US passport processing times back to pre-pandemic norms, State Department says

Processing times for U.S. passports have returned to pre-pandemic norms, according to the State Department.

Applications will once again be processed within six to eight weeks for routine service. For expedited service, it will take between two and three weeks and cost an additional $60. 

"We have fulfilled our commitment to return to benchmarks from March 2020," the department said in a statement Monday.

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In October, processing times fell slightly to eight to 11 weeks for routine service and five to seven weeks for expedited service after climbing as high as 10 to 13 weeks for routine service and seven to nine for expedited service earlier this year. 

The department started facing issues two years ago when travel surged as the world reopened its borders and eased up on COVID-19 measures. In 2021, the department was so inundated that processing times reached as high as 18 weeks for regular passports and 12 weeks for expedited ones. 

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When Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about the delays in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in March 2023, he explained that there was still "an unprecedented demand for renewed travel." 

Blinked said that during the pandemic, "the bottom basically dropped out of the system" at the department for handling both passports and visas due to travel demand plummeting, and that the agency was still rebuilding while trying to keep up with the enormous surge in demand.

To put it in perspective, he noted that the agency had received roughly 500,000 passport applications a week, which was a 30% to 40% increase from last year.

Between October 2022 and September 2023, the federal fiscal year, the department issued more than 24 million passport books and cards, the highest figure in history. 

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"We have worked hard to modernize and improve the service we provide to the American people," the department said Monday. "We will continue to do so in 2024."

Today, over 160 million valid U.S. passports are in circulation, which is nearly double the amount from 2007. 

FOX Business' Breck Dumas contributed to this report.