WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) - Just in time for your 2024 travel plans, the State Department says passport processing times are back to normal. This comes after months of stressful delays that ruined international trips for tons of summer travelers.
A surge of post-pandemic travel led to record requests for passports this year and the U.S. State Department struggled to handle the demand.
Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) says his office was overwhelmed with complaints from frustrated travelers whose plans were snarled by costly passport delays. Some wait times for passports were as long as three months.
"It was chaos," Warner said.
But now, the State Department says it's back on schedule and routing passport processing takes just 6 to 8 weeks.
"The State Department has really worked diligently. They worked a lot of overtime hours to catch up. They processed over like 24 million passports," AAA Senior VP of travel Paula Twidale said.
Twidale says that's significant as international travel is only gaining in popularity. According to the State Department, in 1990 only 5% of Americans had passports, but now it's nearly half the country.
"Clearly we have seen international travel grow and it has sustained its growth for the past couple of decades," Twidale said.
Passport processing could improve even further when the State Department restarts its online passport renewal system.
"They did that as a test this year. They paused it because of the backlog, but I think you're going to see it open up again to help facilitate that process for people who are getting a passport," Twidale said.
That online system is expected to be available early next year. Sen. Warner predicts it will make a difference in processing times.
"It's dropped precipitously, and I expect even better results first quarter of '24 when the online portal goes live," Warner said.
For now, the State Department recommends planning well ahead of your next international trip.