A couple of weeks back I wrote a post asking, “Do You Get Nervous When Renewing Your Passport?”

I mentioned a couple of reasons why I get nervous when renewing mine. One reason I worry is that I always have a fear that I won’t get my current/ expired passport returned.

Well, it turns out that there was no reason to worry.

I sent out my application on June 7 at 3:07PM. It was shipped 2-Day Priority Mail from Brooklyn, NY to Philadelphia and was delivered on June 9 at 11:18AM.

Things were looking good.

We leave for our trip to Iceland on June 26 so I still worried that I might not get my passport back in time. (The estimated time for processing with expedited service is currently 2-3 weeks.) Based on when my application was delivered, I had just a little over two weeks to get it back.

To my surprise, my new passport arrived on June 18! This means that it took  just 9 days to process my application and get it back to me! Very impressive for a government agency if you ask me!

Two days later (June 20), I received another delivery. This one included my old passport. To me, my expired passports are irreplaceable souvenirs, so I was glad to have it back in my possession so quickly.

The following day, the third and final envelope arrived containing my passport card. I’ve never had a passport card before but figured I’d get one this time around just in case my license isn’t a valid form of ID for domestic flights in the future.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this was a positive experience. The US Passport Agency exceeded my expectations. They were really efficient and got my passports back to me faster than I could’ve expected.

Let’s see how it goes in 9.5 years from now!

If you need to apply for a US passport, click here to find out how.