Sourced from NYT | July 16, 2022 by Debra Kamin

Get Ready For Yet Another Travelling Pain Point

If you urgently need a new or updated passport, brace yourself because options have narrowed and it's probably going to cost you.

This summer is proving to be a real headache for travelers and vacationers. Airfares are surging, checked bags are disappearing, and flights are being canceled at a staggering rate. On top of all that, if you need a passport, it's going to cost you.

Just like the prices of gas and groceries, the cost of getting a passport has also gone up. As of January, a first-time adult passport now costs $165 including a $35 acceptance fee, a renewed adult passport costs $130, and a passport for a minor cost a total of $135. Each is an increase of $20 over 2021 prices.

motion graphic of airline pilot saluting us with a smile

Month long delays and a severe shortage of in person appointments have plagued passport applicants since the beginning of the pandemic. For more than two years now, wait times are still longer than before the pandemic, and for those needing a passport in five weeks or less, solutions are more limited now than ever.

The only way to obtain a same day passport for emergency travel was eliminated last summer following reports of scammers using bots to stockpile and resell appointments. Those with urgent travel needs are now consigned to spending longer wait times on the phone attempting to secure a spot. And you can only book an appointment if you have proof of imminent travel within 14 days, although even the appointment itself must occur within three business days of your departure.

Even when an appointment can be secured, there is no guarantee that it's in the same city or even the same state as the applicant, forcing those in need of travel documents to fly or drive several hours away just to get their passport on time. YIKES.

For applicants who take the more traditional route and apply for a renewal or a new passport directly through the U.S. State Department’s routine passport service, which historically has taken as few as six weeks, is now taking between 8-11 weeks.

Rushed service, which costs an additional $60 and took anywhere from a few days to three weeks before COVID-19, is currently running between five and seven weeks.

For some Americans who have booked summer travel, the passport imbroglio is costing them money and time. And Americans should not risk going abroad with a passport that will expire soon either.

An emergency measure allowing U.S. citizens to return home on an expired passport, enacted last year after reports of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens getting stranded abroad, was allowed to lapse in late June.