Waiting on Passports

[braumeister]

I think they meant the OP should have used the emergency renewal at application time..too late now..processing in the system...words that strike fear in anyone's heart.

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying that.

On the other point, I once had an office that was inside a consulate building in a large overseas country, and I saw the forlorn faces on visiting tourists who had been pickpocketed. The consulate staff tried their best to take care of them but dealing with people under that much stress is a challenge, so the helpful staffers got yelled at a lot. Unfairly but understandably.

 

[Packman]

I think they meant the OP should have used the emergency renewal at application time..too late now..processing in the system...words that strike fear in anyone's heart.

My understanding is that if you have applied for a passport through the state dept. in the required amount of time, and you still don't have it 72 hours before travel, and you have done all of the right things - they have a last ditch way of still getting a passport to you in 3 days. It's not for someone just trying to get a passport in 3 days. That is why those other places exist and change $500 to do it.

Today was the first time I heard about this after a number of conversations with employees there - and continual pressure from me to seek a remedy. I'm not sure I believe it. The lady there said "we have a process for everything." I'm hopeful.

 

[ivinsfan]

My understanding is that if you have applied for a passport through the state dept. in the required amount of time, and you still don't have it 72 hours before travel, and you have done all of the right things - they have a last ditch way of still getting a passport to you in 3 days. It's not for someone just trying to get a passport in 3 days. That is why those other places exist and change $500 to do it.

Today was the first time I heard about this after a number of conversations with employees there - and continual pressure from me to seek a remedy. I'm not sure I believe it. The lady there said "we have a process for everything." I'm hopeful.

Ok that explains why you didn't do it today..if it makes you feel any better this thread might help someone else in the future.

 

[Sunset]

If I was in this situation, besides going crazy with worry, I'd want to enact the 72 hr thing 4 days before the travel, as I trust my postal carrier to be slow.

 

[ivinsfan]

If I was in this situation, besides going crazy with worry, I'd want to enact the 72 hr thing 4 days before the travel, as I trust my postal carrier to be slow.

And it almost has to exclude weekends wouldn't you think?

 

[Packman]

And it almost has to exclude weekends wouldn't you think?

The 72 hours would be three business days. Two days to get the passport, and 1 day to overnight mail.

Just found out our travel insurance doesn't cover this type of claim. And I'm sure homeowner's won't either. Ugh.

 

[cathy63]

On Monday, I plan to contact our US Senator's offices - and perhaps drive there (100 miles), to see if they can help. But with the state of our political affairs these days, I'm not expecting much from them.

Don't wait until Monday! Fill out the web forms at the links I gave previously. Do this today so you get as high up in their queue as you can, then call at 9:00 AM EST on Monday to follow up with the casework staff in the senator's DC office. You will need to download and fill out the privacy waiver forms from their website before the caseworkers can help, and it will only delay them from getting started on your issue if you wait two more days to do that.

 

[cathy63]

The 72 hours would be three business days. Two days to get the passport, and 1 day to overnight mail.

Just found out our travel insurance doesn't cover this type of claim. And I'm sure homeowner's won't either. Ugh.

I think all travel insurance has an exclusion for the traveler not having the correct docs at the start of the trip, though most will cover you if your passport is stolen in a foreign country. If you have "cancel for any reason" coverage on the Canada trip, you can invoke that.

 

[ivinsfan]

Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying that.

On the other point, I once had an office that was inside a consulate building in a large overseas country, and I saw the forlorn faces on visiting tourists who had been pickpocketed. The consulate staff tried their best to take care of them but dealing with people under that much stress is a challenge, so the helpful staffers got yelled at a lot. Unfairly but understandably.

Apparently I didn't get it right. There are two types of speedy processes one you pay a private company for before you apply for the passport and the 3 days one the OP mentioned where if it appears your passport won't make your travel date you can use the governments expedited process with your info already in the system. Clear as mud..

 

[Sunset]

OP - We are rooting for you to get the passports and go on the trip.

