Don't Wait to get your Passport!

The cost of everything is a little higher now, but soon, your passport is going to cost a little more. Starting December 27th, the cost of the U.S. Passport book will shoot up by $20. The U.S. Department says the price hike is necessary to make sure U.S. Passports continue to produce one of the most secure travel and identity documents in the world.

It is worth noting, you can still see many coroner of the globe despite travel restrictions being in place in many area, so don't let that stop you! You can read more about the latest travel related advisories from the Department of State here.

Over the summer, the United States saw some of the longest passport application wait times ever! This was actually a major cause for concern with our own trip. Caleb never needed a passport before we went to Greece. Here is a little timeline to put things into perspective for you:

May 11th- We decided to go to Greece. May 17th- Appointment at local Post Office to submit passport application. (17 weeks before we left)

June 10th- Application received by U.S. Department of State, reviewing process starts.

It was shortly after this, we started to worry. If you don't know, I currently work in local news, so I was seeing reports at least once a week about delays in the passport application process. We did not expedite Caleb's passport when he initially applied since we were 17 weeks out from when we were supposed to leave. Hindsight is 20-20 as they say and we should have expedited it.

By July 15th, the approval time for a passport got as high as 20 weeks! Yup, you read that right, five whole months. Even expediting it would have taken 12-16 weeks.

At this point in time, we were getting stressed. He and I both called the passport center in Atlanta multiple times to try to get an in person approval appointment, but the line was always busy and would eventually hang up on us. We finally tried reaching out to one of our state Senators. Our Senator's website said they could help expedite passports if your trip was 6 weeks or less away. Okay, now back to the timeline.

August 1st- Email Sen. Graham literally begging for help

August 2nd- YAY! We are finally getting help

August 13th (exactly 1 month before we fly out)- Caleb's passport was approved!

August 14th- The passport was shipped!

I have tried to find the date we got his passport in the mail, but it is apparently the only monument moment in the passport application process we never talked about via text message. Either way, it was 1-2 day shipping, so we literally got it a couple of days later.

It was an extra $60 to get his passport expedited and then another $17.56 for the 2 day delivery, but 100% worth it for us to finally have it in our hands and stop stressing about it. You can pay that expedition fee upfront if you want!

As of writing this, it is currently taking 8-11 weeks for routine service on those application and 5-7 weeks for expedited service. Keep in mind, this is constantly changing, so check out the latest processing times here!