The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Murphy urges action on passport delays
Hundreds of Connecticut residents have reached out to the office of U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy recently, seeking to remedy a problem plaguing millions of Americans: a backlog in processing applications for new passports and renewals.
This week Murphy, D-Conn., pressed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to expedite the backlog, which has reportedly reached 2 million pending applications.
Processing times are up to 18 weeks for routine applications and 12 weeks for expedited requests, throwing many Americans into a frenzy over whether they will be able to keep their long-awaited overseas travel plans. The traditional turnaround time was about six to eight weeks.
The state department attributed the delay to an added workload due to staffing shortages and a renewed demand for international travel. The department recently announced plans to hire additional staff to address the pileup in applications.
A Facebook group for Americans struggling with passport and visa issues has thousands of
posts from people sharing stories of waiting months for their applications to be processed, and spending hours on hold, or refreshing their internet browsers, as they try to track down their application status or make appointments.
Some have posted about driving or even flying far distances to get in-person appointments at passport centers. Others have offered to swap appointment dates.
Since March 1, Murphy’s office has worked on 330 passport cases — compared to the nine cases it handled between March 1 and July 19 last year, when overseas travel came to a near standstill.
The senator joined a growing number of members of Congress who are urging the U.S. Department of State to speed up the process, asking Blinken in a letter this week for the department’s strategy to address the backlog, a timeline for hiring more staff and an accounting of any additional resources needed.
“I understand the financial and personnel strains the pandemic has placed on the Bureau of Consular Affairs in particular, and the challenges of meeting the surge in demand for passport services as more Americans are beginning to travel again,” Murphy said in the letter.
“However, current wait times for passport appointments and processing have led to a backlog of nearly two million applications as current staffing and resource capacities have proven unable to meet the demand.”
Current wait-times “well exceed pre-pandemic levels,” he said, and “are untenable for Americans seeking to resume international travel and reconnect with friends and loved ones abroad.”