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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2007 
More Than a Missed Connection
 Pablo Ros - southbendtribune.com
| | Brenda Merk holds up her and her daughter's passports, which she received a day late, missing their planned trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The U.S. Department of State has been overwhelmed with passport applications ever since new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for flying abroad went into effect this year. (Tribune/Marcus Marter) |
The Bush administration has temporarily waived some of its new, post-Sept. 11 requirements for flying abroad, but to Brenda Merk of Bremen they came two weeks too late.
Merk said she began planning a one-week trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in December. She wanted to have plenty of time so nothing would go wrong.
Because of new travel restrictions, she would need a U.S. passport to get back into the country. She knew that. Merk said she applied for a U.S. passport on March 1.
Merk's trip, which she said was a gift to her 20-year-old daughter and her daughter's friend, was to begin May 26, flying out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Merk said she was told that she would receive her new passport on time. In early April, she said, the check she wrote to pay her passport fees had been cashed.
However, because of a passport application surge this year, turnaround times for passports have been bumped from six to 10 to 12 weeks, according to the State Department.
The application surge is the result of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that since January has required U.S. citizens to use passports when entering the United States from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean by air.
Merk said she called the National Passport Information Center repeatedly in the two weeks before her scheduled departure, fearing the worst. Finally, on May 24, two days before her flight, she called U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar's office as a last resort.
Three days later, Merk's passport was in her hands. But it was a day too late.
"It was a total fiasco," Merk said. "I had $4,000 worth of money tied to a trip that I couldn't take."
Instead, Merk said she and her daughter spent that week at home, far away from sandy Mexican beaches.
Merk said she would have called Lugar sooner had she known he could help.
Lugar issued a press release Friday welcoming the Bush administration's decision to temporarily suspend the new passport requirements.
"Implementation of this requirement has completely overwhelmed the passport system," Lugar said. "Hoosiers have encountered long delays and frustrating communications from the Department of State. Many have not received their passports in time to make long-scheduled trips abroad and have lost significant amounts of money. Others have been forced to take last-minute trips to the Chicago passport office, often waiting for hours, in a last-ditch effort to secure a passport."
But the lifting of the new restrictions would not clear the way for travelers who haven't already applied for a passport.
Until the end of September, travelers will be allowed to fly without a passport if they present a State Department receipt, showing they had applied for a passport, and government-issued identification, such as a driver's license.
Travelers showing only receipts would receive additional security scrutiny, which could include extra questioning or bag checks.
There is still no passport required for Americans driving across the Canadian or Mexican borders or taking sea cruises, although those travelers are expected to need passports under new rules beginning next year.
Easing the rules should allow the State Department to catch up with a massive surge in applications that has overwhelmed passport processing centers since the rule took effect, officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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