The State Department has had its….challenges? Yeah, “challenges” is a good word…when it comes to passport processing over the past 4 years. The Covid pandemic threw them through a loop, with offices closed for months. Then, besides the backlog of several million passport applications and renewals, there were the millions of new applications and renewals from those who wanted to travel overseas, simply “because they finally could” (yay, revenge travel!). So, at one point, it took upwards of 6 months to get your passport.
A new project
The State Dep’t eventually got caught up, and if you mail in your application or renewal, the wait is currently 6-8 weeks for routine or 2-3 weeks for expedited service.
Things were going so well that they felt they could start their new project—online renewals. The beta release began in June, but because it was a pilot, they limited the number of applications they would process on any given day.
Meanwhile, there were anecdotal reports of how well this new project of theirs actually worked. Although most people said they were getting their passports back very quickly once they were in the system, one complaint was difficulty logging into the system in the first place. This was assumed to be because they were limiting how many people could use the system daily, and more people wanted to renew their passports than the system allowed.
A new update
Happily, the State Dep’t now says it has increased the number of applications it can accept per day. The Washington Post and other news outlets report that the program has been running so smoothly that they can now process larger volumes of renewals.
With that, they’ve removed the limits that had been in place since the beta release went live in June. People can now renew their passports online 24/7. However, the State Department does warn that the system might still shut down intermittently.
How many passports are they processing?
When the State Department started the pilot program in early June, they never did say how many applications they were accepting per day. 100? 1000? 10,000? However, now we have an idea. From WaPo:
Since the agency reopened the portal this summer, it said, 175,000 people have successfully submitted applications. In the future, the State Department expects 5 million to 6 million online applications a year. (For context, the agency processed more than 24 million passport products in fiscal 2023.)
175,000 over the course of (roughly) 3 months winds up being roughly 2,000 applications per day. So now we know. 😉
How can you renew online?
The online portal is currently available for passport renewals, not new applications. There are also some limitations in terms of age and other requirements. More details can be found at this link.
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