Did The U.S. State Department Just Triple How Long It Takes To Get A Passport?

4.4K

It’s been well documented that the completion of some of the U.S. government’s responsibilities has slowed considerably in the past couple of years, due to the current regime’s understaffed government agencies.

It’s difficult to get things done, especially big things, when so much of the government’s staff are only “acting” heads. And when you move government employees around from one place to another, it causes its own headaches. Right now, for example, the Global Entry enrollment center at LAX has closed its doors indefinitely so its Customs and Border Patrol workers can work on (*cough*) “the humanitarian and security crisis on our southwest border,” an agency representative said.

So when we saw this tweet a couple of days ago, we figured it was just more of the same slowdown SNAFU. Or is it?

https://twitter.com/dtemkin/status/1152991246811447296?s=20

I’m woman enough to admit that I didn’t know who Dave Temkin was, but I felt better when Joe said he wasn’t sure who he was either ;-). But the guy had that check mark next to his Twitter handle, so I figured he had to have been a “somebody.” Turns out he’s the Vice President of Networks (Content, Delivery, Studio and Infrastructure) at Netflix. So there you go. And, ummmm…yay, Stranger Things!

Side note – I like the guy. In checking out his other tweets, I found this one:

https://twitter.com/dtemkin/status/1153454515720355840?s=20

So apparently he has good taste in hotels and refuses to get #bonvoyed anymore ;-). But back to the topic on hand…

So yeah – the email he got said that expedited service he requested (he was getting a renewal) would take 6-8 weeks. I checked and as of this writing, the U.S. State Department’s website says 6-8 weeks for routine passports and 2-3 weeks for expedited ones, which is the same as it’s been for quite a while.

Meanwhile, the good people Passport Waiting Time, that reports the average of how long it takes for U.S. citizens to get their passports (they use crowd sourced information), posted the following tweet on June 28th:

Current average US passport waiting times: First Adult Passport: 22 days, Adult Passport Renewal 19 days. (Crowd sourced) Updated 28th June 2019. #usapassport https://t.co/Azf89hvE7j

— USA Passport Waiting (@usapassporttime) June 28, 2019

And suggested even more recently (July 15th)  on their website that the current waiting time for a “first time” adult passport is 22 days and a renewal is 18 days. I would think expedited service would be even less than that, no?

So what’s up with all that?

• Did the State Department change how long it takes to process a(n expedited) passport and just not update its website yet?
• Did they make a mistake in their email to Temkin?

I guess we just don’t know at this point. But I think I might tweet Dave Temkin in a few weeks and see if I can learn if/when he gets his passport, and go from there. 😉

Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top (if you’re on your computer) or the bottom (if you’re on your phone/tablet) of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just two or three times a day). Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group, where we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!

This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary