With the recession choking foreign travel, passport applications are plunging and the workload at the State Department is easing enough that those applying are getting their documents in three weeks or less.
The State Department said last week that it expected to issue 12 million passports this fiscal year, about 25% fewer than last year. In early December, it was forecasting 17 million passports for the year ending Sept. 30.
Demand has fallen so quickly that the State Department has made what an official called “painful reductions” in contract employees, those who perform tasks such as processing payments and keying in data. Brenda Sprague, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for passport services, said that no cuts were planned “at this time” in the full-time passport staff, which validates the citizenship of applicants.