She calls the toll-free number every day, holds for as much as 90 minutes to be told - at best - that she might be able to get a required appointment at passport offices in other states. “My nerves are shot, because I may not be able to get to him,” she said. Read More: What to Do When Your Travel Plans Go South Failure to obtain the family’s passports would mean losing $4,000, she said, as well as the chance to meet one of her sons in Italy after a study-abroad semester. “We’ll still be okay,” she thought.Īt T-minus two weeks to travel, this was her assessment: “I can’t sleep.” This after months of calling, holding, pressing refresh on a website, trying her member of Congress - and stressing as the departure date loomed. Then the State Department upped the wait time for a regular passport to as much as 13 weeks. “Plenty of time,” Collier recalled thinking. They’d have their passports a month before they needed them.

The clerk, she said, estimated wait times at eight to 11 weeks. It was early March when Dallas-area florist Ginger Collier applied for four passports ahead of a family vacation at the end of June. ‘Plenty of time’ to ‘we’ll still be OK’ to big problems passport, prepare for an unplanned excursion into the nightmare zone. So, 2023 traveler, if you still need a valid U.S.

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