U.S Passports & International Travel
reviews and complaints

I had been on the phone for last 2 days to get my sons passport as it expires on 10 Aug and we are traveling on 13 Aug. The customer service after 2-3 hours of wait time is telling me that they are not able to help us and there are no appointments anywhere in the east coast. This is AWFUL!

We are supposed to have a family reunion and I can't just leave my 10 year old son home. The airline and resort tickets are so expensive and there is no refund policy!

I sent in for my passport to be renewed on April 7th 2021 for a honeymoon that was scheduled to begin on July 20 2021. When I sent in for my passport the time for return was 10-12 weeks… needless to say July 20th 2021 came and my passport has yet to arrive. I had even called to expedite the passport and it is not even showing up as expedited on their AWFUL system. They received it June 9 2021 and haven't sent an update since. I have called 6 times with each time being on hold for over 2 hours - the support staff might just be the most incompetent people I've ever had to deal with. They offer NO information and won't even look up your name and offer a suggestion. They took my money for expedited service and priority mail but still have not sent a passport. I now had to pay an extra $800 to schedule my honeymoon. Why is the website constantly crashing? Why can they not even locate it? Why are the representatives you speak to so useless? In this day and age you can track an Amazon package from the moment it leaves the facility but you can't even locate or get an accurate status update on a passport! This organization is a DISGRACE! They should be sued.. you can't tell people 10-12 weeks and 13 weeks later nothing has changed. I really hate this agency but want to see change. This is UNACCEPTABLE. I want accountability!

Good afternoon,

On 6/01/2021 I received a letter from the National Passport Center, 201 International Dr., Portsmouth, NH detailing the reason my passport was not processed. My birth certificate did not have a seal. Previously I received an email that stated my application was received on June 5th. On June 11th, I overnighted my birth certificated to the address listed in this letter with the DOT-June 17, 2011, Appl #[protected] and Attn:EF. On the following Monday I was not able to speak to a supervisor until after 4:30 in the afternoon. She informed me that my date of travel was never entered into the computer. I had spoken to someone before this and explained the date of travel and yet it was never put in the computer. I paid for expedited service. Until this date (6/21/2021) I still have not received a passport..

I sent my renewal application in on 3/15/21. Per th PO tracking it arrived @ their PO box in Philadelphia on 3/21. I checked the status on line around April 15. They had no record of my application. The 1st time I called I did not have the PO tracking in hand. I calld back with the tracking number and was told "we will look for it". I provided my travel date of May 29 (on the renewal application). I got an email on 4/20 stating application received (they are treating it as received on 4/20 not 3/20). On 4/21 I called & requested that my passport be expedited & express mailed. I provided a credit card for the fees.
I kept checking on line (still saying received 4/20 (LIE) and being processed. I called a few weeks later. After holding for 1 1/2 hours I was disconnected. I called again & held for an hour and a half. The customer service rep said the system was down. He suggested I go to an office "if you can get an appointment:. I started looking on line and now appointments were available in MA or NH. So I called again. The"customer service rep"made t clear that I had called too much. She also informed me that request to expedite"is just a request & everyone has travel dates". She also said"w only got 3 weeks ago"(they had received 7 weeks ago) I waited over a week & then call again. After 2 hours wait I get a person who put me through to supervisor. I wait on hold another 30 minutes for supervisor. She said they never charged my card to expedite (true). She said"it is almost done. All your documentation was accepted". She took a debit card # to send it express mail. A week later nothing. I called once again (a couple of days before travel date & this"customer service rep"mad esure she mentioned"you have spoke with 4 people already"Her reply was basically you just have to wait". My travel date passed. I missed the wedding. I still do not have my passport. Thy made it clear you will get it when you get it & we don't care.

I have been with out a passport for the last 4 month, applied for renewal on March 12, Today we have 6 day to our international departure flights for my two daughters and I. Today I finally found the issue why they have not issue a passport on my name. Their system show I was dead. I went to the interview to speak with two agent to prove I am Who I am and alive, Now they will send the paperwork back to Virginia for approval . In the mean time it looks like I will lose my flight, vacation, money and sanity that this goverment has taken. The real insult is that they waited 4 month to do a thing, even so I was calling daily for the pass month asking to help or be helped in resolving whatever issue it was. So much energy wasted, so much mental torture, and so much Tax payer money being rob.

PS. Do not expect a call when someone tell you they will call you. I had that said 3 times giving me a moral boost only to never happen. They don't care.

