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| Travelers panicked by passport delays |
May 17, 2007 |
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By Michael Gisick
Thursday, May 17, 2007
When Viola Vasquez applied for a passport at an Albuquerque post office in February, she thought about paying the extra $60 to speed up the process.
She was nervous about her first trip overseas, but the sign said a normal application would take about six weeks, and she had twice that long.
Still, as the day she and her grown children planned to depart for Portugal arrived this week, Vasquez still hadn`t received her passport. Her children had to leave without her while she tried to change her flight.
Members of New Mexico`s congressional delegation say Vasquez is far from alone. A new law that requires passports for Americans flying to neighboring countries has led to record passport applications and unprecedented delays, with routine applications now taking three months or more, they say.
The increase was inevitable, but legislators say the delays should have been avoided.
"I don`t know why the State Department wasn`t prepared for this," Rep. Heather Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, said. "It was entirely predictable."
Like Wilson, Rep. Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat, has been "inundated" with pleas for help from constituents who say passport delays are endangering their travel plans, his spokeswoman, Marissa Padilla, said.
A staffer who deals with those complaints currently has 27 pending, she said.
Wilson said her office has received between 10 and 20 complaints a day since March.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Wilson called the situation "untenable" and said she was disappointed the State Department, which processes passport applications, wasn`t better prepared for the change in law.
The change stems from anti-terrorism legislation passed in 2004. Starting this year, Americans flying to Canada, Mexico and several Caribbean countries are required to have passports. In the past, U.S. citizens were required to show a copy of their birth certificate at most.
Starting sometime next year, Americans traveling to those countries by land or sea will also need a passport. Wilson said that means the State Department must react quickly to reverse the mounting tide of delay.
"There`s such a backlog already, and it`s just going to keep compounding itself," she said.
Steven Royster, a spokesman for consular affairs at the State Department, said the department has already increased staffing levels for passport specialists by more than one-quarter since the 2004 law was passed and continues to add contract workers.
The specialists are also working around-the-clock shifts, he said.
The State Department is seeing record numbers of passport applications as the travel season heats up this year and is asking people to apply 10 to 12 weeks ahead of their travel dates, he said.
"That`s the standard now," Royster said. "I`m not aware of wholesale failures to meet that standard."
But Wilson and Udall`s offices said they`re seeing considerably lengthier wait times. Regular applications are taking 12 to 14 weeks, they say. Expedited applications, which are supposed to take two to three weeks and cost $60 on top of the normal $97 fee, are taking six to eight weeks.
"There`s really no such thing as an expedited application anymore," Padilla said.
The State Department maintains a Web site that allows people to track their applications. Applicants can also e-mail or call the department if they`re concerned their passport won`t arrive on time.
As her departure date drew near, Vasquez said she tried all those options but got nowhere.
"I`d call every day and wait 45 minutes to talk to somebody, and then they`d never do anything about it," she said. "They never even confirmed they got my e-mails."
Finally, on Monday she called Wilson`s office. Her passport arrived Tuesday - the day she was supposed to leave.
But even Wilson said her office is struggling to push through emergency requests such as Vasquez`s. On Monday, Wilson said, the facility in Houston that processes most New Mexicans` passport applications announced it was no longer receiving faxes.
Tuesday, she said, her staff was told the passport facility didn`t "have enough resources to handle all requests."
For Vasquez, who is in her mid-50s, the stress of preparing for her first overseas trip ended this week. After explaining her passport difficulties, her airline agreed to shift her travel dates at no cost. She would meet her children in Portugal later this week.
The trip through the Iberian Peninsula had long been a dream of her husband`s, she said. After he died of pancreatic cancer, she and her children decided to take the three week tour as a way to honor him.
"And they`re growing up now, moving into their own lives, so it`s probably the last time we`ll have a chance to go somewhere together," she said. "I`m excited about it. At least I am now, finally." |
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