To our travel family, if you do not have a valid passport or are interested in getting a passport please read this post. The State Department is opening in phases. Right now they are only in phase 1 which is the very beginning of the process and allows for them to take care of any passports that were sent prior to their closing on March 19th for regular processing. There is no set timeframe for when they will reopen for expedite processing.
The State Department does not intend to open for expedite processing as long as the Covid case numbers continue to rise. The State Department has emphasized that any possibility of reopening depends SOLELY on containing the Covid virus. In case you are wondering if it’s because they don’t want you to travel during this pandemic…yes, that’s exactly what it is. They just won’t say it out loud. Remember, you are a citizen of the United States and as such you are the responsibility of the U.S. when there are problems overseas. In the eyes of the U.S. Department of State, it is better that you are here in the U.S. rather than traveling around and getting stuck in places that may have to be quarantined. While the likelihood of that happening is remote, it’s the last thing they want to worry about right now.
We do ask that if you do have a trip planned in August or September that you ask your friends, family and even your social media to do what they can to contain the spread of the virus. This could be something as small as a post emphasizing the need to social distance or a post about wearing a mask. Do what you can to spread the word because the only way the State Department will reopen is if these case numbers go down. Once those numbers go down they’ll open up again and pretty soon we can look back on this entire COVID issue and say, “lets not do that again!” Thank you and stay safe!
Rush Passport Services 