The US State Department is gradually and carefully reopening the passport agencies and centers. This means that passports will begin to be processed in faster times than before! Here is the latest list of Passport agencies that have moved into the new phases.
More Passport Agencies Are Reopening
Link: List of Passport Agencies are Their Statuses
As of today, August 24, here are the new changes that just happened:
- Atlanta – Reopened in Phase One
- Seattle – Reopened in Phase One
This is the first of three phases and there are three other agencies that have moved into Phase Two:
- Colorado – Moved to Phase Two
- New Orleans – Moved to Phase Two
- Philadelphia – Moved to Phase Two
This leaves just six agencies that have not opened as of yet. Here is what the different passport phases of opening mean for you.
So, with 5 agency changes, it means passports will be processed even quicker than before – watch for a post coming soon that shows the latest numbers!
Here is what happens for a US passport when it is submitted.
Wait? “Good News” or still the Bad News? None of the Phase Two agencies from early July have moved to be a Phase Three — even after a month and a half. Yes, the State Department finally got the backlog from 1.8 million to 923,000 as of last Thursday. BUT, they also have said that a “normal” backlog (formerly known as the amount of time you used to wait for a mail-in) is six to eight weeks. Well, guess what? The 923,000 is about a six-to-eight week pile, given their (travel.state.gov) summer numbers:
Appl received Passports Awaiting Issuance Passports Issued
6/10/2020 92,000 1,760,000 38,000
6/17/2020 120,000 1,720,000 154,000
6/24/2020 134,000 1,610,000 187,000
7/1/2020 133,000 1,510,000 236,999
7/8/2020 112,000 1,430,000 188,000
7/15/2020 124,000 1,310,000 274,000
7/22/2020 143,000 1,230,000 198,000
7/29/2020 143,000 1,150,000 206,000
8/5/2020 139,000 1,060,000 213,000
8/12/2020 151,000 968,000 235,000
8/19/2020 143,000 923,000 209,000
So why isn’t expedited put back into service? And why the only exception still being “life or death”? There are plenty of people who didn’t want to risk putting their book on the pandemic pile and having to wait to December?
Something doesn’t add up with the Agency right now, and it’s starting to sound like it’s a junior Post Office soap opera in the making . . .
While this is all federal, these agencies also have to go by the alerts and managements at the state and local levels, since it is where they are located. I agree that I would have thought at least some would have moved to Phase Three but Phase Three is also the biggest step since it introduces outside people into the mix again.
Yes, they are at normal levels now but with the recent changes to 5 agencies, these numbers should ramp up quickly. I think we will soon see the expedited restrictions relax a bit but Americans are not able to travel to a majority of the countries in the world right now so they are probably figuring that it may not be that big of a rush for most. We will see – I think once summer is over, we will see it go to Phase Three for many.
I’m still waiting on mine, I called their information number and they told me which processing office my application is in, my application was revived on June 6th according to them, I see that as of 6/10/2020 they had 1.7 million applications to process. To date they have process over that number, and yet, I have not received mine. When I called on 8/20/2020 that my application is in the Charleston office which they barely open on 8/17/2020. I hope their backlog in that office does not go back to March. I do have an early September travel date.