Get a passport now and avoid the rush

The U.S. State Department has put out the call: Apply for your passport now. Avoid the rush.

The turnaround time on passport applications is averaging less than four weeks, Steve Royster, spokesman for the department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said last week. Expedited applications, which cost extra, are taking about two weeks, he added.

Those quick turnarounds could change, however, as Americans wake up and realize that, come June 2009, they will need a passport or a special document such as a passport card to get back into the U.S. from just about anywhere.

Remember the meltdown? In spring and summer 2007, people waited for months to get their passports. That resulted from a crush of applicants after the government’s last big change in border rules. Nearly 3 million passports got backed up then, said Colin Walle, president of Local 1998 of the National Federation of Federal Employees, the union that represents passport processors.

In the last few weeks, the backlog has fallen to less than 300,000 applications, Walle said. A big reason for the drop, he added, was that twice as many passport specialists were on board as in March 2007. Also, Royster said, we’re getting past the spring season, a peak time for passport applications, so the volume has dropped..

And later this month, Royster added, a new center to produce passports will open in Tucson.

Also this month, the State Department expects to begin making passport cards, a cheaper alternative to passports that you will be able to use to return to the U.S. by land from Canada or Mexico when the stricter rules hit next summer. (Passport cards won’t be good for air travel.)

For a quick look at border rules and how to get the right documents, see “U.S. passport rules change, but here’s the latest.” For details and updates, visit the State Department’s website for travelers.