My Barbados Blog

No matter what you hear or read, here's the truth about the current state of processing US passports . . . Linda

The State Department is being forced to take steps to improve passport services, however in reality officials do not think they will get back to the regular processing of of 6 weeks until the end of this year.

Although the telephone equipment has been upgraded at the National Passport Information Center, the center has been receiving an average of up to 800,000 calls per day.

During the last two weeks that average call per day will have to be adjusted because the system literally shut down with 2.5 million calls - and 80% of the callers obviously did not get through with this overload on the system.

To improve the service, the National Passport Information Center has expanded telephone service from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Even with the expanded hours, travelers are reporting a long wait time.

Travelers attempting to contact the passport center by e-mail have fared no better in recent weeks. The center says they are answering on a first come, first serve basis with a 24 hour turn around with up to 9,000 responses daily.

In truth e-mails have a turn around of up to four days. Currently officials are working on a system that will automate e-mail replies. What that means is that you will get an automated reply stating that your e-mail has been received, and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Through this process we will keep our travel clients, blog readers and website visitors informed about passport processing, and any new changes to the passport laws via our agency website, and also posts to our blogs. 

http://www.travel2thecaribbean.com/CaribbeanPassportRequirements.html