By: Corey Lack
As businesses slowly reopen from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are starting to risk traveling around the country and even out of the country again. However, those whose passports have expired during the closures still face difficulties as a part of the pandemic situation. With the passport agency being closed, those seeking to get new passports have been unable to get them. Though the applicants have been able to apply for them, the new passports haven’t been processes since this past March.
That, however, is slowly but surely changing. As of June 11, various passport agencies have entered into the phase one of their reopening plan. This involves a limited number of the staff returning to the agencies to resume partial processing of the applications. They will first prioritize customers who require a passport in 72 hours for life-or-death emergencies only. These customers will still require an appointment to be helped. Other than those situations, the staff at the opened agency centers will start to process the applications with the older ones being given the first priority. The list of what agencies are open can be found on the passport agency’s website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html).
That said, acceptance agencies that are not directly connected to the passport agency have been informed to alert those currently trying to apply that it may take months in order to receive a passport. This is due to the sheer amount of backlog that the passport agencies are dealing with on top of the fact that not every employee is back to work and not every center has been even partially reopened.
But do not fret! Sure, there will still be some time before things get back to normal, but they are getting there. Pretty soon, people can enjoy the freedoms that they had before the COVID pandemic. Just be patient and those vacations you’ve been putting off can happen!
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