U.S. State Department Continues to Be Flooded with Backlog of Passport Applications

The U.S. State Department has hired additional staff and even rehired retired employees to lend a hand as it continues to dig out from under the avalanche of passport applications that have snowed under its offices since earlier this year.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Maura Harty, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Consular Affairs, said that during the first seven months of 2007, 12 million passports were issued. By comparison, a total of 12.1 million passports were issued in 2006.

“Demand for passports is at unprecedented levels,” said Harty, who provided a similar update on the passport situation last month before the Senate international operations and organizations subcommittee. “Since March, we have averaged more than 1.5 million issuances per month.”

The unusual spike in passport demand is largely due to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, a law that since January requires all airline passengers entering the U.S. to possess valid passports. News that the law will be extended to travelers crossing U.S. land borders and seaports in 2008, spurred millions more travelers to also apply for passports.

Despite having three years to prepare before the WHTI was enacted, Harty said the State Dept. nonetheless underestimated the unusually strong demand for passports and was caught off guard. It had expected to issue 16 million passports this year, or about four million more than last year.

During the first three months of the year, Harty said, her department received more than 5 million passport applications, millions more than projected, which resulted in a backlog of unprocessed passport applications that has left tens of thousands of travelers in a lurch.

Other lawmakers on the committee cited several instances in which they have had to step in to assist constituents, who months before had applied for passports but still hadn’t received them even as the departure dates for their trips quickly approached.

In the meanwhile, lawmakers pressed Harty on whether the State Dept. intends to automatically refund the $60 fee paid by many travelers to have their passport applications expedited, only to find they didn’t receive the documents as promised. Currently, travelers have to apply for a refund with the State Dept., which considers the request on a case-by-case basis.