If you have travel plans for this summer that will require a passport, you’re more than likely too late to get one in time. But if your plans are for late 2023, or even next year, the U.S. State Department has started a new way to process passport applications.
The State Department is holding what it calls special passport acceptance fairs.
Right now, the fairs are only being held in a handful of states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New Jersey, over the next month or so. But new locations and dates are added to the list every week.
You can find locations for the fairs on the State Department’s website.
Officials said the passport fairs will only process routine and expedited services. Urgent processing can only be done at a passport agency or center.
Most of the fairs are for first-time applicants and children using Form DS-11. If you need to renew, you’re encouraged to do it by mail.
The State Department has had a backlog of passports because people are traveling once again after the COVID-19 pandemic but the government doesn’t have enough employees to process the paperwork, The Associated Press reported.
The agency receives about 500,000 applications every week. Last year, it issued 22 million passports and it is on track to exceed that amount this year.
As of March, the most recent date posted by the State Department, routine processing takes 10 to 13 weeks. Expedited processing is seven to nine weeks.
To check the status of your passport processing, visit the online passport system if you applied in person or by mail. If you renewed online before that system was put on pause, visit your MyTravelGov account.
Approximately 46 per 100 people in the U.S. last year had a passport, up from three per 100 people in 1989, the AP reported.