Passport backlog slows hundreds of travelers

If you're planning a trip that requires a passport plan on a long wait
By Connie Thompson
KOMOTV.COM

If you're planning a trip that requires a passport and you don't already have one, plan on a long wait - as long as two months!

Hundreds of people face the threat of having to cancel their trips because their passports are not ready. "They told me it would be six weeks," said one traveler, Kelly Sanchez.

I first met Kelly Sanchez at Sea-Tac Airport on March 16th after she'd contacted the Passport Services Office for the fourth time. She was originally told her family's passports would take six weeks. But when she tried to track the progress, the passports were not even in the system. "So much time has passed. My checks have cleared. Why can't I track my passport?" she said.

As other passengers at Sea-Tac were getting ready to catch their flights, Kelly's emotions were nearing the boiling point. Here's what she says the passport office told her when even they could not track her passport: "If I don't have it in the system by the 30th, I should probably start making decisions to cancel my trip," she recalled being told.

Kelly is trapped in the 'Never Never Land' of passport backlog. She's holding $2,000 worth of tickets for her family's trip to Mexico with a departure date of April 10th.

Right now, the passport office is getting an estimated one million calls per week. The stated processing time for normal processing is currently 10 weeks. The processing time for an expedited passport is about one week. See: Passport backlog slows hundreds of travelers KOMO-TV - Seattle ...