MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — International travel is back, and business is booming at North Penn AAA Travel Agency in Stroud Township.
Tracy Lynch is the regional office manager, and she often starts every conversation the same for those looking to leave the country.
"Do you have a passport? Have you already sent your paperwork in? And kind of making sure that you do plan. So if you do need to do a renewal, you have that time built in."
The Department of State handles passport applications.
Officials say unprecedented demand for international travel, mixed with a backlog from the pandemic and a pause on online processing earlier in the year, is causing longer wait times.
In the past, it typically took five to seven weeks to get a new passport. It takes 10 to 13 weeks for routine processing or seven to nine weeks if you pay for expedited processing.
Mail delays are not included in those times.
"A lot of people are already kind of familiar with what's going on and already know about it. There are people who are shocked really. They thought they were going to come in. They were going to book it for next month and be on the road, and unfortunately, if you don't have your passport yet, that's something that's going to happen," explained Lynch.
The Prothonotary's Office at the Monroe County Courthouse processes about a dozen new passport applications daily. But officials say they're not the ones causing the delay.
"We see the person that day, and we ship it that afternoon. Our time is continually a day or a day and a half until they get it in Philadelphia. So, the delay is not on our end. It's on whatever the processes change at the federal level," said Monroe County Prothonotary George Warden.
The Department of State is on track to issue more passports this year than ever before. Officials say at one point, they were getting up to 560,000 applications a week. They also said in a recent news conference they are taking steps to try and help expedite the process.
"We have increased staffing levels and have hundreds of additional staff in the hiring pipeline. We've also had staff work tens of thousands of hours of overtime a month. In fact, from January through August, we have authorized approximately 30,000 to 40,000 overtime hours each month," said Vedant Patel, Department of State.
If you're planning an international trip, travel agents encourage you to check your passport to make sure it's valid and doesn't expire within six months of your trip.
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