Wait for US passports is creating travel purgatory, snarling summer plans
Seeking a valid US passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveller, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport.
A much-feared backup of US passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels with too few humans to handle the load.
The result, say aspiring travellers in the US and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty.
With family dreams and big money on the line, passport seekers describe a slow-motion agony of waiting, worrying, holding the line, refreshing the screen, complaining to Congress, paying extra fees and following incorrect directions. Some applicants are buying additional plane tickets to snag in-process passports where they sit in other cities in time to make the flights they booked in the first place.
So grim is the outlook that US officials aren't even denying the problem or predicting when