Increased demand for renewal causes huge backlog for passports

·1 min read

Are you one of the thousands of people waiting to get your passport before a trip out of the country?

There’s a huge backlog of passport applications.

Most people blame the pandemic for causing the delay.

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According to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, they’re getting around 500,000 passport applications each week.

That’s a 40 percent increase over last year.

It’s creating a backlog of applications and longer waiting periods.

That prompted a letter from Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia’s fifth district and it’s signed by more than a dozen Democrats and Republicans asking for help.

Their Offices of Constituent Services are getting swamped by these requests.

The reason behind the backlog is that a lot of people let their passports expire during the pandemic and now they want to travel abroad.

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