However, could you detail a bit (not actual hotel names), how you will lose $5,000 if the passports don't show up. As this information could be a learning lesson to some, and perhaps others will suggest a way you can avoid some losses.

For example I'm thinking pretend airline tickets are $800, so maybe you can change the flight to some other flight that you can use for $200, saving $600 value of the spent money. (I've never done this, so don't even know if that is possible).

 

[Aerides]

OP you might be able to purchase Trip Cancellation Insurance (a good broad one that allows cancel for any reason) via the credit card you booked this $5k trip on?

That, or changing the dates to allow a little more time should be doable with most air/hotel, etc.?

 

[Packman]

Don't wait until Monday! Fill out the web forms at the links I gave previously. Do this today so you get as high up in their queue as you can, then call at 9:00 AM EST on Monday to follow up with the casework staff in the senator's DC office. You will need to download and fill out the privacy waiver forms from their website before the caseworkers can help, and it will only delay them from getting started on your issue if you wait two more days to do that.

Thanks cathy. I have faxed over the privacy act form today and will call the Senator's office in the morning.

With regard to other questions - our next trip is a cruise and most of the funds would be lost if we have to cancel the cruise - no refunds this late in the game.

Our travel insurance does not have a 'cancel for any reason' clause and it is too late to buy any other travel policy now.

I hope I'm not overreacting (we still have 7 business days before our next trip). But when we get this close to our trip and the Dept. of State just keeps telling me to wait, call back, etc. - it's pretty concerning.

 

[ivinsfan]

It does seem odd that they can't offer more information. they must enter these applications into the system, don't they have queue numbers or something to tell what the heck is going on? It's hard to believe that your passports are just sitting around in limbo somewhere. Come in to the system, information verified and then on the printing process and into the mail. They must do them in some kind of order.

 

[Packman]

It does seem odd that they can't offer more information. they must enter these applications into the system, don't they have queue numbers or something to tell what the heck is going on? It's hard to believe that your passports are just sitting around in limbo somewhere. Come in to the system, information verified and then on the printing process and into the mail. They must do them in some kind of order.

Agreed. They keep saying that they have "up to" 8 business days to process the passport with expedited service and then 2 days to mail it. So they must assume it doesn't get done until the 8th day. They can't do everyone's on the 8th day, can they? And since my credit card has not been charged for the expedited service I requested on May 24th, do they wait until the 8th day to do that too? And finally, the person on the phone doesn't have answers to any of that. So how would they expect anyone to have confidence in the process?

 

[ivinsfan]

Agreed. They keep saying that they have "up to" 8 business days to process the passport with expedited service and then 2 days to mail it. So they must assume it doesn't get done until the 8th day. They can't do everyone's on the 8th day, can they? And since my credit card has not been charged for the expedited service I requested on May 24th, do they wait until the 8th day to do that too? And finally, the person on the phone doesn't have answers to any of that. So how would they expect anyone to have confidence in the process?

Riddle me this if they can find it to expedite it, they obviously know how to look for it correct..

 

[Packman]

Update

This is an update to my post on receiving passports.

I finally got our passports today - 3 business days before our travel. Cathy63, if you are reading this - a huge thank you for recommending, and then pushing me, to contact our Congressional Representative. I filed the privacy form on Sunday and called their office first thing on Monday. I used Arizona's US Senator Krysten Sinema. Within 48 hours our passports were being processed and mailed. Her office was on it within hours and had an answer for me the next day - I couldn't believe it. I can't say for sure that their intervention caused the issuance of the passports, or if the State Dept. was getting ready to process them anyway, but I'm thinking it sure helped.

Lessons learned:
1. if you absolutely need a passport with 9 or 10 weeks, file an expedited application and pay the fee. I didn't (at first) as I read that people were getting routine passports in 2-3 weeks. Ours took 6 weeks and the last week of worry was agonizing.

2. use your Congressional leaders if you run into an emergency. I spent over 40 hours on calls (and wait times) with the State Dept. in the last 10 days and, although they were polite, they weren't seemingly able to tell me much of anything as to when I could expect the passports to arrive. I'm sure they are trained not to promise anything. I did find it ironic that in order for Senator's office to assist me, I had to file a Privacy Act Waiver that required my SS# and birth date, which kinda doesn't make me feel comfortable with that form floating around.