I was not given the correct information about renewing my passport due to a name change. The Passport Office in Manhattan gave me different information than what I received when I called up the Passport Agency. For the past four months I received different information from representatives. I was promised a phone call from the Charleston office which never happened even though a rep. said I was put on the priority list. When I called the Passport Agency back after waiting six days, apparently there was no record of that I was to receive a phone call. I've spent close to $200 in the past year for a passport. The Passport Agency and offices needs to be consistent in providing information.

When I am become citizen of US, they clearly told that children below 18 years are also become citizen and no need to undergo naturalization and also advice us to apply for US passport. Accordingly I applied for my son’s passport when he was studying at High school. After the three month they send a letter stating that my sons name was not available in the Birth certificate and need my Marriage certificate duly certified by Notary or in original. I send immediately with covering letter. Within a 15 days they asked the same (Just print the same letter and send to me with current date! ) . I called customer service and enquiry about that. They told all the documents are good and will send some notification to Agent on this regards. However, I send one more certificate copy to Agent with copy of their letter. In the mean time, I had a voice mail from Passport agency that they need Marriage certificate in original and I also send the same to them immediately. Almost Six month over, my son also completed his High school and enrolled in college. While scrutiny his documents in college, they need either Green card or passport. Since my sons green card has been submitted in original along with his passport and also not received the passport even after lapse of 6 whole months. College authority failed to get into the falls season class. I send numerous emails to the passport agency buy they replied that due to security purpose we can’t communicate via email and also directed to call customer service. When I called customer service, they said your application is good and send for printing and will get pass port within a couple of week. And also asked whether I plan to travel? I explained my case if very critical, if I miss the travel means I may lose couple of thousand dollars but I am losing my sons carrier. They promise me that my son’s passport will dispatch within couple of week. But on 09/29/2015 again I received a letter from passport agency, which the same letter sends earlier for my marriage certificate. Now I don’t have anything to send. The funniest thing is their web site showing my sons passport application in progress. Is anyone help to get my passport means I really appreciated

My daughter received a passport at 16. It was a childrens passport so only good for 5 years. She is a U.S. citizen and is now 25. I went to the office to apply for her "adult" passport. She has Down Syndrome and is in the lower functioning level. She could not understand and respond appropriately to the oath but the lady was kind and told us to come back to discuss it. She made a couple phone calls and was told to let my daughter sign but have me sign underneath.
3 weeks later we get notice her passport was denied. It was denied because I signed it and do not have conservatoire of my daughter. I am her legal parent. If I had not signed it there would not have been a problem. I was told to sign it. I called and the woman was very rude. I told her conservatoire is about $3, 000 and was not affordable. At this point there isn't much I can do so am trying to find a way to take this to court. To top it off, they still have her birth certificate and tell me my passport fee is not refundable. Really!

Our family vacation came and went, and Alex could not attend because of the broken Passport Service. I appreciate all that you have done. I am however, very upset with the lack of customer service that our government provides that we as citizens are expected to pay for, and in the case did not receive. I have not. at this point received ANY type of notification requesting more documentation or that any of his documentation is in question since we submitted the requested documentation on that the Houston Office had received on, since June 5, 2014, the initial application was April 14 2014. The last thing I heard from you was that the Chicago office has “questionable” documentation regarding the 2nd submission of documents, which most are attached, other than his bank statement, birth certificate, and social security card. It’s been over a week and I have heard nothing. Good, bad or indifferent. At this point, I consider the Passport Agency, as a fraud. They have taken my 150.00 and I have nothing. The there is the 1100.00 for the trip for my son that I lost as a result of the Passport Agency’s incompetence. I will be raising this issue to others, such as media, other government officials, etc. to at least have it be known that Federal Government Agency will take full advantage of people and show nothing in return as well as possible legal action. I do not mean for this to sound like threats to you, you and Ron Kind’s office has helped out tremendously and for that I am grateful. Thank you. I am sure that because of all the fuss that was raised on this passport, that the “In-Processing” will take even longer. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

v/r

Rory A. Deal

I applied for my passport in the beginning of March 2014. I had an out of state license that expired and had to get a CA license. They issued me a paper temporary license. The lady at the agency took a copy of the front and back of both forms of ID as well as my original birth certificate. I paid my fees and awaited my booklet in the mail. I have called twice about the status of my passport because I never received a letter or any updated information regarding my passport. No one in customer service was able to give me an update. All they could say is that its in processing. Honestly I don't know why they have a customer service department because they can't tell you anything. Totally incompetent. Such a waste. June 26th I finally receive a letter stating I was denied because I never submitted additional information that was requested. I never received this so called letter in March. I never received any notification until I received my denial letter today. Now they are expecting me to reapply and pay money all over again. The government is a joke.

