US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that the State Department is facing “unprecedented demand” for passports, and that it has increased staff and resources to address this situation.
Blinken said the current waiting time for a regular passport is “about 10 to 13 weeks, and for an expedited passport about seven to nine weeks.”
The State Department “receives 500,000 passport applications a week,” which is 30 to 40% more applicants than last year, Blinken told a House Appropriations Subcommittee budget hearing.
Historically, the demand has been cyclical, with the high season running from March to the end of summer. Now we work full time,” he explained.
“We’re hiring to increase adjudication capacity and make sure that … we’ve got customer service, we’ve got the phone lines answered, we’ve got more people on hold, and that’s also reflected in the budget. It’s very important,” he said. .
The head of US diplomacy said he created “a task force at headquarters to bring all these efforts together, so we’re really working on it.”
