A Record Week For U.S. Passports

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Associated Press
Tuesday, April 3, 2007

The State Department said yesterday that it is cranking out U.S. passports in historically high numbers to meet an unprecedented surge in demand caused by tough new immigration rules.

Last week it issued a record 412,000 passports, breaking a week-old mark of 379,000, the department said in a statement.

A boost in staffing and overtime and weekend hours at the 17 passport agencies has reduced processing delays, it said.

Expedited applications, which require an additional fee, will now again be processed in two weeks, down from four at the height of the crisis. Standard applications will still take 10 weeks, the department said.

In March, the department warned that a crush of new passport applicants -- more than 1 million a month -- had inundated its staff and caused extended delays at the peak of the January-to-April season.

The surge was made worse by a new regulation that took effect this year requiring Americans to have passports when traveling by air to any country.

Applications between last October and March rose 44 percent over the same period in 2005-2006, according to the State Department, which said it expected to process about 17 million passports in 2007.