MIAMI – Demand for a United States passport is the highest it has ever been.
The Whitehead family were among the many at the Miami Passport Agency who were met with a smooth process on Thursday.
“Tomorrow, 10 a.m. to be exact,” said Anne Marie Joseph Whitehead when asked when she needed her passport by.
The Miami office deals solely with renewing or replacing hundreds of passports daily, even on the very same day.
“It was easy, seamless,” said George Whitehead. “Everything was done and filled out online. We had our passport pictures taken already.”
Agencies around the country struggled to keep up with passport applications last year, creating up to a 13-week wait time and difficulties to snag an appointment.
But now things have turned around.
“I would say this is our best year,” Kathe Harrell, the U.S. Passport regional director, said. “Ever since last year when we experienced those backlogs, this year we’re not experiencing those backlogs. This year we have the right number of people on our teams to process our applications.”
Harrell oversees offices from Houston, Atlanta and Miami to Puerto Rico.
The hiring and training of additional workers has helped along with some advances in technology.
“We have a beta process online where we open it up to a certain number of applicants online, so that has improved our customer experience too,” Harrell said.