we planned a trip to leave on christmas day for a trip to USVI and British VI for 10 days (with 14 others) and needed 4 out of 5 of our passports renewed. We made an appt for 12/17 and went to the agency in phila to have it processed. Because my one daughter was under 16, she needed an affidavit from my husband (who wasn't with us). While I had one, the processor objected to the notary's date of signature and my husband's date of signature being different. So, he said we had to resubmit it via email. It would be no problem. We resubmitted on tues. 12/18 via email. I rec'd 3 of the 4 passports on thurs 12/20. Great. but missing the one with the affadavit. I called, and you can only access the National Passport Agcy. They only had limited info on their "screen" that said it was in process. I called again Friday, and was told the same thing. I also emailed but rec'd no response. Still not rec'd on Sat. I panicked but thought I'd just go to Phila on Monday, Christmas Eve, and find out in person. Guess what...they were closed on Christmas Eve! Are you kidding me? And the phone calls to the Nat'l agency just became ridiculous. They had no info. We left on Christmas Day thinking that it may turn up on Wed. and my neighbor could fed ex it. We were due to go to Brit. VI on Sat. We NEVER got the passport. WE could NOT go to Brit VI as planned, wasting $4200. AND NO ONE could give us an answer. We rec'd the passport after we got home on 1/5. AND WE PAID $75 for EXPEDITED SERVICE! Totally unacceptable, And we are out $4200.

Sent my passport MONTHS in advance before my travel for extra visa pages. Because I live overseas, they said they would send the processed passport to my mother's address 8my emergency contact). But, the passport NEVER arrived. I called many times over the course of a month up until one week before my travel date. I heard every excuse in the book: "Our system is down. We can't check the status of your application." "We can't check applications that have foreign addresses." "Give us your mother's address one more time and we'll forward the information." I had given them my mother's address three times already. When I pleaded with them and told them I was due to leave in just a few days, they basically scoffed that there was "nothing they could do" and that it was MY fault for "having a foreign address." The site is horrible; it states that they answer all e-mails within 24 hours, and not one of my many e-mails was answered. They were efficient enough to cash my check and get my money, though! I had to go to my local Embassy and get an emergency passport for a couple hundred dollars. DO NOT TRUST this agency with your passport!

I have applied for my passport on feb. 16, 2011. After I finalized my travel date and still haven't received my passport I decided to expedite it (which takes "2-3" weeks) only because the CSR at the passport agency assured me I would have it by Friday, March 4, 2011. Now it is march 7, 2011 and I still do not have my passport in hand. My flight is TOMORROW! (March 8, 2011) which I ended up changing the date to after it didn't reach me on Friday because my flight was originally on Sunday (March 6, 2011).
I have been contacting the passport office everyday non-stop and all they can do is notify the agency I swear I have sent them about 30 e-mails and NO REPLY. This is ###, I am absolutely pissed. They do not care and if u ask me, I do not think they are trying their best to help me, they are just giving me the run around and it is just unacceptable. They need to fix this!

While the US passport agency and all of their information says that an original state birth certificate is enough to get a passport, it seems that the rules have changed. I am now having to prove that my son was born in the US, even though his birth certificate clearly states it, because he was born at our home. Our midwife went through the proper channels to get his Utah birth certificate, I have had it for almost 2 years (he is turning 2 in September), but after I sent off his passport application, I received a letter from the US Department of State requesting additional proof of citizenship: "You were not born in a medical facility, so you will need to submit a combination of additional documents of additional documents to further support your claim to United States citizenship."

Not only were my husband and I born in the US, have owned our current home for over three years (this is the address of birth on his birth certificate), and have a valid birth certificate proving my son's birth, I now have to prove it in other ways. This must be some brand new rule, as a friend of mine received her daughter's passport (also born at home about a year ago, and my friend even lived out of the country for the previous 8 years), ordered her passport and had to provide no extra proof of her daughter's citizenship.

