The department has been testing out an online passport renewal pilot program for limited time windows, but that pilot is currently paused until later in 2023. Simply put, it’s just a lot of paperwork to get through. Why is it taking so long to get a passport right now?Īs a State Department spokesperson tells AFAR, passport adjudication has long been a paper-based process that requires applicants to mail in physical applications. Nearly 22 million passports were processed in 2022, setting a record high, and they are on track to break that record for fiscal year 2023, according to a spokesperson from the State Department. But the surge since then has been unprecedented. That length of time is still better than it was during the height of the pandemic when passport offices were shut down completely and then overwhelmed by the huge backlog when they started to reopen. (This is the rush passport processing service provided by the State Department itself, as opposed to what’s known as “courier” services offered by third-party companies more on that below.)

The processing time for expedited passport service is now 7 to 9 weeks, up from the 3 to 5 weeks it had been as recently as January. State Department, current passport processing times are now 10 to 13 weeks (not including the time it takes to mail documents on either end), meaning that wait times have grown even longer than they were in early March, when the listed processing period was 8 to 11 weeks.Įven expedited passports are taking longer. Here’s what to know about the length of the passport application process and what you can do about it. Why does it take so long to get a passport? The most obvious answer is: bureaucracy and the pandemic-related backlog.

Passport processing time