If you need a passport or need to renew your passport, expect the process to take longer than usual. The coronavirus pandemic meant the U.S. State Department had to significantly slow its passport operations. But things are starting to reopen.
To minimize the spread of COVID-19, the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs went into lockdown and temporarily suspended its passport operations in March. But as of last week, nearly 30 passport agencies and centers are reopening in phases across the country.
That’s the good news. The bad news is the agency has a lot of passports to issue. Most recently, there were 944,000 passports awaiting issuance, according to the bureau’s website. It was, however, able to make some progress, issuing 129,000 passports between Sept. 4 and Sept. 10.
