US Passport Processing Update: Back to Normal “Busy” Levels

Last week, the US State Department pushed the number of waiting passports even lower below the big one million number. Even better is that the average summer numbers of passports being processed is over one million so they are actually doing a very good job!

US Passport Processing Update

Remember, they are processing them a first come/first out basis. To understand how the whole passport processing is accomplished (as well as where your passport is sent), check out this post for a cool infographic to break it all down.

Here is how the State Department did in the last week, as well as the two previous weeks:

Somewhat surprisingly is that the number of passports received actually dropped from the previous week. I am not sure if that is due to a settling realization that international travel is really not going to be a thing in 2020 or if people are just not in a hurry anymore to get them back.

The good thing is that this is yet another week of at least 65,000 net passports being issued, meaning the number of issued passports agains the number of applications received. But, keep in mind that these numbers would also indicate that passports sent in now could take around/at least two months to be issued – if everything stays as it is now.

The good news is that this is what the State Department says about the numbers “In prior years, the average number of passport applications in process during our busy season has routinely exceeded 1 million.”

So, we are basically looking at waiting times that are typical to busy seasons – and that is if these agencies do not proceed to Phase Two or Three of their efforts to get back to full movement.

What Are the Three Phases of Passport Operations?

Getting Your Passport Status and Update

Here is what you need to do, per the US State Department:

Status updates are available online or by calling us at 1-877-487-2778. You can go to our Online Passport Status System and sign up for automatic email notifications about your passport status.

You will receive an email when your passport is 1) In Process: your application is being reviewed at a passport agency or center, 2) Approved: your application has been approved and will be printed, and 3) Mailed.

If you receive a status update of Not Found, your application is still in transit to one of our agencies and centers or we are experiencing a temporary, technical issue with our Online Passport Status System.