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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 4 July 2023

The wait for U.S. passports is creating travel purgatory and snarling

summer plans

From Front consecutive days — bu-
reaucracy embodied.
By LAURIE KELLMAN, REBEC- "This makes me incredibly
CA SANTANA and DAVID uneasy having a baby in Is-
KOENIG rael as an American citizen,
Associated Press knowing there is no way I
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seek- can fly with that baby until
ing a valid U.S. passport for we get lucky with an ap-
that 2023 trip? Buckle up, pointment," she said.
wishful traveler, for a very There appeared to be
different journey before some progress. The wait for
you step anywhere near an an appointment for a re-
airport. newal on June 8 stood at
A much-feared backup of 360 days. By July 2, the wait
U.S passport applications was 90 days, according to
has smashed into a wall of the web site.
government bureaucracy Back in the U.S., Marni
as worldwide travel re- Larsen of Holladay, Utah,
bounds toward record pre- stood in line in Los Ange-
pandemic levels — with les, California, on June 14,
too few humans to handle in hopes of snagging her
the load. The result, say as- son's passport. That way,
piring travelers in the U.S. she hoped, the pair could
and around the world, is a meet the rest of their fam-
maddening pre-travel pur- ily, who had already left as
gatory defined, at best, by scheduled for Europe, for
costly uncertainty. a long-planned vacation.
With family dreams and big She'd applied for her son's
money on the line, passport passport two months earlier
seekers describe a slow- and spent weeks check-
motion agony of waiting, ing for updates online or
worrying, holding the line, The cover of a U.S. Passport is displayed in Tigard, Ore., Dec. 11, 2021. through a frustrating call
refreshing the screen, com- Associated Press system. As the mid-June
plaining to Congress, pay- called thinking. Then the this year that they were re- seas, the quest for U.S. visas vacation loomed, Larsen
ing extra fees and following State Department upped ceiving more complaints and passports isn't much reached out to Sen. Mitt
incorrect directions. Some the wait time for a regular from constituents on pass- brighter. On a day in June, Romney 's office, where
applicants are buying ad- passport to as much as 13 port delays than any other people in New Delhi could one of four people he says
ditional plane tickets to weeks. "We'll still be okay," issue. expect to wait 451 days for is assigned full-time to pass-
snag in-process passports she thought. The U.S. secretary of state a visa interview, according port issues were able to
where they sit — in other At two weeks to travel, this had an answer, of a sort. to the website. Those in Sao track down the document
cities — in time to make the was Collier's assessment: "I "With COVID, the bottom Paulo could plan on wait- in New Orleans. It was sup-
flights they booked in the can't sleep." Failure to ob- basically dropped out of ing more than 600 days. posed to be shipped to Los
first place. tain the family's passports the system," Antony Blink- Aspiring travelers in Mexico Angeles, where she got an
So grim is the outlook that would mean losing $4,000, en told a House subcom- City were waiting about appointment to retrieve it.
U.S. officials aren't even de- she said, as well as the mittee March 23. When 750 days; in Bogota, Co- That meant Larsen had to
nying the problem or pre- chance to meet one of her demand for travel all but lombia, it was 801 days. buy new tickets for herself
dicting when it will ease. sons in Italy after a study- disappeared during the In Israel, the need is espe- and her son to Los Angeles
They're blaming the epic abroad semester. "My pandemic, he said, the cially acute. More than and reroute their trip from
wait times on lingering nerves are shot, because government let contrac- 200,000 people with citizen- there to Rome. All on a bet
pandemic -related staffing I may not be able to get tors go and reassigned staff ship in both countries live in that her son's passport was
shortages and a pause of to him," she said. She calls that had been dedicated Israel. On July 2, indeed shipped as prom-
online processing this year. the toll-free number every to handling passports. Batsheva Gutterman start- ised. "We are just waiting
That's left the passport day, holds for as much as Around the same time, the ed looking for appoint- in this massive line of tons
agency flooded with a re- 90 minutes to be told — at government also halted ments immediately after of people," Larsen said. "It's
cord-busting 500,000 appli- best — that she might be an online renewal system she had a baby in Decem- just been a nightmare."
cations a week. The deluge able to get a required ap- "to make sure that we can ber, with an eye toward at- They succeeded. And Gin-
is on-track to top last year's pointment at passport of- fine tune it and improve it," tending her sister's wedding ger Collier? She found her
22 million passports issued, fices in other states. Blinken said. He said the de- in July, in Raleigh, N.C. Her happy ending. "I just got
the State Department says. "I can't afford four more partment is hiring agents as quest for three passports my passports!" she texted.
It was early March when plane tickets anywhere in quickly as possible, open- stretched from January to A seven-hour visit at the
Dallas-area florist Ginger the United States to get a ing more appointments June, days before travel. passport office in Dallas,
Collier applied for four passport when I applied in and trying to address the And it only resolved after plus a return the next day,
passports ahead of a fam- plenty of time," she said. crisis in other ways. Gutterman payed a small produced the passports
ily vacation at the end of By March, concerned trav- Passport applicants lit up fee to join a WhatsApp with four days to spare.
June. The clerk, she said, es- elers began asking for an- social media groups, toll- group that alerted her to "What a ridiculous process,"
timated wait times at eight swers and then demand- free numbers and lawmak- new appointments, which Collier said. Nevertheless,
to 11 weeks. They'd have ing help, including from ers' phone lines with ques- stay available for only a the reunion with her son in
their passports a month their representatives in the tions, appeals for advice few seconds. Italy was sweet. She texted
before they needed them. House and Senate, who and cries for help. She ultimately got three last week: "It was the best
"Plenty of time," Collier re- widely reported at hearings At U.S. consulates over- appointments on three hug ever!"q