Thanks to all of the well wishers and ideas you've provided. I'm now sleeping at night again!

 

[Sunset]

Great to hear the good news, and your detail about the resolution efforts.
Tell us about the trip afterwards as others might be interested.

 

[audreyh1]

Thank god! Wow, that was close. I’m just so shocked it took so long since DH’s non-expired passport renewal turned in just 2.5 weeks March/April.

 

[ivinsfan]

Thank god! Wow, that was close. I’m just so shocked it took so long since DH’s non-expired passport renewal turned in just 2.5 weeks March/April.

Murphy's Law at work...you didn't have an international trip deadline ticking away. we got our renewals done in less then 3 weeks too.

 

[JustCurious]

Murphy's Law at work...you didn't have an international trip deadline ticking away. we got our renewals done in less then 3 weeks too.

Murphy's Law says anything that can go wrong, will. In this case the OP got the passports within the time frame that he was told and on time, so I don't think it went wrong.

 

[Sunset]

Murphy's Law says anything that can go wrong, will. In this case the OP got the passports within the time frame that he was told and on time, so I don't think it went wrong.

He got them later than the time-frame originally told, and only after he jumped through a bunch of hoops including getting a representative office involved. (which puts heat on the boss of all the slow moving employees).

 

[JustCurious]

He got them later than the time-frame originally told, and only after he jumped through a bunch of hoops including getting a representative office involved. (which puts heat on the boss of all the slow moving employees).

I must have missed that part of the story, he was originally told he would get them in less than 6 weeks? The Department of State publishes guidelines for how long it takes, and they say it takes 6-8 weeks...

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/processing-times.html

Ok so I went back and read all of the OP's posts and I found this...

When we applied the standard wait was 4-6 weeks. They have now changed that to 6-8 weeks.

The OP got the passports within 6 weeks...

Ours took 6 weeks and the last week of worry was agonizing.

The OP stated that he did not pay for the expedited service when he applied, and he got the passports within the standard wait time that he was told when he applied. What am I missing? Also, you may have missed this part of the story where the OP acknowledged that he does not know if congressional intervention made a difference...

I can't say for sure that their intervention caused the issuance of the passports, or if the State Dept. was getting ready to process them anyway, but I'm thinking it sure helped.

 

[Sunset]

I must have missed that part of the story, he was originally told he would get them in less than 6 weeks? The Department of State publishes guidelines for how long it takes, and they say it takes 6-8 weeks...

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/requirements/processing-times.html

Ok so I went back and read all of the OP's posts and I found this...

When we applied the standard wait was 4-6 weeks. They have now changed that to 6-8 weeks.

The OP got the passports within 6 weeks...

Ours took 6 weeks and the last week of worry was agonizing.

The OP stated that he did not pay for the expedited service when he applied, and he got the passports within the standard wait time that he was told when he applied. What am I missing? Also, you may have missed this part of the story where the OP acknowledged that he does not know if congressional intervention made a difference...

I can't say for sure that their intervention caused the issuance of the passports, or if the State Dept. was getting ready to process them anyway, but I'm thinking it sure helped.

There are a lot of unknowns, and we will never know the exact details of how much or little OP's efforts of multiple phone calls and getting the Representative office involved really affected the outcome.

I must say I was also feeling a little peeved at the time and probably responded too strongly for which I apologize.

 

[ivinsfan]

Murphy's Law says anything that can go wrong, will. In this case the OP got the passports within the time frame that he was told and on time, so I don't think it went wrong.

If you don't count the 40 plus hours he spent on the phone trying to make this happen.I guess he could have done nothing except cross his fingers...roll the dice..he advised people having an upcoming trip to go expedited..

 

[JoeWras]

DW is going on waiting 7 weeks. We are not in a hurry. I suspect with summer season travel here, a lot of people like our OP are getting slipped in line ahead.