-hold, and that can easily be 2 hours
• then you'll get a human who will get more detailed status info and recommend the best next step - I can't swear to it, but it seemed like a helpful human rather than someone just reading off a bad script

Our outcome was it took 2mo from submit to receipt.

• NumberThree's process was messier because there was a name change, etc.
• mine was simpler, could do online, but took just as long!