Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Passports taking longer than anticipated

LUCY55

By LUCY55,
in Princess Cruises

Recommended Posts

LUCY55

LUCY55

Posted
Posted

Just a heads up. Applied for two passports-15 and 18 year old sons. Although one came in 6-weeks the other one is going to take about 9-weeks. Just because they say 6 weeks at application doesn't mean it won't take longer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nomars_girl

nomars_girl

Posted
Posted

I think with the new travel rules that went into effect in January, you will see that it is taking longer to get passports since people who never needed them before now find that they have to have them to travel by air. My company recently required that anyone in the US or Canada who travels on company business must have a valid passport.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
sissy f

sissy f

Posted
Posted

go to http://www.travel.state.gov & follow prompts to check online status. I applied on 1/5 & my expected time is due approx 2/28. However 2 of my adult children applied on 2/5 & it states that it has not bee processed yet. I am concerned now that they may not receive the passport before our Apr 7 sailing & the state also has their original birth certificate. I guess my Plan will be that I will need to go to county of their birth if I dont receive passport & get another original birth certificate to travel as I understand that we don't have to have the passport actually to cruise as we are leaving out of Florida. I tried, but now with everyone applying the time of receiving this is now at approx 8 weeks. Just heads up for others.

Cindy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Julia’s Journey’s

Julia’s Journey’s

Posted
Posted

DH pulled the kids passports out the safe last week for some unknown reason and looked at them and EEEK they expire in March and April 2008 and we are sailing September 2007 to Australia so I need to get them new ones (don't think they renew the kids) as they need to be valid for 6 months after our trip ends.:eek: :eek: :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruisin' Chick

Cruisin' Chick

Posted
Posted

When we went to renew our little one's passport back in Sept. '05, the clerk at the post office said that timing is important. If you apply when it's a quiet time, you'll get 'em quicker (which happened to us in this case, just a few weeks and without paying any expedition fees) and if you go when everyone else is applying/renewing for an upcoming vacation, it takes longer. I guess the thing to do is check out your expirations every so often and put through the paperwork when needed, even if you don't have a cruise scheduled.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Crown Prince

Crown Prince

Posted
Posted

HI, JULIA,

Since our Sun cruise ends on 24 October, your children's passports need to be renewed because the rule is (and I am sure that YOU do know this):

"Passports must be valid for six months AFTER the end of the cruise (not the start of the cruise)".

So, for our cruise, that would be 28 April 2008. Better start the process now. My grandson finally got his 10-year pp. He turned 18 in December. :( The do grow up too fast.

You won't have to pay the extra dollars to expedite by applying now.

Cheers

Kathy's SiS :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
LUCY55

LUCY55

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I got worried because I couldn't even pull up a record (on-line) as to the status of my one son's application. I had to call and after being on hold for close to 20 minutes I got a person. Apparently someone (I do not believe it was me) entered his SS# with a wrong digit. The last 4 digits of SS# is required to pull up the status of the application. By using the wrong number I can get the status of his application and an expected date of March 3. We applied December 28. Good thing the cruise isn't until March 24. Obviously they also have his original birth certificate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pg.

pg.

Posted
Posted

Well for once, ,I can honestly say, thank your lucky stars your're not Canadain!

Our passport system is so clogged right now, that when I went to apply for passports for my kids, I arrived at 6 am, and was 98th in line. They can only do 200 applications a day apparently , so I waited in line , outside on the sidewalk , with 200 people for 6 and a half hours , before I even got up into the offices. I then waited another hour!

Paying the expediated fee, I still will not be able to pick up their passports till March 13th, we leave on March 17th. !

We have no other choice either, Canadains cannot travel with birth certificate into the Caribbean.

They say they can only handle about 1500 applications a day, but, ,are getting 2100, and the extra staff they hired still can't keep up as passports are processed by only one special print machine( like money) and it is already running 24 hrs a day!!!!!!!

My nerves are shot.

Oh, normally a passport takes 10 days for pick up, we will be at 35. By mail it is running 4 to 6 weeks, but media has reports of people waiting much longer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Pam in CA

Pam in CA

Posted
Posted

It's been pretty much a given and general knowledge for over a year that when the new regulations went into effect, that there would be substantial delays of weeks, if not months. Even though people were given plenty of warning, most put it off or didn't think of it until it's almost too late. I'm not at all surprised that you're experiencing a delay. I would have expected it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pg.

pg.

Posted
Posted

Pam we have an RV, and boat, so we camp and travel around our country with our three kids every summer for three weeks , plus assorted weekends. We have never taken the all our kids on a cruise , or overseas, because we could never afford five full airfares( there is no discounts for kids) and then two cabins , one double and one triple. This trip alone is as exspensive as our boat.

We only very recently came into a situation that gave us a small windfall, so I impulsively decided I wanted to take my kids cruising. Hubby and I have gone 4 times , 3 times without them, and once when we only had two ( over 14 yrs ago) we took the baby( no airfare) and a almost two yr old( again no airfare, and the cruise just charged us port charges for the baby) , who at that time you could just put on your passport, or use a birth certificate.

 

So there was no reason for me to think they needed passports. We don't go to the States as a family because your dollar is worth alot more then ours, and frankly , we have such a beautiful province with hundreds of great lakes for water sports, it would never make sense. We do not live on the mainland, we live on a island, so its not like we could just drive over the border for cheese or gas, LOL.

 

As I said, it was a windfall, and an impulsive desicion to do something we had never really done before.

Last time I got my passport it took me ten days.

I had no idea it was so messed up. No one realized how bad it would be, plus, panic has set in and people who aren't travelling until the fall are in those darn line ups too( they must be crazy , LOL )

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wdrl

wdrl

Posted
Posted

We renewed our passports via mail on January 2 and received them back 42 days later. The website for the Dept of State indicated that they had them and later indicated that they were in the mail. We didn't need our passports until early May but my DH was really worried about not getting them back in time so we renewed early. Apologies to those of you who need them ASAP since we helped to slow down the system.

 

Here's the link.

 

http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/status/status_2567.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cusyl

cusyl

Posted
Posted

I've checked the status of our renewal online a few times. Originally it said March 3rd, next time March 4th. Now it says March 5th.

They apparently are overwhelmed at this point. I don't need mine until July, but I would suggest that on the application when it asks your expected date of travel, that you move that answer up by a month at least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...