NEW YORK (WBEN) – As travel starts picking up again, people are finding their plans are in limbo with a huge backlog of passport renewals at the State Department.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday that the State Department was caught flatfooted as more people made travel plans amid rising vaccinations.
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“The State Department has been so backlogged because of COVID. People didn’t apply for any visas and any passports while COVID happened, and now there’s a deluge,” the senator said at his midtown Manhattan office.
Schumer wants officials to pick up the pace. He said renewals that had been taking six weeks pre-COVID are now taking upwards of four months. He said it’s an issue of shifting personnel around.
“I don’t understand why they can’t do more. All they have to do is shift several hundred over to this division,” the senator said.
Schumer is offering a temporary increase in funding if the State Department needs it.
A State Department official told reporters last week that they’re bringing more staff in-person, with virtual work not an option given security and privacy concerns.
Brooklyn newlyweds Esraa and Makke were among those impacted by the backlog. They’re set to jet off to their honeymoon in Tanzania in two weeks.
“We obviously booked our travel, we booked our Airbnbs and everything and have our itinerary, but unfortunately my passport expired,” Esraa said.
She said she submitted her paperwork in early June.
“Originally I was told it should take anywhere between two to four weeks, but we’re pretty much close to the eight-week mark now, so we’re getting a little nervous,” she said.
Cindy, a teacher from Valley Stream, said her trip to Portugal with her two daughters next month is up in the air.
“We were really looking forward to going, and this is a trip of a lifetime for them,” she said.