I recently had to renew my Irish passport. Sent off all the paperwork and waited. But, not for long. I couldn't believe how quickly I got the passport back. Took about 10 days at most (might have been less). I wasn't expecting it for another few weeks.
Maybe the US government should hire some Irish government employees as consultants so that they can learn to speed up the process of getting passports out to citizens. The American government used to tell applicants that they should received their passports within eight weeks of applying, but according to the Washington Post's former correspondent Michael Dodds, his wife and daughters have been waiting for more than eleven weeks for their passports. That's close enough to three months. Uggh.
And, they're not alone. Three months is the new standard in efficiency. People are practically sleeping outside passport offices in an attempt to expedite the application process. Good God.
The government's excuse is that the new law requiring Americans to have passports for travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean has caused a backlog. I could see how they were caught off guard. This change was only proposed back in April — 2005. I could see how two years wouldn't be sufficient time to ramp up.
Just imagine how the government would react if they had to make, distribute or sell Nintendo Wii's or some such high-demand item. You'd be on a waiting list for 40 years.
