Washington – Frustrated travelers who paid an extra $60 to get their U.S. passports expedited – and still had to wait for them – can get a refund from the government.
The decision to refund the money, disclosed in a State Department document sent Tuesday to members of Congress, represents the latest effort to come to grips with a massive backlog in passport applications that has ruined or delayed summer vacation plans for thousands in the United States.
The delays were largely due to a new rule that requires citizens to have passports when flying to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda. Last week, the government announced it was suspending that rule until September as long as travelers to those areas carried a printout receipt showing a passport application.
The passport delays were so bad that many of those who paid extra for faster service, along with the regular processing fees of $97 for a new passport, did not receive their passports within the expected 14 days. Some who paid extra waited for a month or more.
“It’s an outrage to pay over $150 for a passport and still have your travel plans ruined,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who had called for the refunds.
The State Department document, obtained by The Associated Press, says passport applicants who paid for, but did not get, expedited service should send a written refund application to the agency’s refund office in Washington. They should provide their passport number, if available, their name, date and place of birth, the approximate date they applied for the passport, as well as a mailing address and phone number.
Refund applications should be sent to Department of State, Passport Services/PPS/Refunds, 2100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20037-3202.
The temporary suspension of the passport requirement has caused some headaches for travelers to Mexico, which requires that travelers without passports carry a birth certificate as proof of U.S. citizenship.
“It’s a real bummer,” said Alex Alvarado, a 10-year-old Needles, Calif., resident who was blocked from boarding a plane to Mexico City for a summer soccer camp because he didn’t have a birth certificate. The State Department has it, along with the passport application his family sent in for him three months ago.
