US STATE DEPT ‘SURGING’ STAFFING TO COPE WITH BACKLOG OF UP TO 2 MILLION PASSPORT

Thu 15 July 2021:

Between 1.5 and 2 million passport applications are in backlog as the US State Department is surging staff to decrease the processing times to pre-coronavirs pandemic levels, Bureau of Consular Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services Rachel Arndt said on Wednesday.

“The pandemics disruptions continue to have a ripple effect on all steps of the passport process, including the amount of time it currently takes us to process a passport application.

We are surging staff both adjudicators and contractors back into the office at agencies across the country as COVID-19 restrictions,” Arendt said during a press briefing. “Our backlog currently is somewhere in the range of a million and a half to two million applications.”

Arendt noted that it will take time for the current wait times of 12 to 18 weeks to fall to pre-pandemic levels, which means that citizens who submit new passport applications today will not get their new passport until late in the fall.

More than 150 passport services staffers will be returning this summer to 21 offices across the United States, Arendt said.

The processing times were greatly affected by the pandemic since passport specialists need to be physically in the office to process the passport and that was impossible dues to the COVID-19 restrictions that lasted more than a year, Arendt added.

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