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Passport woes may snag travel return

 

Concerned travelers waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted may find themselves waiting even longer as thousands will find themselves with passports that are either expired or don't have enough months validity to be allowed across many borders.

Both the UK and U.S. are affected, and numbers of other countries may have similar circumstances. In both countries, normal passport issuance and renewal operation have been halted, with offices closed and service available only for people traveling in life-or-death emergency situations.

For travelers with summer travel plans, the situation could be quite serious; most people renew passports in the few months before they expire, and spring is the peak season for renewals for summer travel. Even for those whose passports have not expired, there may be problems; many countries require that a visitor have at least six months' validity remaining. That's not a big problem for UK travelers to Europe or the U.S., where added validity is not an issue, at lease for this year while the UK is still covered by EU member rules.

UK passport offices closed their normal operations in mid-March, putting a stop to the normal issuance of about half a million passports each month, about 40% for under-16s and the rest for adults. The government has given no indication if it has a plan to deal with the expected backlog when passport offices re-open.

The U.S. situation is less dire, since most existing passport holders can renew by mail, although the State Department's Passport Office says not to expect the usual 6-to-8 week turnaround. On March 19, when passport offices closed, the  'expedited' service that normally cuts the wait to two weeks for an extra fee was also cut off. At this point, only regular renewals by mail and emergency passports for life-or-death emergency travel are being handled.

The best part of every trip is realizing that it has upset your expectations

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