I ordered my passport at the US Post office, expedited service in March of 2009. I provided my driver license and my birth certificate as required on the form along with a copy of my driver license. A month later I received a letter asking me to provide 5 other documents proving my identity along with all my addresses i have ever lived in, every job I ever held, all the schools I attended and friends and relatives information. I provided all of this priority mail. next month I received another letter stating that the information the received was not enough and they were requesting copies of school records. I mailed this information again. To date they have not responded. When I call the general phone number I am told that my application is pending...Since March and we are not in Sept... It reminds me of a sticker I saw on a car the other day. It said, "You can trust the Government. Just ask me. I'm a Native American. I am not a Native American but I am a Hispanic who was born in this country as a citizen and now feel my country is discriminating against me. I understand the need for strict guidelines since 9/11 but after all I have provided, this is ridiculous. Especially since my brother and brother in law both risked their lives for this country fighting in Iraq.

I applied for my passport on June 25 and they told me I would receive it in 2 weeks since I expedited it and paid for overnight express mail. I am supposed to leave on Tuesday July 17th to Italy and they told me it is still processing and there is nothing they can do it is up to the agency to get it to me by then although they are aware that I have tickets to leave on the 17th.

On the phone they tell me it could take up to 4 weeks or more for expedited service when the website clearly states "2-3 weeks"! This is false advertisement and is totally unacceptable and along with that there is 45 minute wait times to speak to so-called customer service representatives who all seem to have an attitude problem and do little to help you! The best they could do is send and e-mail to the agency stating that I need to leave on a certain date. This e-mail is probably ignored anyways since I've emailed them also and never received a response. Also apparently their phone system is rigged because many times I have to call several times to even get the option to be placed on hold to speak to a CSR, most of the times it says your call cannot be completed because all CSR's are busy and then disconnects your call. For 2 days straight I called and was told after waiting 50 minutes on hold both times that their systems are down and they would not be able to do passport lookups.

The US Passport Agency is a perfect example of BAD BUSINESS. False claims, unacceptable practices.

I applied for two passports for my kids in March/07. It is now July 07 and I am flying in 7 days to Ecuador. Why does the Government makes this rules and policies that it will arrive in 10-12 weeks if its taking them so long to processed. They need to stop funding the War and start paying people to work to get this job done. I am really frustrated that I paid $ 3,000 on a trip with my family. This will be the only vacation we will be taking for years to come as a family. Why do they have ruin my trip! If I don't get my passport in time, i will take any necessary legal actions to sue the US Government. This is not fair!

I became victim like so many people due to underestimation of government regarding passport applications. They new what is going to happened ones when they decide to ask for passport for travel to Canada or Mexico via airplane which they dropped last week due to mess they created. Now here I am with bunch of American Citizens with loss of about $2000.00 due to cancellation and trip I made to Passport Agency in Los Angeles with no help at all. My story is alike many others: calling passport agency every day for about month and after waiting for long, long time to talk to live person I got costumer representative that gives me no information’s at all. That is very sad that they hired people with no knowledge of their job descriptions. Since I did not know what to do I asked them for advice. Every one of them gave me different one so I figure very quickly that there are no rules, they don't know either. Their web site is a joke I followed every single step from that web site and still no passport. Just bunch of lies. I hope someone can help us to get our money and emotional loss back, or at least stop this mess so no more people get trough this.

Like many others, I think the passport agency is doing a horrible job. Me and my fiance applied Feb. 23rd for our passports at our local post office. At that time, we were told it would take 6-8 weeks to get our passports. We had scheduled and paid for a week vacation in Mexico at the end of May. 15 days before the day of departure I wasted 3 hours trying to get through to the 1-877 number, and finally when I got through, they told me to call back the next day because they can only help people leaving in 14 days. When I finally got ahold of them 3 days later,(having called with no luck that whole time) they told me not to worry they will be there in a few days. Days passed and now it is less that 3 days until we leave. I finally get ahold of an "agent" as they call themselves, and she told me it was almost done, and it would be overnighted this night, and I should have it in 1 day, 2 at the most. So I believed her, but the days went by and Friday came with no passports... then Saturday passed. Our flight was leaving at 5:30 am on Monday morning. Sunday I finally got through again and they told me that they sent them to us on Friday. The woman explained to me that they will be here Wednesday at the earliest, 2 days after we were supposed to leave. I got very irritated and asked to speak to a supervisor and she hung up on me. Needless to say, we didn't get to go on our trip. I was so mad. They had WAY more than the time stated to get these done. Any company doing such bad business would be OUT of business. The fact is they simply DO NOT care if you miss your trip or not. They are the only ones to get a passport from and they know it. They are in absolutely no hurry. This is bull and I can't believe they are doing it to so many people. My advice, apply VERY early... like 6-8 months at least. Then when you get screwed out of your trip and money, write your congressman/representative and let them know about it.