A nationwide backlog in passport applications has resulted from a shutdown of passport offices across the country during the public health crisis, said Ocean County Clerk Scott M. Colabella. The county clerk’s office administers the start of the application process for local citizens.

As USA TODAY reported late last month, U.S. passport offices everywhere are still understaffed and are overwhelmed by Americans ready to pack their bags as international travel restrictions begin to be lifted.

Under normal circumstances, a routine passport application should take six to eight weeks to process. For an additional fee, an expedited application should take two to three weeks.

'You can't get through': Passport appointments turn scarce as offices become overwhelmed

However, the current wait times are between 12 and 18 weeks — with even expedited applications taking up to 12 weeks to process, USA TODAY reported.

Colabella said between January and July, his office had assisted about 8,000 county residents with their passport applications, but that prolonged delays in processing at the federal level have left hundreds of residents with imminent travel plans in limbo.

“This is really creating a tremendous inconvenience for a lot of people in our county who have not had the ability to go see loved ones,” said Ocean County Director Gary Quinn.

 

On Wednesday, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution in support of a bipartisan bill, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 22, to extend the expiration date of current U.S. passports, which would be called the “Passport Emergency Extension Act of 2021.”

Related: Passport appointments are scarce. There's a black market selling them online for hundreds.

The bill’s principal sponsor is Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J. and is co-sponsored by Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J. Smith is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and his district includes parts of Ocean and Monmouth counties.

Under the bill, any passport set to expire by March 31, 2022 would remain valid through July 31, 2022.

“It would be of great help to the residents of this county — thousands of them who hold passports — where they’re trying to renew them, and they’re experiencing incredible delays from our U.S. State Department,” said Colabella, who spoke in support of the resolution at Wednesday’s meeting.

In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken dated July 21, Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon wrote that some of her constituents were waiting up to five months for their passports to be processed and that the State Department itself actually recommended that citizens prepare for a six month delay.

In a statement, Smith said: “Temporarily extending the expiration of all valid U.S. passports would give the State Department the necessary time to catch up on processing requests and much-needed relief as it resumes its full capacity operations and adjusts to the growing number of Americans who need passports to travel for medical treatments, attend weddings and funerals, visit relatives overseas, conduct business and go on vacation.”

Jeff Sagnip, an aide to Smith, addressed the Ocean County commission on Wednesday to thank the board for its resolution in support of the bill. He said the congressman’s office currently had 650 cases of “desperate residents” trying to get their passports renewed before they were due to leave the country soon. About 350 of those cases were in Ocean County.

“So, we have been trying to prod the State Department and the U.S. Passport Agency into expediting them as quickly as possible, and yet (a) backlog of more than two million remains across the country,” Sagnip said.