rachatewitom

I just received my renewed US passport. I submitted it in early April by mail (Thailand Post), at a time when the Embassy web site said to expect it to take 4-5 weeks. Ultimately I received the new passport back during the 7'th week (from the day Thailand Post indicated my application had been delivered to the Embassy). I noticed that during my 6'th week waiting, the Embassy updated the expected wait time from 4-5 to 5-6 weeks on their web site. By the end of the process I was becoming quite nervous since it had already taken 2 weeks longer than expected,I had no idea of the status or how much longer to expect and I have a trip to the US coming up in a few weeks. Fortunately the new passport did arrive. I was unsure whether passport applications sent here to the embassy can be viewed in the US State Department web site for tracking passport applications. As of around 4 weeks after my application was delivered that system knew nothing about my application, so I assumed that system is not used for applications outside the US. But then during week 6 I checked again, and saw my application did now appear in that system, with a status indicating it had been mailed back a few days earlier (a message said for applications outside the US to allow up to 7 days for the Embassy to receive the new passport, and then they would forward locally). At the beginning of this week I received an email with tracking info and saying my passport would be sent within the next 2 business days. I was very relieved to receive my new passport yesterday. I had hoped to do some regional travel before my US trip and there is now not sufficient time for that, so the delay was inconvenient but overall it was only a couple of weeks longer than expected. I saw some reports online of other people who needed their US passports for various reporting with Thai immigration, and who didn't have it because their process too was taking longer than originally expected (fortunately I didn't have this problem. It also let me see that I was not the only one having the time be longer than expected). Coincidentally, a friend living in New York City mentioned to me late last week that he had just received his new passport through the mail there, 4 weeks after submitting the application at a US Post Office I NYC (and he did NOT pay for expedited processing); so I think probably the State Department is reducing the wait time for renewals in the US (since when I was last there in February they were estimating renewals would take around 12 weeks). (As others have noted, new passports renewed here must be printed in the US, so presumably the speedup there in the US will help applicants here out).

I had all the needed documents, flight and ASQ reservations when I started the process at the beginning of this month; my flight is at the end of this month, so I started almost 1 month ahead. The pre-approval from the LA consulate took around 3 days. After I uploaded the supporting documents for the final COE and submitted them, I didn't hear anything for over a week. When I sent an email I got the response below. Its a little harrowing that I might not find out until 2 days before my flight whether I've been approved for the COE, or if instead there is some problem with what I've submitted. (Not to mention $9,000 on supporting flight tickets, ASQ, quick turnaround RT-PCR tests, etc that could be at risk). Hopefully it will work out. Meanwhile a friend who applied this week to the embassy in Washington got his final COE about 48 hours from start to finish.