July 3, 2023
The Associated Press recently published an article featuring Jay Zagorsky, Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law, discussing the recent spike in wait times for U.S. passports.
Due to the lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, travel has been one of the last activities to come back into people’s lives. The recent interest in traveling again has been overwhelming to the few staff left in the travel department as many employees were laid off during the pandemic. They are now facing a record-breaking number of applicants at 500,000.
Zagorsky comments, “But the number of Americans holding valid U.S. passports has grown at roughly 10% faster than the population over the past three decades. The number of U.S. passports per American has soared from about three per 100 people in 1989 to nearly 46 per 100 people in 2022.”
There is no better luck for Americans abroad either. People in New Delhi could expect to wait 451 days for a visa interview, according to the website. Those in Sao Paulo could plan on waiting more than 600 days, aspiring travelers in Mexico City were waiting about 750 days.