US Passport Complaints - Expedited passport delay

470 days ago by Slore [send email]

Just wanted to share some tips on getting though to the passport office that I learned from others on this complaint board and my own experience. We just got my daughter's passport after filing in March for our June trip to Europe. We got it in time for the trip because I did several things: (1) called the passport office daily and ( 2) got my congressional representative involved. My senators were no help-- they had lots of other people to deal with first who were leaving sooner than us. My congressman's office called me every other day with an update. End result: call your senators and congressman for help and go with whichever one will help you the most.

In calling the passport office, I found getting through in th afternoon ( like 5:30 EST) best. In the morning, most of the time the system was down. You do need to give them a date that is earlier than your actual departure date in order to get any action and to get it in time for your trip. The date you give them has to be within 14 days of when you call. Dial the 1-877 number, when it starts with the tape, push 1, wait for the start of the next general message & push 3. If you get the "due to the high volume" tape, push 3 before it ends. You will get a message saying it did not understand the command-- push 3 again. This will usually but you into the line for calls on hold. You may get a message that then cuts you off-- if this happens, hang up and go thru this process again until you are just on hold ( sometimes there is blank air when you are on hold, sometimes there is music, sometimes there are other little messages). By doing this, I was able to get through in a half hour at the longest. One time I even got the person who handles inquiries from members of Congress.

Once you get thru and talk to someone, you cannot be assured that the passport has been sent unless they give you a fed ex or other tracking number. Ask for one!! They are sending all passports now by fed ex or express mail at no cost because of this mess. with the fed ex number, you can then track it yourself. Ours came two days after I got the fed ex number.

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US Passport Complaints - Expedited passport delay

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