Reply #50: We renewed ours in July [View All]

[Heddi]

it was set to expire in May 2008 but wanted to go ahead and get the renewal out of the way because of the backlog----our post office is a Passport Center and every time we'd go in to mail a package or whatever, the line for passports was out the door. So we renewed early. Sent it off in July and got it back about 6 weeks later, and we did not do the expedited thing. So the turn around wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was hearing stories of 9+ months, which is why we did it so early because we knew we'd be traveling outside the US at some point in 2008---but we didn't know if it would be before or after May, when the PP expired.

THe crazy thing is that Hubby and I both mailed our passports off at the same time, in the same envelope. I got mine back a week before he did! But mine went through Charleston, SC passport office and his went through NYC Passport office---I wonder if it has to do with where you're born? I thought they'd both go through Seattle because we live in WA state.

I have had people go through the expedited thing and they didn't get their passport in an expedited way at all. A friend of mine and her son were going to Samoa and had planned on going in August 2007. I told her in January to get their papers together and apply for the passport as soon as she could (this was going to be their first passport). Goofball waited and waited and didn't apply for the passport until 3 weeks before they were set to go to Samoa. I told her there was NO way she would get their passports--expedited or not---back in 3 weeks. Not just because of the backlog, but even in non-backlog years it was tough to get that expedited passport in the 2-week window they offered. Needless to say, they had to cancel their trip because their PP didn't come until after September. My understanding is that an initial passport takes longer to process than a renewal does.