State Department reduces anticipated passport waiting times as records broken

The State Department announced it has broken the record for number of issued passport books and cards in a year and introduced an initiative to reduce waiting periods for passports in a news release Monday.

Beginning Monday, passport processing times will be eight to 11 weeks for routine service and five to seven weeks for expedited service. New processing times will only apply for applications received on and after Oct. 2. 

The department also announced that it has issued more than 24 million passport books and cards between October 2022 and September 2023, the most issued in a fiscal year in the country’s history.

“Our dedicated staff have worked countless hours to reduce passport processing times. We are continuously reassessing our operations to maximize efficiencies and are introducing innovations to our customer service and processing models,” the department said in a statement. 

“We are investing in supporting and modernizing our technology, increased staffing levels by ten percent, and have hundreds of additional staff in the hiring pipeline,” the department added. “We remain focused on lowering processing times, and this reduction is an important first step.”

The recent backlog of passport applications led to a wave of calls to Congress to help push for new efforts to ease the process of needing documents for traveling overseas. 

Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) introduced the Passport Act last week, a legislation that would implement new measures to clear passport application backlogs and reduce processing delays. 

The proposed legislation would ensure customers are aware of passport requirements at the time of booking international travel. In addition, it would require the comptroller general to conduct a study into creating efficiencies in the State Department’s passport operations.