CNN
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Late planners in america hoping to journey overseas have just a little extra respiration room than they as soon as did.

The State Division introduced Thursday that the standard processing time for US passports is now right down to 4 to 6 weeks. The earlier processing time was six to eight weeks.

The faster timeframe is one other little bit of aid following a large backlog throughout the pandemic that resulted in wait instances of as much as 18 weeks throughout the summer season of 2021.

That up to date four-to-six-week processing time applies to purposes submitted by paper or on-line, the State Division stated in its discover.

And what in the event you’ve actually pushed the time restrict on getting a passport to the figurative last-minute? For folks in want of expedited service, the processing stays two to 3 weeks.

And none of this accounts for the time that the valuable gateway doc is within the mail.

“These processing instances start when an utility is obtained by the State Division and don’t embody mailing instances,” the State Division stated in its discover.

In mid-September, the State Division launched a service to permit People to resume their passports on-line. That service is open to adults who’re renewing a daily 10-year passport that has expired throughout the previous 5 years or expires within the coming yr.

Discover out extra about making use of for or renewing a US passport by clicking on the US State Division website right here.

A US passport can open quite a lot of journey doorways.

The Henley Passport Index, created by London-based world citizenship and residence advisory agency Henley & Companions, points yearly rankings for the world’s strongest passports.

A Singapore passport is essentially the most highly effective for 2024, and america lands within the Prime 10.

CNN’s Forrest Brown contributed to this text.