If you can afford it, I highly recommend a passport expediting company. It is $250 extra. For my DS, since someone needs to witness you sign the form and accept the materials, we just did a walk in appointment at MLK library in D.C. where there is a State Dept Passport desk - they took the photo there for us for $15 and charged a $35 processing fee. They can accept your forms and other documents and send for processing (where you have to wait weeks) or they can hand everything back to you in a sealed envelope and you send to the expedite company which guarantees your passport within 5-7 days. We are not flying until August but did not want to deal with the hassle. While we could have tried to get an appointment within 2 weeks of travel, we didn't want to risk it and also didn't want to take DS out of camp for the day and both of us miss work. The extra $250 is totally worth it! You still pay the State Dept expedite fee, but the $250 on top is a small price to pay if you don't want to wait weeks/months.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any recommendation for a passport expediting company? We are leaving end of June.

You sure?

As an update. Waited until 16 days out - no change on online tracking system. I had confirmation of receipt with signature and proof that postal order had been cashed. Contacted congressperson's office. At 14 days out, they contacted DOS- my expedited application had been sent from Philadelphia to Miami. Within two days of congressional office action, passport application processed and overnighted. Passport in hand exactly one week before flight. Very stressful - and friend who applied with expedited status got hers without any international trip or overnight mailing within 4 weeks without congressional intervention.

Anonymous wrote:How are you able to check status if did not apply for renewal online?

https://passportstatus.state.gov/

How are you able to check status if did not apply for renewal online?

Data point:

Child passport renewal submitted first week of April, non-expedited, just received today so…two months.

FYI don't assume they have the capability to deal with an address change.

On May 24 I emailed per instructions about our new address in New England.

On June 1 they mailed it to Virginia.

Anonymous wrote:DH and I applied for our passport renewal at the end of March (the day after they increased the wait times). They received both 3/29/23. DH received his over a week ago (5/8/23). Mine still says in process. Not too worried as our trip is not until the end of July, but still would like to have it soon!

An update… received my passport on 5/20/23. Also, I didn’t indicate this in my original post, but we did the normal process, not expedited.

Hope everyone waiting receives their passports soon as well!