Passport Renewal

[ravenrob]

My DW had to have her passport renewed before we leave on the Mariner in June. I renewed her passport by mail and sent it in on or about January 25. I kept checking the US Passport Service website to see when her new one would arrive. The website never reported her passport as being processed when I knew they were processing it because my check was cashed about a month ago. I finally sent them an e-mail last week to inquire on the status of it and they replied that it was being processed. They also said to check back later.

 

Low and behold, guess what showed up in our mailbox this afternoon??? You guessed it. Her new passport. Another fine display of our government at its best.

 

I am waiting for my DD and DS's passports next. I did theirs right before this fine government changed the deadline to next year. I am not even going to check the website because I have no faith in this terrible Passport system.

[ravenrob]

Sorry all this is a double post.

[TRadle]

The Passport office had a disclaimer type article that came up when I did my renewal. They said they take your money right away through electronic processing and that the tracking is a couple of weeks behind the processing. I can’t figure out why the tracking would be behind the processing. Maybe after they mail the Passport someone updates the tracking status to in-process. :rolleyes:

[mollyeilis]

You got the passport renewed in about 8 weeks. Sounds like a good PASSPORT system.

 

What is bad is the ridiculous, but I'm sure well-intentioned, tracking system they tried to set up. Even UPS, at least of a couple years ago, stated outright that the tracking is a BONUS, what you're paying for is the delivery and not the minute-to-minute details of where it is...scanning things, entering info into the computer, all that takes TIME. Precious time that detracts from the package progress, and to the point of the thread, the more timely passport processing...

 

I think they should dump the online tracking until they can get THAT together, so that people can just keep the 8+ weeks in mind (and I know that now it's more + than 8 weeks) and leave the website processing info alone!