Passport delays continue to derail summer travel plans 

For Tammy Vieco and her 10-year-old son, their European trip wasn’t just a vacation. 

“I'm a nurse. I work throughout the whole pandemic. This is the first actual trip that we're actually going to be going on,” Vieco said.

It was also an opportunity to celebrate her son’s birthday. 

On May 1, Vieco said she applied for her passport and her son's in person and paid extra to get them faster. 

Her passport arrived but her son’s did not.

“I received an email on June 28th from the passport agency requesting the original documentation. I panicked because I realized the clock is ticking, that we have, our flight to Italy is on July 25th,” Vieco said.

Nearly three weeks passed and her son's passport was nowhere in sight. She said she kept checking online but she only got a message saying her application was “in process.”

“I’m extremely anxious,” Vieco told NBC6 Responds. 

Struggling to Get Appointments 

Vieco says she was told there were no appointments available at the passport office in Miami and she may have to fly to the one in Houston. 

Vieco is one of dozens of viewers who have reached out to NBC6 Responds and Telemundo Responde in recent months asking for help with their passports - from Chicago to Miami. 

“With 4,000+ on the line if I can cancel or reschedule our trip, I am desperate for someone to care and help us,” a viewer wrote.

“I am at a point where I may have to cancel my children’s tickets,” another said.

Some lawmakers say their officers are also flooded with calls. 

Senator Marco Rubio said his office has received at least 6,000 requests for passport assistance in 2023 alone, telling NBC6 Responds in a statement he is “extremely frustrated” with how the State Department is handling applications and renewals.

Unprecedented Demand 

NBC6 Responds brought those concerns to the State Department.

“We work on a daily basis with congressional offices to try to address all the inquiries that they send us,” said Andres Rodriguez, the Lead Community Relations Officer for Passport Services at the State Department. 

Rodriguez says they do regular briefings and keep congressional offices up to date about the passport situation. 

NBC6 asked about the issues some are experiencing securing an appointment.

“Appointments are limited, so we have expanded the availability of appointments … considering we are in the middle of summer and we do have limited appointment availability, those appointments can fill up rather quickly,” Rodriguez said, urging anyone needing an appointment to call the State Department daily at 877-487-2778.

Rodriguez says an unprecedented number of applications is contributing to the delays. 

“We're getting as many as 400,000 applications per week. It's a lot of work… It’s a paper-based process,” Rodriguez said. “We're working our hardest to meet demand through thousands, tens of thousands of hours of overtime and in hiring efforts in order to meet the demand issue, the passports and get Americans traveling.”

Rodriguez says they aim to reduce the time it takes to process passports by the end of the year. They are also in the process of relaunching an online portal for passport renewals around the same time. 

Passport Processing Times

If you are planning to travel abroad, keep in mind it now takes roughly three months to process passports. You can speed up the process by opting for expedited service, which costs an additional $60.

Also, check that your passport won't expire in the next six months if you're planning a trip. Some people required to travel overseas for their jobs, have found themselves in a tough spot.

“We've seen a lot more business travelers that have been needing to find ways to expedite passports and also rebook trips that they thought they could go on, that suddenly they're surprised they can't make it because their passports are expired,” said Scott Poniewaz, head of the travel and lifestyle company EXEC.

“We encourage folks to perhaps not even buy international trips until they figure out what their situation is with their passports,” Rodriguez said.

A bill recently introduced in the Senate would limit processing to a maximum of 12 weeks and set procedures to avoid backlogs. The legislation, which is sponsored by Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE), will also create rules to prevent future delays in case of national emergencies. 

“If Anyone Can Help Me, It Has to Be NBC”

NBC6 emailed the State Department about Vieco’s situation.  

“I watched you every day religiously,” Vieco said. “I’m an NBC girl and I said, if anyone can help me, it has to be NBC.”

Within a day, her son’s passport status changed and it eventually arrived, just in time for their trip to Italy. 

“Thank you NBC. You made my Italy dream a reality,” her son said in a cellphone video Vieco shared from the airport.