In 2022, the United States Department of State processed 22 million passports - more than any time before. And a spokesperson from the department said they are on track to break that record in 2023.
Michael Orzechowski is the vice president for strategic partnerships with Rush My Passport - a passport expediting service provided by FedEx. He said his company saw an uptick in demand when COVID-19 travel restrictions began to lift.
"Over the last year, especially coming out of COVID, we’ve seen a really big spike in demand for our services," Orzechowski said.
And this year he said the company had to triple its support staff just to meet that increased demand.
The spike has also meant abnormally long wait times for passport processing. According to the state department, it takes 10 to 13 weeks for routine processing and seven to nine weeks for expedited service. Though, Orzechowski said those timelines can be a little misleading too.
"What a lot of people do not realize is that does not include mail time on the front end and on the back end,” Orzechowski said. “So now you’re talking up to 17 weeks in order to obtain a passport.”
The State Department did roll out an online passport renewal service earlier this year, but shut it down after a number of issues- a spokesperson for the department said through email that the online service was closed to work out technical problems and has not contributed to the backlog. They said the site is expected to be back up by the end of this year.
Orzechowski, though, believes the real bottleneck stems from the pandemic - when travel restrictions were implemented in 2020 applications for first time and renewed passports dropped off, and the passport centers halted processing new passports, and some even cut staff. Now the centers are trying to catch back up.
Brian Poepsel is the assistant director of study abroad at the University of Arkansas and he said getting students to prepare necessary documents to secure a passport has always been challenging, but the backlog has only made that process worse.
"We used to think of it as part of the process of planning to study abroad because most students are getting their first passport, but really it needs to be the first step in the process now," Poepsel said.
The University of Arkansas is among the top 40 institutions that facilitates international student travel, according to a 2022 state department report. During the 2021-22 academic year the University sent 904 students to 36 countries.
"This past academic year, we increased sending by 11% over our previous record, pre-COVID,” Poepsel said.
He said the office has seen more students needing expedited and emergency passports in 2023.
"And that involves waiting on hold for hours to try to get a person to talk to you to schedule an appointment,” Poepsel said.
Luckily for Arkansas travelers, the state is home to one of nation’s 26 passport offices.
The Hot Springs passport office, which opened in 2007, was the country's largest passport processing facility, working through more than 100,000 applications a week, according to records from the state department. The facility opened at another time when passport applications were surging and the agency was looking to expand production.
Jay Chesshir, worked for the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce in the early 2000s and helped to land the passport office for the city. While trying to build a technology park close to the Hot Springs airport, the development board received a $1 million loan to put up a building there. Chesshir said they were marketing the facility to local companies when he got an offer from a site-selection firm.
"We then found out it was the company that the state department contracted with to do the passport process,” Chesshir said.
In 2010 the office opened public counters to process same-day, emergency passports. Chesshir said that has brought more people to the state and to Hot Springs, but most Arkansans don't often know about it.
"It’s not something that’s well marketed,” Chesshir said. "But at the same time… we have people that are flying in all of the time to drive over there and have their process expedited.”
But the backlog has seen more travelers scrambling to Arkansas to get their passport - in fact back in 2021 NPR's Global Health Correspondent Jason Beaubien found himself waiting around in Hot Springs.
"And when I get to the office, the security guards are mentioning that people are coming from all over the country to Arkansas,” Beaubien said during theJune 3, 2021 news report. “They’re even recommending barbecue places that you can go nearby while you’re waiting.”
Appointments for the emergency service are made over the phone for people who have urgent travel in the next 14 days and assigned based on availability, not necessarily location.
So the state department urges people to plan further ahead than usual.
"Thirty percent of all applications get suspended,” Orzechowski said. “Because they’re either filled out incorrectly, they’re missing something, they didn’t sign something, the passport photo is incompliant or, in many cases, they pay the wrong amount.”
New passports must be submittedin person to a certified acceptance facility - this includes post offices, county clerks offices, public libraries and other local government offices. Renewal applications can be filled out and submitted through the mail for passports that were issued within the last 15 years. The cost for a new passport book is $130 and the fee to expedite a passport is $60.
The State Department also encourages travelers to double check the expiration dates on their passport. Most countries require the passport to be valid for at least 6 months before the expiration date to enter.
