State Department announces faster passport processing

Passport processing times return to pre-pandemic levels

Passport processing times are back to pre-pandemic levels, the State Department said Monday. The announcement comes after years of sometimes excruciatingly long wait times, due in part to unprecedented demand for passports. FOX 5's Josh Rosenthal breaks down why things are going a lot quicker nowadays.

Passport processing times are back to pre-pandemic levels, the State Department said Monday.

The announcement comes after years of sometimes excruciatingly long wait times, due in part to unprecedented demand for passports. Officials noted that in 1990, only five percent of Americans had a passport. That number is now 48 percent.

"We’re authorizing overtime. We’ve opened satellite offices," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told lawmakers last July.

Still, many people had travel plans stymied by the delays. That includes Manuel Gonzalez, who spoke with FOX 5 last June.

"I feel like I’m in prison," he said at the time. "I cannot leave the country without this passport."

Monday travel expert Troy Petenbrink called the return to pre-pandemic passport processing times exciting news.

"One of the things about your passport, when you’d have to renew it or things, you actually have to turn in your old passport, which means you could be without that passport during that period of time, which means you are prohibited from traveling internationally," Petenbrink said.

According to State Department officials, passport applications will now be processed within 6-8 weeks for routine service and 2-3 weeks for expedited service, which costs an extra $60.

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