Travel has been impacted in all sorts of different ways over the past few weeks. One of the most significant developments that has happened for Americans seeking to travel abroad for the first time is that the State Department has halted its passport services except for limited exceptions.
If you submitted a passport application on or after March 20 or plan on submitting a passport application In the future, your passport application will not be processed and will be suspended indefinitely.
I initially thought that this was being done due to a decreased capacity in staff and operations but apparently this has been implemented to discourage international travel.
As you are probably aware, the State Department has advised for Americans to not travel internationally and has even advised against some types of domestic travel.
The only individuals who can currently get a passport processed are those that have a family emergency that requires them to travel outside the country within 72 hours. A qualifying emergency would be something like a serious illness or death of an immediate family member like a parent, child, spouse, sibling, or aunt/uncle.
Applicants will be required to show proof of the emergency, such as a death certificate or a signed letter from a hospital official. And they will also be asked to show proof of their international travel such as in the form of a boarding pass.
We currently do not know when the Department of State will resume passport services. Based on how things are progressing and what the models are showing, I think it could be a month or two before they resume normal operations. This is especially true if their main reason for doing this is to discourage international travel.
If you already applied and requested expedited service on or before March 19, they will still honor your request and you should get it processed in 2 to 3 weeks. If you applied in-person at a passport agency or center on or before March 19, 2020, the passport agency or center will contact you and ask if you want to pick-up your passport in person or have it mailed to you.
If you are applying for or renewing a U.S. passport on or after March 20, 2020, they will not offer expedited service and routine service may be delayed.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.