My parents recently had to renew their passports, since their passports are due to expire sometime in 2017.  I suggested to them that they renew sooner than later.  With no near-term travel plans, I figured now is an optimal time to get the passports renewed than scrambling to get it done right before a trip.

Expected Renewal Timeframe

According to the “official” US Department of State website, the expected processing times are as follows:

timeframe

Actual Experience

We mailed the renewal applications for standard processing via USPS Priority Mail.  The packages were mailed on October 21 and delivered on the 23rd.  A few days later, we got an alert from MyUSPS that there is a priority mail coming our way:

 

usps

 

On Halloween, we received a priority mail from the US Passport Services.  My first thought was, “Oh no, did we forget something in the original application?”  To much of our surprise and delight, it was actually one of the renewal passports!   A day later, the second renewal passport came through as well. The original passports followed shortly after in separate (non-priority) mailings.

QUICK TURNAROUND TIME

We did not expect the passports to come back until Thanksgiving at the earliest, so my parents were both thrilled to get them back early!  In their case, the turnaround time is only 5 business days, or 7 calendar days for their renewal passports to be processed.  This is even faster than the estimated processing time for the expedited service!

Maybe my parents just got lucky and the volume of applications is just lower than usual at this time of year?  Or maybe the staff workers are just processing these applications at record pace?   Whatever the reasons may be, I, for one, am certainly impressed by the quick processing time for passport renewal services.